{"id":12172,"date":"2026-04-23T04:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/23\/bass-barger-meets-with-trump-to-push-for-l-a-fire-recovery-funds-los-angeles-times\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:28:20","slug":"bass-barger-meets-with-trump-to-push-for-l-a-fire-recovery-funds-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/23\/bass-barger-meets-with-trump-to-push-for-l-a-fire-recovery-funds-los-angeles-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Bass, Barger meets with Trump to push for L.A. fire recovery funds – Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met privately with President Trump and administration officials Wednesday to press for federal support and yet-unpaid wildfire recovery funding as the region continues to rebuild from the 2025 fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis afternoon we met with President Trump and Administration officials to advocate for families who lost everything,\u201d Bass and Barger said in a statement. \u201cWe had a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe \u2014 and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on L.A. families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barger said the two leaders had a \u201chigh-level discussion\u201d with the president in the Oval Office, sharing stories about what fire survivors are experiencing day to day. She added that \u201cwe left details behind with the President,\u201d but did not specify whether Trump made any funding or policy promises during the meeting. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, today\u2019s meeting was to thank the President for his initial support of infusing federal resources to expedite debris removal, as well as his recent tweet about insurance companies, which have already proven fruitful,\u201d she said in a statement provided to The Times. <\/p>\n

Bass was similarly reserved about the discussions, telling reporters that \u201cwe will follow up with the details,\u201d but signaled progress is being made on federal support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s important is that we certainly got the president\u2019s support in terms of, you know, what is needed, and then the appropriate people were in the room for us to follow up. And that was Russ Vought, who is the head of the Office of Management and budget,\u201d Bass told KNX on Wednesday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The meeting comes on the heels of a yearlong standoff between California leaders and the Trump administration over wildfire recovery funding, disaster response and whether the federal government should have a say in local rebuilding permitting.<\/p>\n

California leaders, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, have accused the Trump administration of withholding billions in critical wildfire aid, prompting a lawsuit over stalled recovery funds. Officials allege political bias in the delay of billions of dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. <\/p>\n

Newsom visited Washington in December. When he made his rounds on Capitol Hill, he met with five lawmakers, including three who serve on the Senate and House appropriations committees, to renew calls for $33.9 billion in federal aid for Los Angeles County fire recovery.<\/p>\n

But the governor said he was denied a meeting with FEMA<\/a> and would not say whether he had attempted to meet with Trump to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

Bass, meanwhile, appears to have found a path to the president on a subject that has been paramount for her community.<\/p>\n

The fruitful meeting comes after Trump lobbed insults at the mayor at a news conference earlier this year, where he called her \u201cincompetent\u201d for how she handled last year\u2019s wildfire recovery efforts. He alleged that under Bass\u2019 leadership, the city\u2019s delay in issuing local building permits will take years when it should have taken \u201ctwo or three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

California officials, including Newsom, have urged the Trump administration to send Congress a formal request for the $33.9 billion in recovery aid needed to rebuild homes, schools, utilities and other critical infrastructure destroyed or damaged when the fires tore through neighborhoods more than 15 months ago.<\/p>\n

What Bass and Barger\u2019s meeting with the president ultimately produces remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

The billions in recovery aid have not yet materialized, but the meeting could potentially give those discussions new momentum.<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment about the meeting.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Trump criticized insurance provider State Farm on Truth Social for its handling of the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires. He accused the insurance giant<\/a> of abandoning its policyholders when tragedy struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was brought to my attention that the Insurance Companies, in particular, State Farm, have been absolutely horrible to people that have been paying them large Premiums for years, only to find that when tragedy struck, these horrendous Companies were not there to help!\u201d Trump wrote.<\/a> <\/p>\n

But the rebuke didn\u2019t come out of the blue. It stemmed from a controversial February visit to Los Angeles by Trump administration officials. <\/p>\n

Trump tapped Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in an effort to strip California state and local governments of their authority to permit the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires.<\/p>\n

Within the week, Zeldin was in Los Angeles, bashing Newsom and Los Angeles officials at a roundtable with fire victims<\/a> and reporters, saying that residents were suffering from \u201cbureaucratic, red tape delays and incompetency\u201d and that leadership was \u201cdenying them … the ability to rebuild their lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

During the trip, officials heard direct complaints from local leaders and fire victims about insurers being slow, restrictive and insufficient<\/a> with their claim payouts. <\/p>\n

After these meetings, Trump directed Zeldin to investigate the insurers\u2019 responses. State Farm, facing roughly $7 billion in fire-related claims, is also under formal investigation by California\u2019s insurance commissioner over its handling of the crisis.<\/p>\n

Despite tensions with the administration, Bass and Barger appeared confident that progress was being made on the insurance and funding issues. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to fight for our communities,\u201d their joint statement concluded. \u201cWhen it comes to this recovery, our federal partners are essential, and we are grateful for the support of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More to Read <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met privately with President Trump and administration officials Wednesday to press for federal support and yet-unpaid wildfire recovery funding as the region continues to rebuild from the 2025 fires. \u201cThis afternoon we met with President Trump and Administration officials to advocate for families who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}