Trump Executive Order Seeks To Bypass Local Permitting Process For LA Fire Rebuilding

A Tuesday executive order from President Donald Trump takes aim at the “abject failure to rebuild” in areas affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

State and local governments have not processed permits quickly enough and have slowed down the forward progress of fire-stricken residents who want to rebuild, according to the executive order. 

Owners of impacted homes and businesses have had to “navigate overly burdensome, confusing, and inconsistent permitting requirements, duplicative permitting reviews, procedural bottlenecks, and administrative delays at the city, county, and State levels,” according to the order. 

The order called for the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to preempt state and local permitting authorities. Residents using federal emergency funds to rebuild would self-certify to federal officials that they complied with local standards, according to the order. It is likely to be challenged by state and local officials, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The county of Los Angeles, which approves permits for Altadena residents, already has a self-certification process to expedite rebuilding and has streamlined approvals for modular, factory-built homes and those rebuilding with preapproved plans, County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a Tuesday statement responding to the executive order.

Barger said she welcomes any effort to responsibly accelerate rebuilding but acknowledged the significant role of insurance providers in the process. 

“The most urgent need in the Altadena region is financially driven,” Barger said. “Families lack the capital to kick start or continue their rebuilding plans. Our County will soon face a mass sheltering crisis as survivors’ insurance and emergency relief funds run out.” 

The city and county of Los Angeles have issued roughly 3,000 permits combined for rebuilding, the LA Times reported. In December, a review by the newspaper found that the permitting in Altadena and Pacific Palisades was moving at a “moderate rate” compared to the processes that followed other major California fires. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back on the executive order, saying in a post on X that permitting for rebuilding is actually twice as fast as permitting before the fires in the city of Los Angeles alone.

Newsom called on the federal government to release funding for the rebuilding process. 

“Please actually help us. We are begging you,” Newsom wrote.

The governor asked for $40B in additional funding to aid the recovery process in February 2025, but California has yet to receive it.

The federal government paid the bill for the debris-clearing process, overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, which was completed in record time. It has also given more than $3B in assistance to homeowners and small-business loans, the LA Times reported. 

Maryam Zar, a Palisades resident who leads the Palisades Recovery Coalition, told the LA Times it was fair for Trump to describe the recovery pace as slow and unacceptable but also agreed that money seemed to be playing the biggest role in that.

“When I talk to people it seems to have more to do with their insurance payout or whether they have enough money to complete construction,” Zar said.