California Left Out of Disaster Relief Package
White House Ignores Request for Fire Aid
For Immediate Release
November 17, 2017
Contact: Gregg Fishman, CSAC, (916) 342-9508
As California counties are struggling to recover from the most devastating wildfires in state history — resulting in 43 deaths — California’s request for $7.4 billion in disaster relief was left out of the White House’s supplemental funding request sent to Congress today.
“It will take years for some of the counties impacted by the fires to fully recover and it is unconscionable that the federal government would treat the people of California who are suffering through these disasters any differently than the victims of the hurricanes in the Gulf states,” said Keith Carson, an Alameda County Supervisor and President of the California State Association of Counties. “We cannot let this stand, and I am calling on every member of the California Congressional delegation to do everything in their power to include California in the disaster relief package.”
“There are entire neighborhoods in our communities that have been reduced to ashes,” said CSAC Executive Director Matt Cate. “California lost 8,800 homes in nine counties in these fires, and there is nothing left of thousands of people’s homes, possessions, and businesses. We need the federal aid to start rebuilding our communities just as surely as do Texas, Florida, Louisiana and Puerto Rico.”
Governor Brown’s request for Federal aid can be found here.
