Washington's Full Delegation Asks Trump to Fast-Track Wildfire Aid

Nearly all of Washington's congressional delegation put politics aside this weekend and signed one letter. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, joined nine of the state's ten House members, Democrats and Republicans alike, in urging President Trump to approve an expedited federal emergency declaration for the wildfires that have torn through Spokane County since Saturday. Governor Bob Ferguson said he has personally spoken with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the request, according to Nonstop Local News. As of Monday afternoon, the White House had not yet signed off, though FEMA has begun moving resources into the state in anticipation that it will.

The politics of the ask matter as much as the fire itself. Washington has been here before, and the last time a small town in this state needed the federal government to move fast on a wildfire disaster declaration, it waited nearly five months. That history is quietly shaping how this request is being made, and by whom.

A Letter Signed by Nine House Members and Both Senators

The letter, dated Monday, was signed by Murray, Cantwell, and Representatives Michael Baumgartner, Adam Smith, Marilyn Strickland, Dan Newhouse, Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Emily Randall, Kim Schrier, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Baumgartner and Newhouse are the delegation's two Republicans; the rest are Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, whose Seattle-based district is farthest from the fire zone, is not listed among the signers in the letter as reported. Getting eleven names on one document, inside a single weekend, is itself a signal of how urgent Olympia considers the request. The letter backs Ferguson's August 2 filing for an expedited emergency declaration and asks specifically for it to cover Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, and Yakima counties, plus the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. "As members of the Washington state delegation, we write in support of Washington state's August 2 request for an expedited Emergency Declaration," the lawmakers wrote, adding that the aid is "critical and will help firefighting crews continue to suppress these persistent wildfires and protect the businesses, farms, schools, healthcare facilities, and residential homes from devastation." The letter closes bluntly: "We implore you to approve the request for assistance as quickly as possible," according to the full letter text published by KHQ. Murray also posted on social media Sunday night that Ferguson had made the formal request and that "all of us are working together to make sure Eastern & Central WA get more help ASAP," a message crafted for an audience of one sitting in the Oval Office.

Ferguson Says He's Already Talked to the President

Ferguson didn't wait for the delegation letter to make his own case directly, and he didn't make it from Olympia. He traveled to Spokane in person on Sunday to see the damage before pressing the federal case, telling reporters at a news conference there, "There are just so many Washingtonians who have literally lost everything," according to NBC Montana. "We know how important those resources are for individuals, for businesses, for communities," he added. In a Facebook post over the weekend, he wrote that he had "made a request for an emergency declaration and direct federal assistance as we fight devastating wildfires in Washington state," and confirmed a follow-up conversation with Trump and Secretary Mullin about it. "We have not received word yet that's been granted," Ferguson wrote as of his post. "However, FEMA is already moving resources into Washington state in anticipation of that potentially being granted." He added, "I appreciate the outreach from the federal government," per KHQ's reporting on his Facebook post. That last line is notably measured for a governor whose state is under a fourth consecutive drought emergency and watching its worst fire season in years. Ferguson has generally avoided confrontational rhetoric toward the administration throughout the response, choosing instead to publicly credit early federal engagement, a posture that reads as a deliberate attempt to keep the request moving rather than turn it into a fight.

Why Washington Isn't Assuming a Fast Yes

The caution behind that measured tone has a name: Malden. In September 2020, the Babb Road fire wiped out roughly 85% of the small Whitman County town, and neighboring Pine City, in minutes, destroying Malden's post office, city hall, and fire station along with most homes. Washington's full delegation at the time, all twelve members including Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, whose district covers Whitman County, wrote to President Trump backing Governor Jay Inslee's request for a major disaster declaration. Trump sat on it for months, even as he approved comparable wildfire declarations for Oregon and California within weeks, amid what The Spokesman-Review later described as an open feud with the Democratic governor. McMorris Rodgers personally appealed to Trump at least twice, writing him directly on Dec. 31, 2020: "People in my district need support, and I implore you to move forward in providing it to those who have been impacted by devastating wildfires." The public assistance declaration did not come until the incoming Biden administration signed it in February 2021, nearly five months after the fire. The individual assistance residents actually needed to rebuild their own homes never came at all: FEMA determined the destruction "was not of such severity and magnitude to warrant the designation," leaving roughly 400 Malden and Pine City residents to rebuild largely through donations, as The Seattle Times documented in its year-later look at the town's recovery. That is the outcome a unanimous, bipartisan, same-week letter is designed to prevent from repeating, and it is why nobody signing this one is waiting to see whether a quieter approach works first.

