Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that California disaster relief would have strings attached.
Host Kristen Welker said, “Let’s talk about disaster relief for California. I want to tell you something that California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote recently. He said, ‘There must be no conditions, no strings attached to disaster aid.’ And yet we know that there’s a big conversation happening right now on Capitol Hill about linking disaster aid for California to an increase in the debt limit which has been a traditionally really thorny issue. Are you and can you commit that California disaster relief won’t have strings attached?”
Johnson said, “No, I won’t commit that because we have a serious problem in California. Listen, there are natural disasters. I’m from Louisiana. We are prone to that. We understand how these things work and then there is also human error. When they make policies that make disaster worse, we have to factor that in. In California, over the last couple of years, they cut $100 million from forestry management and cut $18 million from L.A.’s Fire Department, putting them into the other crazy priorities and 117 million gallon reservoir that was left empty for a year outside Pacific Palisades. Those are decisions they made based on whatever their ideas were, but it made it worse, and everyone knew it would, and the risk was there.”
Welker said, “So it could be linked to the debt limit.”
Johnson said, “Potentially, that’s one of the things we’re talking about.”
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