President Trump has reversed his rejection of wildfire aid to California following pressure from the state’s GOP lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy “has just informed me that the President has committed to reverse FEMA’s decision to deny the request for a federal disaster declaration for the recent fires,” said California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock in a tweet.
“The Presidential Disaster Declaration is imminent and help is on the way,” added McClintock, who has fires burning in his northern California district.
Trump earlier this week rejected a request made by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, late last month to declare a disaster declaration for six wildfires in the state. Doing so would allow the federal government to take on some of the cost burden for cleaning up and rebuilding after the wildfires.
Five of California’s six largest wildfires have occurred this year, and more than 4 million acres in the state have burned.
The White House granted a request from Newsom in August for two wildfires caused by lightning strikes, but California state officials said on Thursday that Trump denied the recent request, according to several news reports.
Trump has previously made threats to withhold federal wildfire aid to California.
“I said, ‘You got to clean your floors. You got to clean your forests.’ They have many, many years of leaves and broken trees” that are “so flammable,” Trump said during a rally in August of California state officials.
“I’ve been telling them this now for three years, but they don’t want to listen,” he added. “Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us.”
Scientists and other experts have said the intensity of the recent wildfires is due to both poor forest management and worsening climate change.
