Jared Huffman: “I have spent a lot of time with my friend, Congressman Mike Thompson, over the past week because our districts neighbor…”

“I have spent a lot of time with my friend, Congressman Mike Thompson, over the past week because our districts neighbor each other. While the worst of this fire was in Congressman Thompson's district, portions of that terrible Santa Rosa fire spilled over to affect my constituents, and I had a separate fire in Mendocino County, the Redwood Complex, that itself would have ranked among the top 20 wildfires in California history. The fact that all of these fires happened together is truly an unprecedented and a dreadful crisis. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson. He has been everywhere in the region. I thank our local government partners, and I thank our colleagues, Minority Leader Pelosi, and Majority Leader McCarthy. The support has been bipartisan and it has been nationwide. FEMA has been on the ground along with first responders doing heroic work to get the recovery and the rebuilding process started. We are grateful for all of that, but we are only at the beginning. If you want to see your government doing good work, go to the local assistance center in Santa Rosa or in Ukiah and watch how the wraparound services are there. Every need that these fire victims, these devastated families, can imagine is there to be met. But we are at the beginning, and we are going to need that support over a long- sustained period. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for standing with us at this early stage of dealing with this crisis. We are going to need them over the long haul.…”