What an Emergency Declaration Would Actually Unlock

An emergency declaration and a major disaster declaration are not the same tool, and the distinction matters for anyone watching this play out. The emergency declaration Washington is requesting now is the faster, narrower instrument: it authorizes federal support for search-and-rescue operations, debris removal, medical supplies and assistance, temporary sheltering, and emergency power, aimed at getting immediate danger under control. A major disaster declaration, the kind Malden eventually received, is the slower, broader tool that unlocks individual assistance checks, small-business loans, and long-term public infrastructure repair funds. Washington's current ask is only the first step, not the one that determines whether homeowners in Spokane County who lost everything get direct federal recovery money. That request, if it comes, would follow later, once damage assessments are further along, and it is the one with a Malden-length track record. For now, the immediate need is visible at the Spokane Convention Center, the only Red Cross shelter still operating after a planned second site at Spokane Falls Community College lost power and had to be scrapped. Roughly 406 people spent the first night there among cots, food lines, and pet kennels, The Spokesman-Review reported, a fraction of the tens of thousands displaced who are otherwise staying with relatives, in hotels, or in their vehicles. "It really is that bad," evacuee Taylor Hansen told the paper. "The fire acted like a tornado, basically, the way it just jumped houses." That is the exact population an emergency declaration's temporary-sheltering funds are meant to reach, which is precisely why the delegation wants it approved before this weekend is another news cycle old.

The National Guard Is Already Flying

Washington didn't wait on Washington, D.C. for this part. Governor Ferguson activated roughly 100 National Guard members Friday, joining 27 helicopter crew members already deployed earlier in the fire season, the first such statewide activation since 2021, according to DVIDS. Soldiers and Airmen staged out of Plain Base Camp before deploying, handling everything from traffic control to direct fire support. In the air, Washington Army National Guard aviation crews have flown two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and a CH-47 Chinook out of Deer Park, dropping 1,089 buckets of water, totaling 923,856 gallons, across 137 flight hours as of the most recent tally. It is playing out on ground already marked by this fire: The Spokesman-Review reported Monday that Riverside State Park, on Spokane's northwest edge, remained an active fire scene with hotspots still smoking, its Bowl and Pitcher trails scorched and the Aubrey White Parkway lined with fallen, burned trees, even as park staff insisted, "We will get there." Those numbers describe a state agency already running at wartime tempo while its federal request sits unanswered, which is its own kind of argument: Washington is demonstrating it can mobilize fast on its own resources, making the case that federal resources, once approved, would be added to an operation already moving rather than a state waiting to start. None of it substitutes for the federal money the delegation is asking for, but it buys the state credibility in Washington, D.C., that a slower-moving response would not.

A Fourth Straight Drought Year, and a Budget Bet Being Tested

The conditions behind this fire season were visible months before the first spark. Washington entered 2026 in its fourth consecutive statewide drought emergency, the state's Department of Ecology confirming in April that mountain snowpack had fallen to about half its usual level, the fourth-lowest in 40 years, despite what Deputy State Climatologist Karin Bumbaco called "basically normal" precipitation statewide, because so much of it fell as rain instead of snow through an unusually warm winter. On August 1, the National Weather Service issued Washington's first-ever "particularly dangerous situation" red flag warning, a designation reserved for the most extreme fire-weather conditions the agency tracks, as The Spokesman-Review reported. Anticipating a rough season, state lawmakers restored $60 million in Department of Natural Resources wildfire prevention and preparedness funding in this year's supplemental budget, reversing a cut made in 2025, according to Apple Valley News Now. "Wildfire touches everyone in Washington," DNR Commissioner Dave Upthegrove said of the restoration. "I commend legislators for recognizing that and, even in a difficult budget year, finding ways to make sure we're prepared for wildfires when they start and can help prevent them before they even do." That restored funding is now facing its first real test, with more than 1,000 wildfires having burned an estimated 425,000 acres statewide in 2026, according to KOMO News. Ferguson's statewide burn ban, in effect through September 30, bars yard-debris burning, trash burning, land clearing, and bonfires, though it still permits campfires in approved rings and gas or propane grills used away from vegetation. None of it changes what happens in Washington, D.C. this week, but it explains why the state's own numbers are already stretched thin even as it waits.