Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Padilla Tells Senate Panel That Altadena Fire Survivors Have Been Left Behind

Senator Alex Padilla [photo credit: Senator Alex Padilla Facebook]

Sen. Alex Padilla told a Senate committee Tuesday that survivors of the Eaton Fire in Altadena have now waited more than 18 months for long-term federal rebuilding money, and that President Trump’s latest funding request to Congress leaves them out entirely.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) told a Senate committee on Tuesday that residents of Altadena, where the Eaton Fire caused widespread devastation 19 months ago, are still waiting for federal long-term recovery funding that the Trump administration has again declined to request.

According to a press release from Padilla’s office, the senator testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, which held a July 21 hearing on President Trump’s supplemental funding request. 

Padilla’s office said the request omitted disaster aid for communities rebuilding after catastrophic natural disasters.

At the hearing, Padilla acknowledged that some fire survivors were present in the audience.

“Walking around the Palisades and the Altadena communities during the fires and after the fires, you couldn’t help but be moved by the scale of the devastation,” Padilla said, according to the transcript released by his office.

In his testimony, Padilla said roughly 60,000 acres burned across Southern California — about three and a half times the size of Manhattan — destroying more than 16,000 structures and killing 31 people, with more than 7,500 firefighters responding over three weeks. (Other official accounts have cited a larger combined burn area of more than 40,000 acres for the two fires.)

Padilla said Congress has historically provided bipartisan disaster aid regardless of party, but that the administration has “left California waiting for more than a year and a half.” He noted the committee passed more than $100 billion in relief on a bipartisan basis as recently as December 2024.

“Californians in Altadena and the Palisades have now waited more than 18 months. Yet, long-term recovery funding is still absent from even the Administration’s request,” Padilla said.

In the source document, Padilla said the administration was instead asking taxpayers to spend “hundreds of billions of dollars more” on the war in Iran. Independent coverage by PBS NewsHour and Agri-Pulse reported Republicans were weighing a roughly $95 billion package, about $67.1 billion of it for the Pentagon; the initial June request was $87.6 billion. Padilla said the war, which the U.S. entered Feb. 28, has cost 17 servicemembers’ lives, with many more seriously injured, and that his office called it a war “that Congress has never authorized.”

“Disasters do not distinguish between red states and blue states,” Padilla said. “And when it comes to disaster aid, neither should Congress.”

Padilla urged relief “without strings attached” and called for emergency suppression funds, citing more than $3.3 billion in federal wildfire spending this fiscal year. He noted the “Fire Fix” mechanism expires in fiscal year 2027.