(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., firmly rejected the idea of issuing unconditional federal aid to California following devastating wildfires that have destroyed tens of thousands of homes and claimed several lifes.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, Johnson pointed to California’s mismanagement and reckless budget cuts to fire prevention and emergency services as reasons to oppose no-strings-attached aid.
Welker specifically asked, “Are you, and can you, commit that California disaster relief won’t have strings attached?” In response, Johnson said, “No, I won’t commit to that because we have a serious problem in California.”
Johnson elaborated further, “Listen, there are natural disasters—I’m from Louisiana, we’re prone to that. We understand how these things work. But then there’s also human error. When the state and local officials make foolish policy decisions that make the disaster exponentially worse, we need to factor that in.”
Johnson reminded Welker that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, cut over $100 million in wildfire prevention funding—a decision Newsom has tried to downplay by claiming such cuts occurred after a budget surplus.
The Republican speaker also highlighted that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat, slashed $18 million from the city’s fire department mere months before the wildfires broke out.
Making matters worse, Johnson noted that local officials allowed a 117-million-gallon water reservoir to sit empty months before the fires began.
So far, more than 14,000 homes and structures have been destroyed, approximately 27 people have died and over 40,000 acres have burned in 197 wildfires.
The budget cuts have placed Newsom’s and Bass’s political careers in jeopardy as residents grapple with damages that could exceed $250 billion, according to AccuWeather.
“These were decisions they made, based on whatever their ideas were, but it made it worse and everyone knew it would, and the risks were there,” Johnson said.
When asked whether the disaster aid would be tied to increasing the debt ceiling, Johnson replied: “Potentially. That’s one of the things we’re talking about.”
