Congress prepares for California wildfires

House lawmakers are preparing for what could be a contentious battle over emergency spending in the wake of the wildfires raging through Southern California, an unprecedented disaster already estimated to have killed more than 50,000 millions of dollars in damage in and around Los Angeles.

Although both parties quickly came together in December to provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid for hurricanes and other disasters, the wild card this time will be President-elect Trump, who already blames California Democrats for the scale of destruction.

The debate will not happen immediately. The fires continue to rage; the final price is still unknown; and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says it has enough cash on hand to respond to a number of disasters across the country, including the California wildfires, in the short term.

Still, those emergency funds will need to be replenished at some point in the not-too-distant future when Trump is in the White House. This is creating uncertainty because the incoming president has long accused FEMA of mismanaging funds, including last year when he falsely claimed that the agency had redirected disaster aid to house migrants who do not have permanent legal status. And some GOP leaders, already under pressure from their right wing to reduce deficit spending, also voice concerns about how FEMA is handling its operations.

“There are very patriotic people working for FEMA on the ground, doing the best they can. But as with any organization: it’s the leadership, and there’s some concern,” said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to reporters Thursday at the Capitol.

“Frankly, I haven’t had a lot of time to research what’s going on in California right now because we have so much going on,” Johnson added. “But I’m sure I’ll get a full brief.”

Across the aisle, Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DNY) say they are ready to provide whatever assistance is deemed necessary after the fires have been brought under control and the damages And Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered a similar message this week, noting that lawmakers will have to “wait for requests from the administration.”

“The reality is you have to wait until the disaster is over,” Cole said. “Obviously it’s not yet, and you have to give them time to make the estimates.” He also said the matter will likely “be something the Trump administration will have a lot to say about a little bit further down the line.”

Complicating the debate, Trump has yet to name the figure he wants to lead FEMA, although Johnson said he is confident in the president’s final choice.

“We live in a dangerous time, there are disasters all the time now, and you have to have stable, competent people in charge. So I’m sure he’ll put the right people in place,” Johnson said.

Complicating matters further, Trump is already toying with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and other California Democrats, saying it is his incompetence that has directly led to the failure to contain the deadly fires even days after they began .

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration presented to him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and melting northern snow, to flow daily in many parts of California, including areas that are currently burning in a practically apocalyptic manner,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

Newsom’s office responded in kind, accusing Trump of fabricating events to score political points.

“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration, this is pure fiction,” the governor’s office posted on the social platform X. “The governor is focused on protecting the people, not on politics and make sure the firefighters have all the resources they need.”

The tenor of the shock is nothing new. Trump has often used natural disasters to denounce his political enemies. And deep blue California, where Newsom is believed to have presidential ambitions of his own, has been a favorite target.

What remains unclear is how much Trump’s feud with Newsom, combined with his infamous penchant for retribution, will affect the congressional debate over wildfire aid.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) suggested this week that GOP leaders hoped to return to the issue of emergency aid as part of the effort to extend government funding more beyond March 14, when it will expire. That was true, he said, even before the wildfires hit Los Angeles.

“Even the disasters and the hurricane response there, we knew there could be a second bite at that apple,” he told reporters Thursday. “At the end of the day, we knew this would have to be reviewed in the government funding negotiations.”

Attaching disaster aid to a spending bill, however, may not be easy in a Republican conference where conservative deficit hawks have demanded that new spending, even emergency aid, be offset by changes elsewhere in the budget. That means House GOP leaders are likely to face additional headaches from hard-line conservatives, who have come out against emergency aid without compensation. most recently in December as leaders from both parties negotiated the roughly $100 billion disaster package.

The debate comes as fires surrounding the area continued to burn over the weekend, fueled by unrelenting winds that have slowed firefighters’ efforts to contain them. At least 10 people have died. More than 10,000 structures have been destroyed. And while initial estimates have varied, multiple projections put the fire losses at more than $50 billion.

AccuWeather’s most recent projection estimates $135 billion to $150 billion in total economic damage and loss, or about three times the preliminary estimate released by the weather forecasting company earlier this week. The company added that the estimate could be “revised upward, perhaps even substantially,” as damage is assessed.

Not all of the emergency response will fall to Washington, D.C. State aid programs and private insurers will also pick up much of the tab, even though the state was already facing an insurance crisis after ‘a series of forest fires in 2017 and 2018, which led to an access and affordability crisis for property owners.

Scalise laid that crisis at the feet of California officials, accusing them of adopting policies that have made it harder for homeowners to buy fire insurance in the Golden State, a problem he’s urging state leaders to address after the current tragedy of forest fires.

“They did some very specific things in California that they mandated, it sounded good at the time, but it drove businesses out of the state,” Scalise said. “These were horrible political decisions. And the people who made those political decisions need to be held accountable.”

A FEMA spokesperson told The Hill that the agency has sufficient funding to meet California’s needs and respond to past disasters. As of Friday, about $27 billion remained in its disaster relief fund.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has also been in contact with Newsom as response efforts continue. The agency said its regional office in California has also been in close communication with state officials and that a FEMA liaison was deployed to its office earlier this week.

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