
"Obviously there’s been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems, and it does come down to leadership."
As wildfires continue to devastate the Los Angeles area, House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday told reporters he thought that there should be conditions placed on aid given to California for recovery efforts. Over 12,000 homes and businesses have burned across a fire path of over 40,000 acres. 26 lives have been lost, though that death toll is expected to rise.
"Are you open to providing aid to California without any conditions at all," CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson.
"I think we’ve got to have a serious discussion about that," Johnson said.
"Obviously there’s been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems, and it does come down to leadership," Johnson continued. "And it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects, so that’s something that needs to be factored in. I think there should be conditions on that aid. That’s my personal view, we’ll see what the consensus is."
This comes after a group of House Republicans and Donald Trump spoke on Sunday night at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago about tying wildfire aid to a debt ceiling increase, Politico reported. Johnson, who did not attend the dinner, was asked about the possibility of raising the debt ceiling on Monday, to which he told reporters, "there’s some discussion about that but we’ll see where it goes."
California leadership has come under fire for their management ahead of and during the wildfires. Governor Gavin Newsom was revealed to have cut funding for wildfire prevention programs by over $100 million, while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass cut $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department's budget and in early January asked that the department cut another $49 million.Powered by The Post Millennial CMS™ Comments
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