Trump administration rejects California request for federal wildfire disaster relief funds

“California’s economy is suffering in a way we have not seen since the 2009 Great Recession,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a letter requesting the funds from the president.

Judd Deere, a spokesman for the president, said the Trump administration already authorized increased funding for debris removal for the August fires and for past fires and that “relevant data” was not provided to show the need for more.

“The more recent and separate California submission was not supported by the relevant data that States must provide for approval and the President concurred with the FEMA Administrator’s recommendation,” Deere said in a statement.

California officials disagreed, arguing that they had made a “strong case” and planned to appeal the decision.

President Trump and Newsom have argued over wildfire relief in the past, which was highlighted by Trump’s threat to cut off federal relief funding until California improved its forest management practices.

“Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” the president tweeted last year. “Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.”

“You know, at some point, you can’t every year have hundreds of thousands of acres of land just burned to the ground,” Trump said last month about California’s wildfires. “We need to do a better job of managing our forests.”