House budget-writers ‘ready to go’ on wildfire aid — but White House isn’t asking
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- House Republicans say they stand ready to approve wildfire aid if requested.
- No formal federal request has arrived ten months after January’s deadly fires.
- Lawsuits target SoCal Edison; lawmakers push accounting for liability and insurance.
House Republican budget writers say they are “ready to go” as soon as the Trump administration asks for billions in aid to areas ravaged by the Los Angeles-area wildfires — but 10 months after the fires, there’s still no request.
“We’re prepared to sit down and work on it whenever we get a recommendation,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which writes spending bills, told The Sacramento Bee.
The devastating wildfires in January claimed at least 31 lives and destroyed over 16,000 structures, and thousands of survivors are still displaced and living in temporary or unstable housing.
Federal aid to support wildfire survivors in the Los Angeles area surpassed $2 billion by March, with assistance coming through programs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Newsom seeks aid; GOP balks
In February, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Congress for approximately $39.7 billion in federal aid to help L.A. rebuild after the disaster. But Republican lawmakers did not give immediate support, insisting that California agrees to new rules on how it handles wildfire prevention and recovery moving forward.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at the time, “I think it comports with common sense, and I think the American people are going to demand and deserve that bad policy choices exacerbated the scope of that disaster.”
Newsom and other Democratic leaders have repeatedly criticized the GOP proposals, saying they were “politicizing this tragic moment” and arguing that federal disaster aid has traditionally been provided without partisan conditions.
Cole echoed the party’s consistent position and told The Bee this week that he saw no need for conditions attached to the aid. “A disaster is a disaster. We ought to help people that are facing a difficult time,” he said.
“I certainly don’t have any objection to dealing with it. No question people got hurt (and are) in a terrible situation. They need some help, and we ought to provide it,” he added. “We’re ready to go when we get a request.”
What is Edison’s role?
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said wildfire aid is needed, but the cleanup has proceeded using other federal funds.
“We need to reload FEMA at some point. The best way to do that is pass appropriations (spending) bills,” he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been instrumental in leading the cleanup.
But, Calvert added, “We also have to do an accounting. Edison had a certain amount of liability on that. Obviously insurance companies are having to come up with a certain amount of money.”
Calvert’s remarks followed the flurry of lawsuits filed against Southern California Edison Co. since January, including when the United States filed two lawsuits in September seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages against the utility.
The lawsuits alleged that the company’s “operation, use, and maintenance of its power and transmission lines,” as well as its “negligence” was a “substantial factor” that caused California wildfires, including the Eaton, resulting in “death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars” for the company’s mistakes.
Edison spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas called the Eaton Fire “heartbreaking,” while noting that the cause remains under investigation. “We are continuing to cooperate with investigators, but a cause has not been determined on the fire just yet,” Ornelas told The Bee on Friday.
“Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing, but SoCal Edison’s executives have acknowledged unused power lines that stood inactive for 56 years may have caused the Eaton Fire,” Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, said in September in a press release.
Newsom did not respond to the Bee’s request for comment on the lawsuits against Edison.
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