Sen. Rounds: Tying debt restrict to California help ‘not meant as a penalty’

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) stated on Monday that tying the debt restrict to California help for the current lethal wildfires it has confronted is “not meant as a penalty.”

“I think it will have to be, because we simply can’t provide the assistance unless we have the ability to borrow the money to do so,” Rounds replied.

Rounds later added that “the secretary of the Treasury has already advised us that we are using extraordinary means in order to pay our bills, until such time as we increase the debt limit again.”

“It’s not meant as a penalty, or it’s not meant to slow down the delivery,” Rounds stated, speaking in regards to the fireplace help and debt restrict connection. “It simply means that we’ll have to expedite the discussion about the debt ceiling.”

The current Los Angeles-area fires have devastated the area, destroying property en masse and leaving a dying toll within the double digits of their wake.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) floated on Monday, tying a debt restrict improve to catastrophe help for the state.

“There’s some discussion about that, but we’ll see where it goes,” Johnson informed reporters when requested about debt restrict laws being a ridealong to a possible catastrophe help bundle. 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) additionally on Monday stated that California doesn’t “deserve” funding after wildfires except they “make some changes.”

“And it … you know, I don’t mind sending them some money. But unless they show that they’re [going to] change their ways and get back to building dams and storing water, doing the — the maintenance with the brush and the trees and everything that everybody else does in the country, and they refuse to do it, they don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they’re [going to] make some changes,” he added.

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