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President Joe Biden said that the federal government will cover 100% of the cost of disaster assistance, on things like debris removal, temporary shelters and first responders’ salaries.
At a briefing at the White House today, Biden told reporters, “Due to the magnitude of the disaster, I was talking with the governor, he asked if I could increase the federal funding … from 75% to 90%. We’re increasing it to 100% of all the costs to be covered by the federal government.”
“The federal government will cover 100% of the costs for 180 days.”
“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to do what they need to do to contain these fires,” Biden added.
Biden said that the total price tag for recovery will be a “big, big number,” suggesting that Congress would have to appropriate new funding. Biden has 10 days left in his term.
Biden declared the region a major disaster, triggering the availability of immediate cash assistance at disasterassistance.gov.
Biden said that he was deploying 400 additional federal firefighter, more than 30 firefighting helicopters and planes and eight Defense Department C-130s.
Biden also addressed reports that a water shortage in the area stymied firefighting efforts. He said that utilities “understandably shut off power because they were worried that the lines that carried energy could be blown down and spark additional fires. But when they did that, it cut off the ability to generate pumping water.” He said that Cal Fire was bringing in generators to get the pumps moving again.
“We are with you. We are not going anywhere,” Biden said.
Biden appeared with Kamala Harris, whose home is in Los Angeles. She canceled a planned overseas trip next week to deal with the fire disaster. She called the scene “apocalyptic.”
“What we are seeing is a situation that is extremely dynamic. It is very much in play, and to some degree unpredictable, because we are literally waiting to see which way the wind blows,” she said.
