‘What does DEI have to do with clearing brush?’: Gee, Ursula blast holdup of $15M in Spokane wildfire funds

Fifteen million dollars in federal wildfire-prevention funding for the Spokane area was held up for months after the Trump administration attached new rules involving immigration enforcement and diversity policies to the grants.

Last September, the money was approved for projects like thinning forests, clearing dead brush and helping homeowners reduce fire risk. Washington refused to comply with the new rules, stating they conflict with state law, and joined other states in suing. A federal judge blocked the policy in June, and the grants were signed in July, but Spokane-area agencies said they still have not received the money.

KIRO host Ursula Reutin laid out the timeline on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio and questioned the logic of tying wildfire prevention to unrelated policy demands.

“My question is, what does DEI have to do with clearing brush or thinning forests?” Ursula said. “And just a reminder that prevention only works if you actually do it before the emergency. This is exactly why so many people have lost faith in government.”

Gee warns the problem extends far beyond Spokane wildfire grants

KIRO host Gee Scott said the holdup is part of a much larger pattern he has seen firsthand working with local nonprofits.

“In working with a lot of nonprofits, I have spent the last year and a half-ish talking about this right here, where DEI is attached to some of this, and so now they have to go back and they have to take this out, they have to change that, they have to resubmit that, and even when they do those things, that money might not be coming to you because it’s also earmarked with, ‘Well, we don’t like what that’s being said,'” Gee said.

“Whether you love DEI, you hate DEI, I just want to remind you, there are amazing organizations throughout the country that have had the letters DEI be the reason why they have not gotten funds,” he continued. “There’s going to be someone listening right now, and you know that I’m telling the truth about a lot of nonprofits here locally have had money taken away from them because of the way their grants are written.”

There is no way to tell if the money would have prevented the fires burning in the Spokane area, and much of the prevention work would only be getting started. But Spokane fire officials said clearing fuels can slow a fire, make it less intense, and give firefighters a better chance at containment.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.