Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $2.5 billion disaster aid package on Thursday, Jan. 23, to help Southern Californians recover from the devastating wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles County.
The funding, approved by the legislature earlier in the day, will help pay for services ranging from shelters for those who have lost their homes and debris removal to expediting the rebuilding of residential homes and damaged schools.
The two bills the governor signed were introduced by legislators just this week and fast-tracked through a special legislative session to get emergency dollars out to affected communities immediately.
During an afternoon press conference, Newsom thanked the legislature for acting with urgency and for legislators from both sides of the aisle coming together for a common cause.
“I wanted to thank everybody that cleared the deck, didn’t play politics with this, that recognized that people are in need,” said Newsom.
The governor later doubled down on the importance of bipartisanship, posting on the social media platform X that the bills passed with “No ‘conditions.’ No strings attached.”
He said he hoped Congress and President Donald Trump would do the same.
Since the Southern California fires first broke out on Jan. 7, some Republicans, including Trump, have suggested that federal disaster aid to California should come with conditions. But by and large, lawmakers who represent Southern California, on both sides of the aisle, have decried the notion that conditions should be placed on disaster relief aid.
Trump, who has criticized the state’s water policy, said in an interview with Fox News this week, “I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down” from the northern part of the state to the south.
In the meantime, California state legislators moved forward with approving $2.5 billion in emergency funding for Southern California with hopes that at least some of that money will be reimbursed by the federal government. The money was approved as part of special session bills introduced by Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.
The first bill, ABX1-4/SBX1-4, provides up to $1.5 billion to fund fire response and recovery. This includes expenses related to evacuating and sheltering displaced individuals; removing household hazardous wastes; remediating post-fire hazards such as flooding and debris flow; conducting air quality, water or other environmental tests; and expediting recovery.
The second bill, ABX1-5/SBX1-3, provides funding for the following:
• $4 million for L.A. County, as well as the cities of Los Angeles, Malibu, Pasadena and potentially other local governments to expedite the rebuilding of residential homes by providing resources to speed up the planning review and building process.
• $1 million to assist the Los Angeles and Pasadena school districts, as well as charter schools within those districts, to rebuild and recover damaged facilities.
• Up to $1 billion for other disaster-related responses.
Legislators have called the $2.5 billion initial funding and said that more money and other actions will be needed in the future to address California wildfires.