Democrats accuse Republicans of politicizing California disaster aid. The numbers back them up

More than three months after wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles County, California’s request for nearly $40 billion in federal aid to help the recovery has stalled in Washington, largely because Republicans insist on tying conditions to the assistance.

A Spectrum News analysis of major natural disasters over the last 20 years shows that the delay in providing disaster aid for California this year is a historical outlier when it comes to the typical federal response time for providing funds to impacted regions.

In 2005, it took just five days from Hurricane Katrina’s landfall for Congress to pass $10 billion in emergency aid. Days later, an additional $51.8 billion was approved in what the Associated Press categorized as “acting with extraordinary speed.”

What You Need To Know
It's been 106 days since wildfires broke out in Los Angeles County, but Congress has not yet acted on Gov. Gavin Newsom's $40 billion aid request

Democrats on Capitol Hill say there has been little to no movement on an aid package, while Republicans have suggested conditioning the aid

A Spectrum News analysis shows that other natural disasters over the last 20 years saw a speedy response by Congress, as Democrats accuse Republicans of politicizing the disaster

Newsom's office told Spectrum News it expects a bipartisan, multi-state aid package to be passed by late spring or early summer, but that timeline will be contingent on Republican leadership
In 2017, a Republican-controlled Congress needed only 22 days to approve $15.3 billion for Hurricane Harvey relief.

A political battle over emergency aid erupted after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York and New Jersey in 2012. Congress waited 67 days to pass $9.7 billion in initial aid. An additional package of $51 million was approved 24 days later.

But more than 100 days after the wildfires tore through Los Angeles County, Congress has yet to act. As in the case of Sandy nearly 13 years ago, the communities needing help lean Democratic, and the opposition to their request for help is coming from Republicans in Washington.

“I can't imagine that other places in the country would face this delay if they were, were, experiencing California's experience. I would never do this to one of my fellow countrymen, who was suffering from this kind of thing,” said Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif.

Prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have called for attaching strings to any California assistance.

“I think there should probably be conditions on that aid. That's my personal view,” Johnson told reporters in January.

“Why should people in other states and other governors and other mayors who manage their water resources, manage their forests so much better — why should they have to take care and compensate for bad decisions in California?” questioned Johnson later that week. “I'm not saying we're going to leave anybody out. We're going to take care of our responsibilities. But we may need to think carefully about safeguards.”

Some Republicans, such as Ric Grenell, who serves as special envoy to the Trump administration, have suggested conditions that have nothing to do with fire mitigation and prevention.

“I think squeezing their federal funds, making sure they don’t get funds, putting strings on them to get rid of the California Coastal Commission is going to make California better,” said Grenell at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.

Democrats have been outraged by the suggestion.

“When Mother Nature strikes, she doesn't go, ‘Hey, are you Democrat or Republican?’” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif. back in January.

“It's unconscionable. It's a terrible precedent. We should not be playing politics when it comes to helping those that are facing a natural disaster whose many have lost their lives, their properties, their homes, their livelihoods,” Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., said at the time.

Democrats say making any of the assistance to California conditional is a nonstarter.

“We will not support conditions to disaster assistance,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the third highest-ranking House Democrat.

When asked by Spectrum News if he believed disaster aid has become politicized in recent years, Peters scoffed.

“Over the course of the last several months [it has],” he said, adding that this is the first time he’s openly heard of people conditioning disaster relief. “We don't talk about that with places like Louisiana, which suffers floods, and I never would. So why they want to pick that battle? I’m not sure. But it’s the first time I’ve heard overt reference to conditioning disaster aid.”

Some political analysts blame the partisanship that now grips the nation’s politics.

“Part of it, I think, is this broader phenomenon that we call affective polarization, this active dislike of the other party. We've seen that growing in the United States — and it's not just among members of Congress — it's the general public. And what that does is it pulls us further apart,” explained Wes Longhofer, a professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

“They take something like disasters, which are humanitarian concerns and we tend to approach humanitarian concerns from a universal perspective that everybody is deserving of care,” Longhofer continued. “Now we're saying, ‘well, no, maybe not, that's also an opportunity to negotiate, and for you to get aid, we need something in return.’”

Further frustrating California Democrats is California’s status as a so-called donor state — which pays more in federal taxes than it receives in federal spending or grants. According to the California Budget and Policy Center, the state’s residents and businesses contributed $83 billion more in federal taxes in 2022 than the state received that year.

At a recent press conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, pointed out that California often pays more than it receives.

“When it comes to federal support, we would expect to be treated fairly,” he said. “I'm proud of the backs of states that are struggling. I'm proud to have the back of Speaker Johnson’s state [of Louisiana] when they were struggling because of the hurricanes. As a taxpayer, I’m proud to support them. And, I would hope the same would be extended. And I expect it will be. That's above politics.”

Earlier this month, Newsom’s office told Spectrum News it expects a bipartisan, multi-state aid package to be passed by Congress later this spring or earlier this summer, but Democrats say that will be contingent on Republican leadership actually working on the request.

“The California wildfires is something that it's a request for supplemental emergency spending, and all of this is kind of wrapped together in all of the deliberations we're making right now,” Johnson said earlier this month in response to a question by Spectrum News. “Reconciliation is the most immediate and urgent thing on our plate, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'll tell you that there's some internal discussion about it, but it hasn't advanced yet, but stay tuned on that.”

Spectrum News reached out to Johnson’s office for additional comment on the claims by Democrats that disaster aid for California is being politicized, but the speaker's team did not immediately respond to the request.