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Palisades residents ask Republican senators for more federal intervention in fire recovery
Rick Scott, senator from Florida, left, and Ron Johnson, senator from Wisconsin, during a congressional hearing on the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades.
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Topline:
Two Republican senators traveled to the Pacific Palisades on Thursday to hear from residents affected by the January fire, some of whom advocated for more federal intervention.
The backstory: Florida's Rick Scott and Wisconsin's Ron Johnson say they launched an investigative subcommittee to uncover what went wrong from the community's perspective. The senators have requested records from the L.A. City Council president's office concerning the recent wildfires, as well as documents referencing DEI from the Fire Department and Department of Water and Power. L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez referred to the Senate investigation as a "witch hunt."
Local reaction: "We've been forced to lead our own recovery because the city won't," Jessica Rogers, president of Pacific Palisades Resident Association, said at the hearing. "Based on my experience with local government on the day of the fire and since the fire, we need federal intervention."
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Go deeper: An LAist analysis of FEMA data from this summer found that the amount of federal aid for the L.A. fires in January has lagged behind other disasters.
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