When the federal government started a wildfire that burned 432 homes in New Mexico back in May, President Joe Biden promised that the U.S. government would be footing the bill.
“Today, I’m announcing the federal government’s covering 100 percent of the cost,” Biden said during a June 11 speech at the New Mexico State Regional Training Installation Facility
in Santa Fe.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case, according to Reuters.
I can honestly say I am not surprised by the switch either.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is telling victims that they need to share the cost of the fire because Biden’s declaration didn’t waive a federal statute requiring cost-sharing.
According to The Associated Press, the wildfire — the largest in the state’s history — resulted from two controlled burns by the U.S. Forest Service in regions known as Calf’s Canyon and Hermit’s Peak.
During his remarks in Santa Fe, Biden made it clear there was a bit of an asterisk to the promise that the federal government would bear 100 percent of the cost.
A White House transcript shows that Biden noted, we have a responsibility, as a government, as a — to deal with the communities who are put in — in such jeopardy” and vowed that the federal government would cover “100 percent of the cost of debris removal and emergency protective measures for the next critical months.”
However, he added that the funding was intended to “be a strong bridge until we — that we pass the — the Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act.”
If that law passes, it could provide total federal compensation — although not in the near term, given that the legislation isn’t likely to be voted on until the fall. Thus, for the moment, many of the fire victims now have to pay for the damage the federal government caused.
After starting New Mexico fire, U.S. asks victims to pay https://t.co/QmdSQo8Dhc pic.twitter.com/s8GBXxXDHf
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 31, 2022
Biden made a promise. Yet his administration has been more concerned with getting its mega-spending bills through Congress than delivering for these ranchers.
“It’s not a gift,” the president said in June. “We have a responsibility to help this state recover, to help the families who have been here for centuries, and the beautiful northern New Mexico villages who can’t go home and whose livelihoods have been fundamentally changed.”
If this really is his administration’s responsibility, he needs to start acting that way.
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