Congress doesn't need to unlock disaster aid as California burns

The Biden administration is flush with cash to help California as deadly fires spread near Los Angeles, thanks to the $100 billion in disaster aid Congress cleared before Christmas.

As President-elect Donald Trump accuses Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom of inadvertently causing the fires raging near Los Angeles, the Biden administration is surging federal help to the region with money from the disaster aid package Congress approved in December for agencies like FEMA and the Forest Service. California is already set to be reimbursed for firefighting costs, after FEMA approved a grant Tuesday night, and federal firefighters are on the scene.

That includes large air tankers run by the Forest Service that are dumping thousands of gallons of water and flame retardant in Southern California, along with 10 of the agency’s firefighting helicopters and dozens of federal fire engines.

Congress could be asked to vote in the weeks to come on approving long-term recovery work, like authorizing help for California under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's program for funding community development projects following disasters.

But Trump's reentry into the White House later this month could complicate further federal aid through this channel and others, as the incoming president continues to spar publicly with Newsom over wildfires and water policy in a long simmering fight. On social media Wednesday afternoon, Trump called the governor “Newscum,” accusing him of causing the fires by not agreeing to certain water policies.

There could also be a partisan battle looming over the policies lawmakers deploy to mitigate wildfires. House Republicans continue to push for enactment of a bill they call the "Fix Our Forests Act," which would speed forest thinning on federal lands to reduce wildfire risk. The Biden administration and Senate Democrats opposed the bill in the last Congress, arguing that the measure undermines water and wildlife protections.

In a joint statement Wednesday, House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), and Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) pledged to try to move the bill again now that the GOP will have a governing trifecta in Washington following Trump's inauguration in a few weeks.

"We must aggressively increase the pace and scale of our forest management to prevent these types of catastrophes in the future," they said.

In the meantime, to unlock even more federal aid, Newsom could make a formal request to outgoing President Joe Biden — or Trump, once he is inaugurated on Jan. 20 — for a major disaster declaration, tapping into extra assistance in FEMA’s disaster aid fund that was filled with $29 billion under the disaster aid package Congress cleared last month.

While “major” disaster declarations are rare for fires in states that experience them frequently, they are not unprecedented. Biden declared a major disaster for Hawaii in 2023, two days after fires devastated Maui, unleashing federal aid to supplement state recovery work.