California To Spend $2.5 Billion To Help Los Angeles Recover From Wildfires

Lawmakers also approved $4 million for local governments to streamline approvals for rebuilding homes, and $1 million to support school districts and help them rebuild.

Sacramento:California will spend $2.5 billion to help the Los Angeles area recover from recent deadly wildfires under a relief package signed Thursday by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom signed the laws after the state Legislature approved them with bipartisan support earlier in the day. The measures include $2.5 billion for the state's disaster response efforts such as evacuations, sheltering survivors and removing household hazardous waste. Lawmakers also approved $4 million for local governments to streamline approvals for rebuilding homes, and $1 million to support school districts and help them rebuild facilities.

“This is about distilling a sense of hopefulness,” Newsom said at a news conference in Pasadena, a city recovering from one of the destructive fires that ignited earlier this month. The aid won approval a day before President Donald Trump is set to visit California for a look at damage from the blazes. He's suggested any federal wildfire relief should come with conditions, though congressional Republicans who represent the state have pushed back on that idea. Former President Joe Biden already approved some disaster aid for the region earlier this month.

Newsom called lawmakers into a special session in November to prepare for legal battles against Trump’s administration. But after major fires broke out around Los Angeles, the governor shifted gears to prioritize fire relief funding. He expanded the focus of the special session to pass the recovery funding under pressure from Republican state lawmakers who said the focus on Trump was misplaced while the state dealt with the disaster.

The governor said he hasn't spoken with Trump about his visit to the state but that he hopes to work with the president despite their political differences. Republican state Sen. Kelly Seyarto criticized Newsom for not issuing the fire relief funding on his own, but ultimately Seyarto supported the bills.

He said in the future, Democrats should do a better job of working with Republicans on crafting legislation for fire response and prevention funding. “We need a plan from all of us to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The state Senate also approved $25 million Thursday to defend the state against legal challenges by the federal government, along with another $25 million in part for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation and other threats. The vote fell largely along party lines. The state Assembly would still have to pass the bills before they can reach Newsom's desk.

The largest of the recent Southern California blazes ignited on Jan. 7, ripping through the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in Los Angeles and killing 11 people. The Eaton Fire, which broke out the same day near Altadena, has killed 17 people.

The region is also now battling the Hughes Fire, which ignited Wednesday north of Los Angeles, spread more than 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) and led to evacuation orders or warnings for more than 50,000 people. State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire, a Democrat representing the North Coast, said the fires have been “nothing short of devastating.”

“But we promise we have your back, and we’re going to get through this,” he said before Newsom signed the aid into law. Newsom's administration said the state expects to be reimbursed by the federal government for the disaster relief funding.

The governor also announced a commitment Thursday by 270 state-chartered banks, credit unions and lenders to provide mortgage relief to homeowners impacted by fires in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from Encino and chair of the chamber’s special session budget committee said his family was ordered to evacuate for six days while firefighters battled the Palisades Fire.

The funding the Legislature passed Thursday is “the first of many steps” lawmakers will take to support wildfire survivors and to protect communities from the threat of future blazes, he said.

“No community is immune from these wildfires,” Gabriel said. “That’s part of what the tragedy in Los Angeles proved to us.”

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