Several Pacific Palisades residents provided testimony on Thursday, Nov. 13, during a congressional hearing about the January wildfire that devastated their community, sharing perspectives about the response from state and local governments and what should be done moving forward to help with recovery efforts.

The hearing was led by two Republican U.S. senators – Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. No Democratic lawmaker participated in the hearing.

Scott, who chairs the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Johnson, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations, had announced in September that they would launch an investigation into the Palisades fire.

Thursday’s hearing, at the American Legion building in Pacific Palisades, was billed as an opportunity to “uncover what went wrong from the community’s perspective, identify opportunities for reform, and ensure that no community is left behind in future disaster preparation or recovery efforts,” according to a media advisory ahead of the event – although Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office derided it as an attempt by the two senators to score “cheap points” and promote themselves.

During the hearing, Scott called the fire “an unacceptable failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.”

“Over the years, billions upon billions of federal tax dollars — taxpayer dollars — have been directed to California to support fire management and disaster mitigation efforts. Yet, on the day of the Pacific Palisades fire, reservoirs were empty, fire hydrants went dry and innocent people, including many vulnerable seniors, perished while thousands more lost their homes, businesses and everything they owned,” Scott said.

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who is suing the city of Los Angeles after he and his wife lost their Pacific Palisades home in the fire, spoke before a panel of witnesses shared their own experiences.

Pratt criticized the slow pace of recovery and called the rebuilding process “an absolute nightmare,” from delays in obtaining building permits to questions about soil toxicity. Referencing the community of Paradise, which is still rebuilding seven years after the Camp fire, he said “it’s hard to see that and believe our town will ever be rebuilt in our lifetime.”

“It’s hard not to feel abandoned by our state and local politicians, and it’s hard to not lose hope,” he added.

Newsom’s office, in an emailed statement after the hearing, said: “Our hearts go out to the victims of the Palisades fire, as well as the victims of the nearby Altadena fire. Unfortunately, Senators Scott and Johnson chose to use this forum to spew misinformation and promote themselves, which provides no benefit to the Palisades community, or to the Altadena communities the senators seem to have completely forgotten about.”

No representative from Altadena, where the Eaton fire also destroyed thousands of homes, was part of Thursday’s line-up of speakers. It was not immediately clear whether Scott or Johnson, or their staff, had invited anyone from the San Gabriel Valley to participate in the hearing.

Newsom’s office said that the state has repeatedly requested additional FEMA funding from the federal government but claimed the funding “is being blocked by the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans” (a reference to Trump allies).

“The governor’s request for additional funding is sitting on (House) Speaker (Mike) Johnson’s desk ready to be acted on – now that the government is reopened, perhaps this could be a Republican priority,” Newsom’s office stated.

The governor’s office also dismissed as false any claims that prescribed burns aren’t occurring and said that President Donald Trump made cuts to the U.S. Forest Service that provides critical wildfire prevention efforts earlier this year.

During Thursday’s hearing, Johnson said the purpose of gathering testimony was to highlight residents’ stories, identify ways to prevent future disasters and to help the Palisades community rebuild – but to do so responsibly. The question, he said, is whether American taxpayers should spend billions of dollars to help in this recovery effort.

“I certainly don’t trust the elected officials in California, Los Angeles, to use that money wisely. So we’re going to have to have controls over that,” said the senator from Wisconsin. He added that Congress should insist that California leaders implement strategies such as control burns to prevent future widespread fires.

David Schwarz, who chairs the Pacific Palisades Community Council Rebuilding Committee but was speaking only for himself during the hearing, agreed that the federal government should insist on certain conditions before sending money to Los Angeles.

He said Congress should insist that Newsom create an independent Palisades Reconstruction Authority, much like the governor of New York did after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to oversee rebuilding efforts, and to grant that authority certain powers to expedite rebuilding, such as cutting through bureaucratic permitting requirements or perhaps waiving wage regulations for contractors.

Schwarz also spoke of the need to invest in “fire resilience improvements,” such as locating utilities underground, as part of the rebuilding effort.

Other Palisades residents who testified said they received evacuation notices too late on Jan. 7, the day the fires broke out, and criticized local governments for their disaster preparedness and response – or lack thereof.

Citing empty water reservoirs to fight the fires and non-working fire hydrants, among other issues, some residents also blamed the Palisades fire on the city of L.A.’s “diversity, equity and inclusion” hiring practices, suggesting that “unqualified” people were hired to oversee city infrastructure.

Longtime resident Bruce Schwartz, who said he was once named the community’s honorary fire chief, pointed to the Jan. 1 Lachman fire in the Palisades, which was thought to have been extinguished but wasn’t. Instead, the flames reignited six days later, leading to the catastrophic Palisades fire.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, a former resident of the Palisades, has been charged in connection with the Lachman fire, which investigators believe was intentionally set.

The reignition of that fire on Jan. 7 resulted in the most destructive wildfire in the city’s history. The Palisades fire raged on for 25 days, destroying more than 23,000 acres, killing 12 and burning about 6,800 structures in Pacific Palisades and in Malibu, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Schwartz blamed the person responsible for the firefighting crew that responded to the Lachman fire for not making sure that the initial fire was fully extinguished.

“When you have unqualified people appointed to positions of authority that don’t have the experience or (is) unqualified, this is what can happen,” Schwartz said.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez previously blasted a suggestion that the DEI hiring practices may be to blame for the fires when Scott and Johnson requested information from the city.

“DEI did not cause the fires, and these senators should take their witch hunts elsewhere,” Soto-Martinez said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department, whose spokesperson was away at a work conference, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office, when asked, also did not respond specifically to the comments regarding the city’s DEI hiring practices.

However, her office said in a statement that neither of the two U.S. senators who led Thursday’s hearing reached out to the mayor to discuss how they might work together.

“Mayor Bass worked in Congress for more than a decade with colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” her office said. “She will work with anyone, no matter their party, to support the Palisades community, and she remains laser-focused on expediting the rebuilding of homes, businesses and community spaces to get families home – not on political theater.”

As Thursday’s hearing was taking place, the mayor’s office also announced that the first set of applications to expedite the rebuilding of single-family homes in the Palisades, under a new pilot program, had been approved.