As swaths of Southern California burn, the state’s Republican members of Congress find themselves facing a dilemma.
Blaming the fires on California’s liberal policies, President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders have proposed attaching assorted conditions to federal disaster aid— a move that, if taken seriously, threatens to delay recovery efforts.
The choice before members of the state’s GOP House delegation is a tricky one: Would they fight for unconditional aid to constituents in their home state but risk incurring the wrath of Trump, who has a reputation for rewarding loyalists and punishing those who cross him? Or would they side with their party’s president but risk criticism from future opponents that they didn’t rush to help a California in need?
How they resolve this could not only affect their own careers, but also influence Congress’ ability to carry out Trump’s agenda. The GOP holds a three-seat majority in the House — an advantage so slim that it takes only a few Republicans aligning with the other party to block any measure, including a conditional disaster relief package.
The delegation already is splintering. Rep. Young Kim — a swing district Republican representing fire-prone parts of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties — decried talks of conditional aid as “playing politics with people’s livelihoods” and a “slap in the face” to wildfire victims and firefighters. As Trump toured Los Angeles on Friday, Kim said that while she believed the state had “a lot of problems,” those were “unrelated” to the distribution of federal aid.
But Rep. Tom McClintock, whose district in the…
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