House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” that disaster relief for California will come with strings attached.
Host Kristen Welker said, “Let's talk about disaster relief in California. I want to talk about something that California Governor Gavin Newsom recently wrote.'' He said, “Disaster relief should not have conditions or limitations.'' ” he said. But we know there's a big debate going on on Capitol Hill right now about tying California disaster relief to raising the debt limit, which is traditionally a very thorny issue. Can you say with certainty that there are no restrictions on disaster relief in California?”
Mr. Johnson said, “No, I wouldn't do that because California has serious problems.” Listen, there's a natural disaster. I'm from Louisiana. We tend to do that. We understand how these things work, but human error also exists. We have to take that into account when they make policies that exacerbate disasters. California has cut $100 million from forest management and $18 million from L.A.'s fire department in recent years, shoving them into other crazy priorities. A 117 million gallon reservoir outside Pacific Palisades has been left empty for a year. These were decisions they made based on their own ideas, but it made things worse, and we all knew it would happen, and the risks were there. ”
“So it could be related to the debt limit,” Welker said.
“Potentially, that's one of the things we're talking about,” Johnson said.
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