House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Republicans may place conditions on aid for California wildfire victims to counter what he called bad governance that may have made the disaster worse. State and local officials are being criticized for their response to the fires that have burned more than 40,000 acres and killed at least 24 people.
“We have to make sure there are safeguards on the precious Treasury of the American people,” Johnson said. “There are natural disasters, of course. But if they are made much worse by human error and deliberate policy choices that were unwise and were stated as such at the time, then I think that’s something that needs to be carefully regarded.”
Republicans are considering multiple options for approving recovery funding that would cover areas in and around Los Angeles. They could attach the disaster relief to a debt limit extension. They may also include the aid in the government funding bill, which Congress has to pass before March 14.
“We don’t want to play games in any way. This is not politics,” Johnson said. “We need sound public policy and we need states to follow common sense. They have not done that in many respects in California.”
Democrats said added conditions are unacceptable.
“It is outrageous for Speaker Johnson to try to tie conditions onto this disaster relief or to tie disaster aid to unrelated concepts like the debt ceiling,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said. “We should not be leveraging the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to try to force through policy changes.”
Democratic leadership said Johnson’s plan is an indication that Republicans require help from Democrats to authorize the federal government to borrow more money.
“Because what Speaker Johnson is doing, he does not have the votes to raise the debt limit, so he is trying to do everything he can so Donald Trump can have a victory,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said.
Congress approved $110 billion for the disaster relief fund in December, so FEMA has enough to address immediate needs. But getting enough money to rebuild will require a formal estimate and a supplemental disaster request from the White House.
