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Ron Johnson: “California is requesting $33 billion of after action support…”

Featuring: Ron Johnson, Republican | U.S. Senate, Wisconsin

JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire

Published January 28, 2026 | Video Starts at 43:56

Thank you. Thanks Mr. Chairman. So before I turn to Senator Scott, let's make something clear. The reason California is requesting $33 billion of after action support because of the utter incompetence and failure of Los Angeles and California elected officials. Let's be clear about that. This is $33 billion that should not be needed. Ms. Hawkins, I want to quick ask you a question because again it seems like it's all about federal funding. (43:56–44:09)

CLAIM

Asserts that California's request for $33 billion is due to local government failures.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ron Johnson

“Prior to 1800, on average, California had 4.5 million acres of land burned annually.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 00:29-00:39
“By the end of the 20th century, prior to the year 2000, by proper land management, they had reduced that to, on average, about 250,000…”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 00:41-00:52
“In 2020, California saw 4.3 million acres burn again.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 01:00-01:05
“We're almost $39 trillion in debt.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 45:11-45:14
“California spent close to $14 billion on a high-speed rail system which will probably never be completed.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:01:13-1:01:21
“Between the years 2019, 2023, average, 1.5 million acres didn't have to happen.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 01:05-01:13
“We've gotten, according to staff, 234,000 pages of documents.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 02:51-02:57
“We're going to be asked to probably spend billions that never should have been required to be spent had the state and local officials done…”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 29:40-29:51
“California prior to the 1800s, on average, burning about 4.5 million acres had reduced that 250,000 acres by the year 2000. Now it's back up…”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 29:54-30:10
“In Palisades, there were two reservoirs. They were both empty.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 31:40-31:44
“They had another reservoir that could have been available that also was empty.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 32:01-32:05
“To my knowledge, it's been named, obviously.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 33:43-33:45
“After action reports were doctored.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 35:21-35:24
“Information that wasn't particularly flattering for political leaders was pulled out [from reports].”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 35:25-35:33
“If you don't have an honest after action report, the failures will continue and there will be more disasters.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 36:08-36:15
“Most local fire departments and local police departments are funded by local resources and state resources, mostly local.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 44:51-45:00
“The federal government is bankrupt.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 45:14-45:16
“The federal government really comes in [after disasters] and does provide funding after the fact.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 45:25-45:29
“The American taxpayer is going to be, you know, I'm supposed to join in a request for $33 billion because California leadership utterly…”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 45:35-45:44
“You should be doing [a full mop up of the incident].”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 55:10-55:11
“That's correct.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 55:15-55:17
“They spend billions on illegal immigrants offering themselves as a sanctuary state, sanctuary city.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:01:20-1:01:27
“We were told the trucks were all down the beach.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:02:26-1:02:29
“Had they had fire trucks pre-positioned and water available, so much of the destruction could have been prevented.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:02:36-1:02:48
“You can't cure incompetence with money unless you remove the incompetence.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:32:00-1:32:05
“This investigation is to expose what happened, name names, identify the incompetence so it doesn't happen again.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:32:16-1:32:28
“It's not being undertaken by California and Los Angeles officials. It's simply not. It's a whitewash.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:33:02-1:33:09
“We need to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent this disaster, this preventable disaster from happening again.”
JUST IN: Ron Johnson Leads Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing On The Palisades Fire | Uploaded January 28, 2026 | 1:33:16-1:33:24