On Wednesday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press Now,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) stated that while he doesn’t think there should be any conditions on disaster relief for California in the wake of the recent fires in the state, he does support the federal legislation on forest management that House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) has touted and believes the bill will hopefully lead to improvements in forest management and underbrush clearing that would “prevent fires that we’ve seen in the past in California and across the West.”
Bera said, “I’ll vote for the Fix Our Forests Act. I did last time. I’m a co-sponsor of it. It would not have prevented this fire, but it will, hopefully, help us manage forests a little bit better, clear underbrush, and prevent fires that we’ve seen in the past in California and across the West.”
He continued, “But that shouldn’t be a condition of aid. As a country, we should come together when we see fellow citizens being challenged and help them.”
Bera also said that conditions weren’t attached to other states that needed disaster aid and he’d be opposed to tying disaster relief to an increase in the debt ceiling.
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