Rick Scott enlists Sean Duffy in California wildfire probe

What happened during January’s fires in California? And who is ultimately responsible for the mass destruction?

That’s the question Sen. Rick Scott^[1] continues to pose.

And he’s hoping Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy^[2] can get to the bottom of it.

“After visiting the Palisades recently with media personality Mr. Spencer Pratt, a wildfire victim himself who lost his family’s home and has since been displaced, I witnessed the destruction that the January 2025 wildfires left in their path. I was heartbroken by the wreckage, and I became concerned as people within the Palisades community shared their perspective on how much Los Angeles and California have mismanaged funds that were supposed to be directed to preventing and responding to these wildfires,” Scott wrote Duffy.

Scott believes “California, in general, and Los Angeles, in particular, have received seemingly endless flows of federal funds from the DOT and other federal agencies for wildfire management, repression, and response.”

“Yet these funds do not appear to have been used wisely,” he adds. “This has led many to conclude that California’s trouble with wildfire mitigation is not due to a lack of funding, but rather years of the state’s foot-dragging and red tape.”

The Senator seeks an “update on the funding that has been allocated to California in the past ten years, starting on September 1, 2015.”

And he wants all the details Duffy can provide.

“In particular, how much money has the DOT given to California for wildfire response, prevention, and recovery? How many DOT personnel have been employed or deployed to respond to wildland fires on California state property? Are there any federal or California laws, rules, or regulations that hinder the DOT’s ability to adequately respond to wildfires or recover from wildfires? Additionally, how much money did California receive from the DOT in response to the Palisades wildfires and other California wildfires that occurred in 2025?”

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