California Wildfires Talk House Republican Contingency Aid: ‘A Pound of Flesh’

As wildfires rage in California, Republicans in Washington are debating whether to provide federal aid for policies they say are to blame for the blazes.

“Now it’s part of the conversation,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “People aren’t willing to pay a check for something, really, they still have a lot of questions. And obviously, the fire is still burning, so we don’t even know what the total will be at the end of the day.”

The Los Angeles area has been battling several deadly wildfires in recent days, with nearly 100,000 Californians under evacuation orders.

Officials are far from knowing what the final damage estimates will be and how much additional funding will need to be approved by Congress.

Important phone numbers for Los Angeles-area residents and how to help them

But a broad swath of Republicans are exacerbating the issue, blaming hard-line Democratic state policies and administration.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of questions about it, but we also want to work cooperatively, you know, we want to work cooperatively with everybody on both sides of the aisle,” said House Speaker Tom Cole, R-Okla. Help about refrigeration. “But I think that’s just the reality. There’s going to be questions we’re going to ask.”

Mike Flood, R-Neb., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on housing and insurance, said it was too early to discuss potential scenarios but criticized California’s home insurance policies.

“I think there are real issues … for too long, California state laws have been driving insurers out of that state, making it more difficult to get home insurance,” Flood told Fox News Digital.

Power grid crashes before Los Angeles Wilders start: expert

“I think California needs to do two things. They need to show that they’re creating an environment where home insurance, home insurance, is reflected in the risk, they understand the risk and they value it. ?’ I think there are a lot of members of Congress who say that.

Meanwhile, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who are adamant about major cuts to offset any additional government spending, are no exception to the California wildfires.

Rep. Ralph Norman, RS.C., told reporters, “It has to be more than what’s being paid for. They have to own it. California has never been a very conservative state in terms of spending.” In my opinion, we should get a pound of meat for every dollar spent on California.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., who also sits on the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital, “Why do we continue to fund the same policies that created the problem? I mean seriously, why would you do that?”

California Republican Rep. Kevin Keeley, R-Calif., has not explicitly ruled out help with conditioning, but said people need help as soon as possible.

“California needs to change, not to mention water issues, forest management, and many other things. I think we need to really demand that those changes happen. At the same time, the people who are suffering, they’ve lost everything, they’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their communities, we need to help them, and we need to help them… momentum, and we shouldn’t let anything get in the way,” he said.

But not all Republicans are on board. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who has seen his own home state’s fair share of natural disasters, told The Huffington Post, “I think we should help the other person the way we can help them.”

But the proposal has been largely endorsed by senior GOP leadership — including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

“It appears to us that the state and local leaders are out of business. And in many ways, that’s something that needs to be recognized,” Johnson said. “I think there should probably be conditions on the aid. That’s my personal opinion. We’ll see what the consensus is.”

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Democrats, on the other hand, strongly suggested the idea.

Rep. Yvette Clarke, DNA, wrote on X: “Giving aid to those suffering who have paid more than their fair share in federal taxes is uniquely offensive, even to my colleagues across the aisle.”

Representative Ted Liu, D-Calif., the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. “What I’m trying to say is that it’s a shame that Speaker Johnson is trying to tie conditions to this disaster relief or to tie disaster relief to related concepts like the debt ceiling. To force policy changes.”