House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, raised the possibility that California’s Democratic leaders would need to meet political policy “conditions” in order to receive federal disaster aid for the wildfires. Here Johnson is shown walking between appointments on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, in the U.S. Capitol.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, raised the possibility that California’s Democratic leaders would need to meet political policy “conditions” in order to receive federal disaster aid for the wildfires. Here Johnson is shown walking between appointments on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, in the U.S. Capitol.
WASHINGTON – Southern California’s ongoing wildfires — which so far have killed 27 and burned down at least 10,000 homes — are expected to need billions of dollars in disaster aid.
Some Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, want to put political conditions on the federal money the Democratic-dominated state receives. But Gov. Jeff Landry disagrees, saying victims need help, so politics can wait.
The issue strikes close to Louisiana, a red state, which has received about $120 billion in federal funding to recover from multiple hurricanes and floods since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – none of which came with political strings attached.
Landry is Louisiana’s top Republican and Johnson is the state’s highest-ranking national official.
Floating the need to change tax and land management policies in return for federal disaster aid would mark a significant change and would embrace long-held Republican complaints about the way Democrats govern cities and states.
Trump, who will be sworn in as president Monday, has long bickered with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Democratic critic. Trump blames Newsom’s “incompetence” and failed water policies for the extent of the damage.
Trump gets the most attention, but it’s Johnson who has the most say so over when and how much federal money Congress will spend in disaster aid. He pushed through a $100 billion package to help recovery from hurricanes last year that devasted the Republican-dominated states of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. No political strings were attached.
Johnson raised the possibility Monday that California leaders would need to meet “conditions” in order to receive aid. “That’s my personal view, we’ll see what the consensus is,” he said.
Johnson doubled down Tuesday, reminding reporters it’s early in the process. Local officials will have to tally losses and present the documentation to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which then will ask President Trump through the White House’s Office of Management & Budget to make a request of Congress.
When Congress looks at that request, it should consider if the wildfires were made worse by “deliberative policy choices,” as “good financial stewards” of the public’s money, Johnson said.
“No one wants to leave any American who is in need hanging,” Johnson said. “But at the same time we recognize we have a $36 trillion federal debt and we have to balance these needs. It’s about priorities.”
Landry was in town Wednesday to testify before a House committee when confronted by Democratic representatives Dina Titus of Nevada and John Garamendi, whose central California district is not affected by the wildfires.
Garamendi recalled that Louisiana received $120 billion without political strings and he wanted Landry to be aware of “the current discussion going on that the relief for southern California would be conditional with some extraneous policy that have nothing to do with the fires. This is a road that we should not be traveling.”
“I would agree with that,” Landry replied. “Look, I don’t think we should be placing conditions on funding that is not attributable to the disaster in and of itself.”
Landry later said: “As someone who has lived through and has been an elected official through many natural disasters over in Louisiana that what matters most is the speed at which you can deliver the service that’s needed at that time. The politics can wait.”
Johnson is not alone in questioning California’s Democratic leadership. Several Republicans took to the airwaves with the same message.
For instance, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday also blamed the fires on California’s Democratic policies.
“In addition to the tragedy on the ground, you’re also seeing gross mismanagement in California by elected officials,” Barrasso said. “There can’t be a blank check on this. …I expect that there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved.”
Meanwhile, right-wing media and billionaire Elon Musk, a close advisor to Trump, have spread allegations that Democratic policies, such as diversity hiring in the Los Angeles fire department, aggravated the wildfires.
This isn’t a particularly new debate between Americans who live in areas with few natural disasters being asked to pay for the relief of those who do.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, told the Daily Herald, of Arlington Heights, Illinois, that spending billions of dollars to rebuild New Orleans, “doesn’t make sense to me.”
“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” he added.
After withering criticism, Hastert walked back his comments but was not on hand when Congress approved a $10.5 billion Katrina aid package.
Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate.com.
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