President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order designed to speed up the reconstruction of properties in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon areas of Los Angeles County that were destroyed in last year’s wildfires.
The executive order, which was signed on Jan. 23 but only announced today, directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to issue regulations that preempt state and local procedural permitting requirements and enable builders to self-certify to a federal agency designee that they are in compliance with state and local substantive health, safety, and building standards.
FEMA and SBA are directed to expedite waivers, permits, and approvals that may be required from the federal government to accommodate new construction. FEMA is also directed to audit California’s nearly $3 billion in unspent Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds to determine if they were awarded arbitrarily or contrary to law.
In issuing the order, the White House observed that less than 10 homes have been rebuilt in the year since the wildfires destroyed an estimated 16,000 structures. To date, only 2,600 rebuilding permits were issued by the Los Angeles city and county governments.
“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” Trump told the California Post.
Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, called the president “an old clueless idiot who believes that the state and federal governments can issue local rebuilding permits and LA gets its water from the Pacific Northwest.”
Gallegos added, “He should keep LA out of his mouth unless he is planning to grant them the federal disaster funding they need.”
