California wildfires, House Republicans urge talks on conditional aid: 'A pound of meat'

As wildfires rage in California, Republicans in Washington have begun debating whether federal aid should be conditioned on changes to policies that cause the fires.

“That's part of the discussion right now,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) told Fox News Digital. “People don't want to just write a check for something that, frankly, still has a lot of questions, and obviously the fire is still burning so the final total I don't even know how much it's going to cost that day. ”

Nearly 100,000 Californians are under evacuation orders after several deadly wildfires have broken out in the Los Angeles area in recent days.

Officials do not yet know how much the final damage will be or how much additional funding will be required for Congressional approval.

Los Angeles area residents need phone numbers and how to get help.

But a wide range of Republican lawmakers are already blaming policies and management in Democratic stronghold states for exacerbating the problem.

“There are going to be a lot of questions raised on this, but we also look forward to working with everyone on both sides of the aisle,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. ) answered the question. About conditioning aids. “But I think that's the reality. There are some questions that we would ask.”

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's housing and insurance subcommittee, said it was too early to discuss specific conditions that could arise, but said California criticized the country's home insurance policy.

“I think there's a real problem…For far too long, California law has kept insurance companies out of the state, making it even more difficult to get home insurance,” Flood told Fox News. told Digital.

Power grid outages spike just before Los Angeles wildfires start: experts

“I think California has to do a few things. California is going to create an environment where home insurance, home insurance reflects the risk, understands the risk and prices it accordingly. We have to show that we have set this up. If we do that, it will be related to forest management, so I think there will be many members of Congress who will want to say, “How did this happen?'' ”

Meanwhile, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus typically insist on deep cuts to offset additional government spending, and they are no different when it comes to California's wildfires.

Congressman Ralph Norman called on California to give California a “pound of meat for every dollar spent.” (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

“It has to be more than what they paid for it. They have to own it,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told reporters. “California is by no means the most conservative state in terms of spending. In my opinion, we should get every pound of profit we spend in California.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who also serves on the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital: “Why continue to fund the same policies that caused the problem? I mean, seriously. Why would you do that?'' ”

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., did not explicitly rule out conditioning aid, but said people need help as soon as possible.

“California needs to change the way we approach water, forest management, and many other things. I think we absolutely need to demand those changes. At the same time, we need to change the way we approach water, forest management, and many other things. At the same time, we need to change the way we approach water, forest management, and many other things. We've lost everything, we've lost our homes, we've lost our communities. We need them to help us, and we need them to help us as soon as possible. And we should let nothing get in our way. It’s not,” he said.

However, not all Republicans agree. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), whose home state has been hit by a significant natural disaster, said, “I think we should help just like everyone else.” He told Tonpost.

But the idea is gaining traction at the highest levels of Republican leadership, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who first proposed conditional disaster aid to reporters on Monday. .

Rep. Kevin Kiley, while criticizing local progressive governments, did not support conditional aid, but he also did not rule it out. (Joseph A. Wolfthorne/Fox News Digital)

“It appears that state and local leaders have failed in their duties, and in many ways that has to be taken into account,” Johnson said. “I think there should probably be conditions for that aid. That's my personal view. Let's see what the consensus is.”

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Democrats, on the other hand, are fiercely attacking the idea.

“Making aid conditional on suffering people who have paid more than their fair share of federal taxes is deeply reprehensible, even to my colleagues across the aisle,” Yvette Clark said. Member of the House of Representatives (D.N.Y.) wrote to X.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. “All I'm saying is that it's outrageous that Chairman Johnson is trying to tie conditions to this disaster relief, to try to tie disaster relief to unrelated concepts like the debt ceiling. We should not exploit the pain and suffering of our fellow Americans to provide disaster relief and force policy changes. ”