WASHINGTON – Discussions about the role overregulation played in the January wildfires that tore through Los Angeles quickly devolved into partisan flamethrowing as Republicans and several witnesses blamed Democrats for the devastating event.
“This was a man-made disaster; more precisely, a Democrat-made disaster,” witness Steve Hilton, the founder of Golden Together, a California-based think tank, and Fox News contributor said in his opening statement. Throughout the tense hearing, he clashed with Democratic lawmakers and other witnesses.
Even the name of the Thursday morning hearing, held before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, was a point of contention.
“‘California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation’ is a gross title misnomer,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) said.
Republican lawmakers used the hearing to criticize what they saw as California’s failure to prevent the wildfires by neglecting to clear brush and conduct controlled burns.
“This is not about climate change, this is not about global warming, this is about bad land use decisions (and) bad policies,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.). She called for strings to be attached to federal wildfire aid.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) shot back, giving an impassioned statement.
“Shame on anyone who is exploiting the pain and suffering of disaster victims to jam through partisan ideological policies,” he said. “We should get disaster aid to these disaster victims now, without conditions, just like we treat every other disaster victim across America.”
Blue states aren’t the only ones affected by natural disasters, Democrats warned, reiterating that recent aid to red states has not been conditional, as is being proposed for aid to California.
Later in the hearing, Democrats slammed Trump’s recent statements in which he floated the idea of doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Trump has also signed an executive order establishing a council to assess FEMA.
Democratic lawmakers also pushed back on the idea that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were related to the catastrophe.
“Do you believe that people in L.A. died because the fire chief is a lesbian?” Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) asked witnesses. “All this talk of DEI is a complete and utter distraction from the fact that we need a plan, an actual plan, to help the people of California,” she added.
Lawmakers of both parties repeatedly ceded their time to their colleagues from California. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who recently toured the disaster zone, called for bipartisanship.
“‘They just want the government to help them.’ That’s what a woman told me when she stood on a pile of ashes in the Palisades,” Swalwell said. “So I just ask my colleagues: let’s work together on this. Let’s be in the solutions business.”
