House Democratic leaders drew a red line on Tuesday, warning Republicans that they would not allow unrelated issues to be added to legislation providing relief to victims of the California wildfires.
Republicans have floated the idea of attaching a provision to raise the federal debt ceiling to connect the relief legislation. The issue was reportedly discussed at a meeting over the weekend between House Republicans and Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
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“We will not support conditions to disaster assistance,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, who represents a district in California, said at a press conference.
Aguilar said that he would be open to a “lengthy debate and discussion” in Congress, likely via the committee process, to discuss issues related to the fires and the response to the natural disaster, but that disaster assistance “needs to be free from partisan conditions.”
Referencing recently passed disaster aid for the Carolinas, Florida, and Louisiana, states with a Republican majority, Aguilar noted that Democrats did not call for conditions to be attached to those bills and that the legislation received the party’s backing. Aguilar said adding conditions would lead to a delay in aid to those in dire straits.
Rep. Ted Lieu, a California representative who is the vice chair of the House Democratic caucus, went even further in his criticism of the Republican idea.
“When Mother Nature strikes, she doesn’t go ‘Hey, are you a Democrat or Republican, because if you’re a Democrat I’m going to take your home and burn it, and if you’re a Republican I’m not,’” Lieu said. He noted that people from across the political spectrum have lost homes to the fires.
Lieu added, “What the Republicans are doing is really, really outrageous. We are the United States of America. It’s fifty states.”
Since the fires began to ravage homes and businesses, Republicans—led by Trump—have lobbed political attacks at the Democratic-majority state and elected officials like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Conservative media outlets, like Fox News and Newsmax, have echoed and amplified these attacks.
Trump has repeatedly lied about the wildfires and the response to them, including the fake allegation that Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration” that would have purportedly given firefighters access to more water to fight the blaze.
After Newsom’s office noted that “no such document” exists, an assertion backed up by experts on the issue, Trump reiterated the complaint.
When Trump was in the White House, he faced a national crisis with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. In the process of responding to the problem, Trump prioritized feuds with Democratic leaders over partisan issues rather than providing assistance. In now turning disaster aid into a partisan exercise, Republican leaders are endorsing Trump’s approach—ignoring the death and destruction and the urgent need for help.
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