WASHINGTON--U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rebuked President Donald Trump for threatening to block disaster aid for California, a state recently ravaged by deadly, destructive wildfires whose mostly Democratic political leaders often spar with the Republican president.
"How shocking it is that this president would say he's going to withhold funding to meet the disaster needs of people in California," said Pelosi, a Democrat representing a California district, referring to Trump's tweet on Wednesday that he would stop the emergency funds until the state changes its forest and fire management.
"Unless you have a different definition of what a disaster is and the needs for assistance, you have no right to withhold those funds," Pelosi said at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
It is not clear whether Trump was referring to money already approved and being distributed or to future funds in his tweet. By law he cannot act to "delay or impede" disaster relief once a federal emergency or disaster declaration has been made.
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is currently distributing aid near the site of the Camp Fire that killed 86 people, did not respond to requests for comment about the law or the president's tweet on Wednesday, even though some were working despite the government shutdown.
Trump's tweet was part of an ongoing back-and-forth with the most populous U.S. state. He says California has suffered from increasingly intense wildfires over the last few years because of forest mismanagement.
Trump's threat came two days after newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, used the occasion of his swearing-in to critique the "corruption and incompetence" of the Republican president. Pivoting from weeks of headlines dominated by the shutdown, Trump returned to his commentary that California's supposed mishandling of its forests and water resources were chiefly to blame for a fire season that ranks as the most destructive on record.
"Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen," Trump wrote on Twitter, a day after Western governors asked for greater federal investment in wildfire prevention.
"Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!" the president said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Research shows the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires in California and other Western states are largely attributable to prolonged drought, symptomatic of climate change. The Trump administration has rejected or downplayed the role of climate change in the worsening wildfire picture.
