House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested on Monday that lawmakers might attach “conditions” to wildfire aid for California, where blazes in Los Angeles have killed at least 25 and burned hundreds of homes, one of the worst natural disasters in state history.
“I think we’re going to have a serious conversation about that,” Johnson told reporters. “Obviously there has been water resource mismanagement, forest mismanagement, mistakes, all sorts of problems, and it does come down to leadership. It appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects. That’s something that has to be factored in.”
“I think there should probably be conditions on that aid,” he added.
Johnson also said the aid could be tied into negotiations around raising the debt ceiling.
Republican lawmakers reportedly floated the idea during a Sunday meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
The proposal couldn’t be more different than what’s currently coming out of the White House.
President Biden said last week the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the state’s disaster response costs for the next 180 days.
California lawmakers have been girding themselves for wildfire aid to become entangled with the politics of the incoming administration.
“Even if we nominally secure some of these things, the money won’t flow until Trump is president. And he’s just such a wild card, there’s reason for worry,” California Rep. Jared Huffman told Politico.
Trump has threatened to withhold aid in the past for partisan reasons, and often speaks inaccurately about wildfires in the state.
Last week, Trump claimed California Gavin Newsom refused to sign a “water restoration declaration” that would’ve freed up millions of additional gallons of water, a claim the governor’s office said was “pure fiction.”
New — Asked Speaker Johnson about placing conditions on aid to California, and he tells us: “I think there should be conditions on that aid.” Said that’s his personal view before talking with the conference.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 13, 2025
Also says “there’s some discussion” within the House GOP about tying… pic.twitter.com/CZmjZb7WLd
As The Independent has reported, the state did not lack water supplies when blazes descended on Los Angeles, but rather has a water system built to fight municipal-level fires, not wildfire-scale incidents inside a major city.
On the campaign trail, Trump threatened to withhold wildfire aid if Newsom didn’t go along with his ideas on water policy.
“We’re going to take care of your water situation and we’ll force it down [Gavin Newsom’s] throat and we’ll say, ‘Gavin if you don’t do it we’re not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the forest fires that you have’,” Trump said at a rally in Coachella, California.
Rain is needed to improve California’s water system. Downtown Los Angeles has received only a fifth of an in of rain since July, making it the second-driest year in the area in 150 years, Cal Matters has reported
During his first term, Trump also threatened to withhold wildfire funding until Newsom would “get his act together.”
Congress made $100 billion of disaster aid available as part of the chaotic funding negotiations at the end of last year, and faces a March 14 deadline to pass a new government funding bill.
