GOP Sens. Cory Gardner
Cory GardnerBiden administration reverses Trump changes it says 'undermined' conservation program Gardner to lead new GOP super PAC ahead of midterms OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Court rules against fast-track of Trump EPA's 'secret science' rule | Bureau of Land Management exodus: Agency lost 87 percent of staff in Trump HQ relocation | GM commits to electric light duty fleet by 2035 MORE (Colo.) and Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin GrahamTanden withdraws nomination as Biden budget chief FBI director faces lawmaker frustration over Capitol breach Juan Williams: Hypocrisy runs riot in GOP MORE (S.C.) pushed back Sunday against President Trump
Donald TrumpSouth Carolina Senate adds firing squad as alternative execution method Ex-Trump aide Pierson won't run for Dallas-area House seat House Oversight panel reissues subpoena for Trump's accounting firm MORE's threat to revoke federal funding if California does not better prevent wildfires.
"I don't think it's appropriate to threaten funding," said Gardner, whose state has also suffered wildfires, on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
"That's not going to happen," he added. "Funding will be available. It always is available to our people wherever they are, whatever disaster they are facing."
"There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor," Trump first wrote on Saturday. "Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests."
"Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!"
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
Graham also opposed the president's remarks on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday.
"We do have a forest management problem all over the country that we need to address but California will receive the money they need," Graham said, adding that "going forward we need to look at some of the underlying causes of these fires."
"And it's just not California," he said. "We need to look at better forest management in federal lands all over the country."
"Now's not the time to talk about cutting off funding," he said. "We're going to help our friends in California. With all due respect, they need help."
.@LindseyGrahamSC talks about the California wildfires: Now is not the time to talk about cutting off money. pic.twitter.com/WMwLNd77en
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 11, 2018
The deadly Camp Fire in California had a death toll of 25 by Saturday.
Gardner said on "Meet the Press" Sunday that the Senate has solved any funding issues for wildfire fighting.
"This year we came up with a strong bipartisan success in fixing the wildfire funding issue that had kind of paralyzed our ability to go out and fight fires and suppress fires and mitigate next year's forest fires," he said. "So one of the great bipartisan accomplishments of this past Congress was actually in the area of forest fires and finding a solution for funding."
