House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) on Tuesday flatly rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) proposal for conditions to be put on federal aid for California wildfires, setting up a potential partisan fight that could delay billions of dollars in emergency assistance.
“We will not support conditions to disaster assistance,” Aguilar told reporters in the Capitol.
“We can have a lengthy debate and discussion and use the committee process to have discussions about the steps that California has taken to protect itself,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, ultimately this will mean disaster assistance, and that needs to be free from partisan conditions.”
Aguilar’s red line sets the stage for what could potentially be a fierce battle over the delivery of emergency help in response to the wildfires in and around Los Angeles, which are shaping up to be among the most damaging — and most expensive — natural disasters in the nation’s history.
Johnson on Monday said he supports conditions on any new federal aid, citing what he characterized as “mismanagement” of fire-prevention programs by both the state and local governments — a message he amplified during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“The Americans there that are affected desperately need and deserve help, but you’ve also heard us talk about our concerns with the governance of the state of California, state and local. And to the extent that there is complicity involved in the scope of the disaster, then we think that’s something that needs to be carefully regarded,” he said.
“You’ve heard the word conditions on aid. We’re not projecting in advance what this will be,” he added. “We have to make sure there are safeguards on the precious treasure of the American people.”
Johnson also confirmed that he’s having talks among Republicans about the possibility of tying emergency aid to a debt-ceiling hike. And he voiced support for offsetting the cost of any new disaster funding with changes elsewhere in the budget.
“There’s a lot of my colleagues, and I feel the same, we should be paying for disaster relief,” Johnson said. “That’s an ongoing dialogue around here as well.”
His comments have sparked an outcry from Democrats in California and beyond, who are quick to point out that Democrats demanded neither offsets nor partisan conditions on aid to red states in the wake of similar natural disasters, including recent hurricanes that battered Florida and the Carolinas last year.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said Johnson’s calls for conditions are “just appalling.”
“That’s just one of the most cruel and ignorant things you could possibly say, especially in this moment,” Huffman, senior Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, said. “You don’t condition it. We didn’t do that for Louisiana; we didn’t do that for Florida. I’m hoping that that was just a dumb thing that he said, which on reflection won’t go any further.”
Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), the vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, piled on, arguing that natural disasters make no distinction between party affiliation when they strike.
“Think of how absurd it is to say, ‘We’re not going to use this post office because it’s used by 60 percent Democrats and 40 percent Republicans. We never do that,” Lieu said. “What the Republicans are doing is really, really outrageous.”
Lieu also noted that California taxpayers send more money to Washington than they receive in federal services.
“California is subsidizing a bunch of red states,” he said. “So if you want to just look at the actual numbers, it is even more outrageous that somehow Speaker Johnson wants to punish Americans who happen to live in Southern California — including Republicans who happen to live in Southern California.”
Aguilar offered his own theory for why Johnson might want to raise the debt ceiling as part of an emergency aid package: GOP leaders want to extend the Trump tax cuts, but they’ll need to raise the debt limit to do it — a hike that will require bipartisan support given the Republicans’ slim House majority and the opposition from conservatives in their own ranks.
“He is trying to do everything he can so Donald Trump can have a victory — so billionaires and the largest corporations can continue to enjoy tax treatment that they want, to the tune of a couple trillion dollars,” Aguilar said.
“In order to do that, they have to raise the debt limit,” he added. “He does not have the votes for that, and so that’s why he is joining these two.”
Mychael Schnell contributed reporting.
