Omitted Northern California fire victims from $44 billion disaster aid...

Trump administration rejects California lawmakers’ criticism on wildfires aid

By Carolyn Lochhead

Answering angry state lawmakers, White House officials denied Monday that they had omitted money for Northern California fire victims from their $44 billion disaster aid request to Congress.

“The Trump administration is fully committed to assisting the victims of the California wildfires in their hour of need,” said White House spokeswoman Helen Ferre.

Top California Democratic lawmakers sent out blistering statements Friday accusing the administration of ignoring Gov. Jerry Brown’s $7.4 billion request for the Wine Country fires. The administration’s request specifically addresses disaster needs resulting from three recent hurricanes that struck Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but mentions California only in regard to special tax relief targeted at fire victims.

But Ferre said California is included in a section of the request called the Disaster Relief Fund. The fund, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, aids individual victims of disasters and pays for repairs to damaged public infrastructure. The administration has requested $23.5 billion for that fund. The remaining $20.5 billion would go to a variety of agencies that deal with different aspects of disasters.

“The California Wildfires are a declared disaster,” Ferre said, so money going to the Disaster Relief Fund “will support those efforts.”

The amount of money requested for the Disaster Relief Fund does not begin to cover the total damage assessed so far from all of the disasters that have hit U.S. states and territories since August.

California would be left to compete with the hurricane-struck states for an inadequate pool of money, state lawmakers said.

“Even though the amount is far less than what Texas and Florida have requested, we’re supposed to infer additional wildfire needs are tucked in there,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. “I’m glad they’re not completely omitting us, but the idea that we would go in and compete with these hurricane victims for an amount of money that is insufficient to cover any of us is offensive in itself.”

Republican lawmakers from Texas and Florida were furious too, blasting the administration’s request as “wholly inadequate,” as Sen. John, Cornyn, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican put it. Texas alone has requested $61 billion in aid to rebuild from Hurricane Harvey, which struck Houston in August. Puerto Rico suffered catastrophic damage from Hurricane Maria in September, estimated at nearly $100 billion.

Florida lawmakers were upset that their state’s citrus growers, like California fire victims, also went unmentioned in the budget request. Nearly half a million acres of the state’s citrus groves, which produce the bulk of the nation’s orange juice, were damaged by Hurricane Irma in September. GOP Rep. Tom Rooney, who represents the southwest portion of the state, called the budget request “flabbergasting.”

The state has already received help from FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency, but Brown and California lawmakers have asked for $7.4 billion in initial aid to recover from what they describe as the most destructive wildfires in the state’s history. They said state and local officials are still assessing the damage, indicating that the cost could go higher.

Congress, not the administration, will determine by mid-December how much money the states get in disaster aid. Californians, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, fill some of the most powerful posts in Congress.

The Appropriations committees determine the amounts, and senior Californians sit on those panels as well. Those include Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Rep. Ken Calvert of Irvine, a Republican. Calvert toured the fire devastation in Sonoma County last weekend with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena.

“I felt it was important to see the horrific impacts up close and hear from those affected,” Calvert told The Chronicle on Monday. He said despite the “tremendous effort” by FEMA and others, “more assistance will surely be necessary. I will be working with my House colleagues and the administration to ensure the areas affected by our recent disasters have the resources they need.”

Unlike delegations from other disaster-struck states, which united across party lines in asking for federal aid, California’s lawmakers divided mostly on partisan lines in making their request. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Feinstein wrote President Trump on Nov. 3, asking him to consider Brown’s request. They were joined by all the California Democrats in the House delegation, and Orange County Republican Rep. Ed Royce.

On Nov. 14, the state’s Republican lawmakers sent out a separate letter requesting aid, not mentioning Brown’s $7.4 billion figure, but asking for specific funding categories, including the Disaster Relief Fund.

Huffman noted that McCarthy visited Sonoma County, and also praised Calvert for taking the time to visit Sonoma County over the weekend.

“The fact that he’s here on the ground taking stock of the need and that he’s a fellow Californian is encouraging,” Huffman said.

Lawmakers and Senate aides said they were worried that by leaving specific mention of California out of its request, federal agencies might shortchange the state when they dole out the money. They noted that while it is true that the Disaster Relief Fund is available to all victims of declared disasters, the administration request pointedly omits California in its discussion of the fund. Specifically, it states, “This funding would support response and recovery efforts related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.”

Huffman said appropriators should attach specific provisions to the money to make sure California fire victims are covered.

The budget request makes just one mention of California. “Due to this year’s historic and widespread wildfires, thousands of families in California are struggling to rebuild their homes and communities,” the request said.

“Accordingly, the administration requests targeted tax relief that will directly aid in the rebuilding process in areas covered by a major disaster declaration.”

These should include allowing individuals to declare casualty losses, waiving the requirement that the loss exceed 10 percent of adjusted gross income, the request said. That contradicts the big tax bill that the House passed last week, with no Democratic support, that would allow casualty losses from this year’s hurricanes, but not California’s fires.

The administration also asked that Congress find offsetting cuts to pay for some of the disaster aid.

The Government Accountability Office said in September that the cost of climate-related disasters had already reached $350 billion this decade, before this year’s hurricanes and fires. The agency said those costs will keep rising and that the federal government should start managing for the risks.