Padilla calls for common sense bipartisanship to tackle disasters, mental health crisis

Key Takeaways

A common-sense approach is needed across all levels of government, political parties and geographic regions to address America’s “real and urgent” mental health crisis and its increasingly deadly disasters, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) told members March 4, in a conversation with fellow Californian, NACo President James Gore, at a Legislative Conference General Session.

Padilla said when he worked for former U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein in the 1990s, he traveled to multiple counties with James Lee Witt, the FEMA director at the time, to meet with local leaders and coordinate support. With wildfires increasingly becoming more extreme and frequent, that type of collaboration across agencies and all levels of government is more key than ever, Padilla said.

“Fires have only gotten worse,” Padilla noted. “They’ve only gotten bigger, they’ve only gotten more frequent — not just in California, but especially in California. So, we had a roundtable in Sonoma County, where we pulled representatives from seven counties together — fire chiefs, supervisors, other emergency personnel — with common-sense questions, ‘What’s worked? What hasn’t worked? What can we do better?’”

Out of those conversations came a number of ideas that evolved into the FIRE Act, which strengthened FEMA wildfire preparedness and response efforts, and was the first standalone bill of Padilla’s signed into law. 

“It can still happen, bipartisan support for common-sense things going forward,” Padilla said. “Like, better pay and a full-time federal firefighting workforce — we need more of them, not less. We shouldn’t be laying them off or asking them to resign. We need to hire and train more now, so that we’re better prepared for the summer months.”

Padilla’s background as an engineer and city councilman shaped his “common sense” approach to public service, he said. 

“Engineers are trained to solve problems, isn't that what policymakers are supposed to do?” Padilla said. “I know that’s why we’re all in this business, to solve problems and improve people’s lives.

“I was never a county official, but I have the perspective of what local officials deal with, how responsive we have to be for our constituents — there’s no time for messing around, everything we do impacts people’s daily lives.”

Cross-collaboration also leads to more innovative solutions, Padilla said. There is extensive wildfire expertise across different departments and agencies — all of that could be integrated into a wildfire continuum of knowledge, like the National Weather Service, to maximize preparedness, he said. 

A lot of data and technology, including imaging and modeling, are underused when it could be leveraged to create a more informed and strategic approach to anticipating and responding to fires, he added.