WATCH: California Assembly passes resolution seeking federal wildfire relief

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

Following a sometimes fiery debate, the California Assembly passed a resolution Thursday that asks the federal government to fund more wildfire relief in Los Angeles County.

Assembly Joint Resolution 27 asks President Donald Trump to appeal to Congress to provide disaster aid. It also asks Congress to grant that monetary assistance to the county regardless of whether the president makes the request. The resolution now goes to the Senate for consideration, but will not require Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

“This is something that every president in the history of this country has done – provide federal aid for disaster victims,” said Assemblymember John Harabedian, D-Pasadena, and co-author of the resolution.

“This is something that should have happened a long time ago, and every Californian congressional representative, Democratic and Republican, has called on this for months,” Harabedian said on the Assembly floor in Sacramento. “If the president isn’t willing to do it, Congress must step up and provide Los Angeles with its money right away.”

The Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed a total of 31 people in Los Angeles County, burned a total of 37,728 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

The Palisades fire alone burned 6,833 structures and is the ninth deadliest wildfire in California’s history, the department said. The Eaton fire was the fifth deadliest in the state’s history, according to CalFire.

Thursday’s resolution didn’t stipulate how much money California lawmakers want the federal government to allocate for Los Angeles County.

But Republican lawmakers who pushed back on the Assembly floor said the federal government has already transferred $6 billion to wildfire response and recovery, in addition to state efforts to aid Southern California communities affected by the fires.

“Gavin Newsom put in an invoice for $40 billion,” Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said during the Assembly floor debate on the resolution. “You know why? Because he’s spending money like a drunken sailor and so are you. You’re using their tragedy to ask for money because you can’t control your spending habits.”

DeMaio added that only 28 of 15,000 homes had been rebuilt in Los Angeles County and that the state’s lawmakers should act faster to approve rebuilding permits, among other actions to help constituents in their districts.

“I think we need a federal investigation and audit,” DeMaio said during his passionate talk.

The resolution follows a slew of bills introduced this year that aim to help Los Angeles County wildfire victims who lost their homes in the January 2025 fires. Those bills aim to keep predatory land speculators from making offers for lots where burned-down homes once stood for well under market value or compel insurance companies to pay the full monetary value of a lost home, according to previous reporting by The Center Square.

“The initial federal support provided by President Biden provided only a fraction of what was needed for our impacted communities,” Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks and co-author of the resolution, said on the Assembly floor. “We need to restore the lives of 1982,000 displaced residents. It is time for our federal government to step up and provide relief for California without delay.”