California lawmakers approve $2.5 billion in wildfire aid for L.A.
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- The legislation, which received bipartisan support at the state Capitol, directs the money to the monumental emergency response and recovery effort.
- The funding is currently coming from a state emergency reserve account, but Democrats hope it will be ultimately reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a pair of bills Thursday providing $2.5 billion in state aid in response to the wildfires that have decimated neighborhoods, destroyed schools and damaged public infrastructure across Los Angeles County.
“This money will be made available immediately,” Newsom said Thursday afternoon, standing in the auditorium of an elementary school in Pasadena that had reopened to students earlier that day, a few miles from the Eaton fire. “We want to get these dollars out in real time.”
Several dozen people — including Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath, first responders and legislative leaders — stood on blue-painted wood risers behind the governor as he spoke. Newsom said he had just arrived from the Hughes fire, another major Southern California fire in the Castaic area north of Los Angeles that exploded Wednesday.
Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) both underscored the bipartisan nature of the legislative effort, with Rivas specifically urging President Trump to follow suit and quickly provide federal dollars to Los Angeles without conditions.
The bills, which received support from Republicans as well the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority, directs the money to the monumental emergency response and recovery effort, including evacuations, shelter, hazardous waste removal, debris removal, traffic control and environmental testing.
“Tens of thousands of our neighbors, our families and friends, they need help,” McGuire said during the floor debate in the upper house earlier in the day.
“This means that we need to be able to move with urgency, put aside our differences, and be laser focused on delivering the financial resources, delivering the boots on the ground, that are needed and the policy relief that is needed to get neighborhoods cleaned up and communities rebuilt.”
Palisades Charter High School, damaged in this month’s firestorm, reopened online Tuesday. But many students dreaded the Zoom classes after enduring them amid the pandemic.
The fires that began Jan. 7 have left at least 28 dead and destroyed more than 16,000 structures in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Firefighters have made significant progress toward containing the Palisades and Eaton fires, but continue to battle dangerous winds and dry conditions that have brought new fires in the last couple of days.
After the wildfires broke out, Newsom expanded the ongoing special session to include the funding for Los Angeles. The governor originally called the special session two days after the November election, requesting that lawmakers give more money to the California Department of Justice to wage legal battles against President Trump.
During a visit this month, then-President Biden pledged federal funds to support the rebuilding effort. Much of the money approved by the Legislature on Thursday could ultimately be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency if Trump follows through with that promise.
The money is currently coming from a state emergency reserve account, called the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties.
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