Washington, D.C. (February 6, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, led Subcommittee Democrats in debunking reckless misinformation surrounding the deadly fires in Southern California and calling on Republicans to stop playing politics with disaster response.
“While tens of thousands of Californians are still reeling from the fires that forced them to evacuate and that destroyed their homes and their livelihoods, Republicans are exploiting this crisis with a hearing that does nothing more than provide a sad excuse to further their long-held goal of dismantling the regulations that keep us safe,” said Ranking Member Nadler in his opening statement.
The hearing included testimony from: Frank Frievalt, Retired Fire Chief, Mammoth Lakes Fire Department; Steve Hilton, Founder, Golden Together; Steve Greenhut, Resident Senior Fellow, and Western Region Director of State Affairs, R Street Institute; and Edward Ring, Director of Water and Energy Policy, California Policy Center.
Judiciary Democrats made clear that misinformation about the fires and response efforts causes real harm to Californians.
- Rep. Eric Swalwell said: “My colleagues […] walked Altadena last week together. We heard the fire chief say these were 80 mile per hour winds. He said it would have taken every fire engine in California to stop the devastation that occurred […] So I just asked my colleagues, let’s work together on this. Let’s be in the solutions business. Don’t use DEI as an alibi. Because when the president blames DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] on an air disaster, and blames DEI on a fire disaster, what that tells me is DEI to you stands for ‘Didn’t Even Investigate.’ That’s what it means to fire victims in California as well.”
- Rep. Becca Balint said: “I want to remind everyone that while the fire raged through Main Street and Palisades, Elon Musk said that ‘DEI means people die,’ in reference to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response. […] It is sickening and they’re literally saying this while people were dying. […] All this talk of DEI is a complete and utter distraction from the fact that we need a plan, an actual plan to help the people of California who lost everything.”
- Rep. Ted Lieu said: “Here are the facts. Southern California’s reservoirs were at near record levels when this fire happened. Didn’t matter, because Donald Trump then ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to release over 2 billion gallons of water that almost flooded farmland, if not for the local water districts that pushed back. But guess what? This water was saved for the farmers for the summer season when they needed the water. And so, the president wasted all this water that isn’t even reaching Southern California, it’s going to evaporate for a PR stunt.”
- Rep. Chuy Garcia asked retired fire chief Frank Frievalt if “DEI” is making firefighters less safe—an outlandish lie which Frievalt refuted. Rep. Garcia continued, “Contrary to Elon Musk’s claims, the LA firefighters did not prioritize DEI over saving lives, that is a lie and it is a slap in the face to dedicated professionals and volunteers across the country who undergo rigorous training and risk their lives to save others.”
- Refuting Republican misinformation, Rep. Zoe Lofgren said: “I do think it’s important that we have the facts in front of us. For example, under the state’s leadership, the number of Cal Fire personnel nearly doubled from 2019 to the present, the state has now invested $2 billion in managing and reducing fuel load in forests, and in fact, the prescribed fire activity is more than doubled from 2021 to 2023.”
Judiciary Democrats emphasized that disaster aid, response and recovery efforts should not be politicized.
- Rep. Ted Lieu said: “None of the firefighters said it was about overregulation or homeless people or the delta smelt fish or the timber harvest or voter ID laws. So shame on anyone who is exploiting the pain and suffering of disaster victims to jam through partisan ideological policies. We should get disaster aid to these disaster victims now without conditions, just like we treat every other disaster victim across America. We just gave aid this past December to South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma. Did the Democrats say, hey, we want you to do better on climate change policies in your state? No, we just gave that aid because these are Americans who are suffering. So do not exploit them.”
- Rep. Lou Correa said: “All of us here have voted for aid for other states when they needed it. And we do learn from every disaster in California. Right now, California has dedicated billions of dollars, nearly doubling the amount we spent in 2019 to address the causes of forest fires. And Cal Fire and others have worked on over a million acres to reduce these activities that would lead to fires.”
- Ranking Member Nadler said: “Natural disasters tragically affect millions of Americans across the country each year. As FEMA’s website explains, its purpose is ‘to help people before, during, and after disasters.’ To help people. All people. It is not there to help just the Republicans or just the Democrats, or to promote partisan objectives. It has always been, and should always remain, strictly neutral in its work.”
