Governor Jared Polis and Full Colorado Congressional Delegation Urge President Trump to Approve Wildfire Disaster Declaration

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado's entire bipartisan congressional delegation joined Governor Jared Polis in sending a unified formal petition to President Donald Trump, urging the executive branch to immediately approve a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration to aid communities devastated by recent explosive wildfires across the state.

The high-level federal appeal, co-led by Representative Jeff Crank alongside U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, supports a formal disaster request submitted by Governor Polis under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The petition addresses catastrophic damage wrought by the Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain blazes, as well as destructive summer fire complexes along the Front Range that incinerated scores of single-family residences, overwhelmed local volunteer fire districts, and severely compromised municipal watersheds supplying drinking water to regional communities.

Approval of a Major Disaster Declaration would authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to activate its Individual Assistance (IA) programs, providing direct financial grants to uninsured and underinsured homeowners for temporary housing, essential structural repairs, and personal property replacement. Additionally, the declaration would unlock FEMA Public Assistance (PA), reimbursing municipal and county governments at a 75 percent federal cost-share for emergency response operations, hazardous debris clearance, and permanent repairs to damaged roads, bridges, and public utility facilities.

Governor Polis emphasized that the severity and concurrent timing of the wildfires exhausted local emergency contingency funds in El Paso, Teller, and surrounding counties within days. In their joint letter to the White House, lawmakers highlighted that post-fire monsoon weather patterns now present acute flash-flooding and mudslide hazards across steep burn scars, creating an urgent imperative for federal emergency watershed protection grants to stabilize hillsides above residential subdivisions before autumn storms intensify.

Representative Crank underscored the non-partisan nature of the federal disaster request, pointing out that recovering from catastrophic natural disasters transcends political divisions. Lawmakers emphasized that local property tax revenues have been eroded by structural losses, leaving municipal water authorities unable to finance multi-million-dollar sediment filtration and water treatment repairs without federal capital assistance.

Regional emergency management directors and county commissioners welcomed the unified congressional advocacy, noting that previous federal disaster denials for earlier storms created prolonged financial hardship for rural mountain communities. FEMA regional officials confirmed that joint federal-state preliminary damage assessment reports have been forwarded to the White House for formal presidential review.