House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threw cold water Wednesday on the notion that Democrats would support a tentative Republican plan to pair disaster aid for California with one of President-elect Donald Trump’s key policy demands.
Republicans are considering pairing an expected emergency spending package for wildfire aid with a hike to the debt limit, the latter one of Mr. Trump’s policy wishes that has become a thorny issue within the House GOP.
The GOP is seeking Democratic support in case Republicans can’t coalesce around an approach, but Democrats say they won’t accept any conditions on disaster aid, such as the debt-limit proposal.
“Members of the California delegation have been very vocal on this matter, and have made clear it is a complete and total nonstarter,” said Mr. Jeffries, New York Democrat.
“Congress, in our nation’s 248-year history, has never conditioned disaster assistance to everyday Americans whose lives have been upended by extreme weather events,” he said. “Never has happened, and it should never happen.”
It’s not clear whether Republicans will follow through with pairing the debt limit with disaster aid while negotiations continue over the budget reconciliation process, which will be the vehicle for much of Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Lawmakers are also waiting for a total estimate of how much funding will be needed in California, which could take some time, given that the fires are still raging in the Golden State.
Many Republicans, including debt hawks and hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus, prefer the debt limit issue to be considered during the filibuster-proof reconciliation process because they would not need to compromise or negotiate with Democrats.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has begun to backtrack on his position that he intended to include the debt limit in the reconciliation mix.
However, that doesn’t mean that “safeguards” would not be included on future disaster aid.
The speaker said if decisions made by Democratic political leaders in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, caused the fires and the response to be “exponentially worse,” Congress should consider some kind of caveats to the aid package.
“Why should people in other states and other governors and other mayors, who manage their water resources and they manage their forests so much better, why should they have to take care and compensate for bad decisions in California,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’m not saying we’re going to leave anybody out. We’re going to take care of our responsibilities, but we may need to think carefully about safeguards.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.