Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that “there should probably be conditions” on additional federal aid to help Los Angeles deal with the devastating wildfires.
“That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the consensus is,” Johnson told reporters this week, ABC News reported. “I haven’t had a chance to socialize that with any of the members over the weekend, because we’ve all been very busy, but it’ll be part of the discussion for sure.”
He continued, “We’ve got to have a serious conversation about that. Obviously, there has been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems. And it does come down to leadership. And it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty and in many respects. So that’s something that has to be factored in. I think there should probably be conditions on that aid.”
Federal funding packages for areas and states impacted by natural disasters are typically approved with few if any conditions. However, Johnson and other GOP leaders, including President-elect Donald Trump, have long criticized California’s Democratic leadership and its handling of wildfires.
Gov. Gavin Newsom previously shared that President Joe Biden has said that the federal government would cover 100 percent of the costs for the initial recovery efforts for 180 days.
After the fires initially broke out in the Palisades on Jan. 7, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, blazes continued to erupt across Los Angeles County. While first responders have worked night and day to contain the flames, more than 12,000 homes, buildings and structures were destroyed in the fires’ paths. At least 25 people were also killed.
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