Committee backs $25 million emergency aid for Gila County flood recovery

The House Committee on Government voted to return House Bill 2070 with a due-pass recommendation on Feb. 3, advancing a $25 million emergency appropriation intended to help Gila County communities recover from recent historic floods.

The committee’s action follows more than an hour of testimony from county officials, town mayors and emergency managers who described widespread destruction and the need for state support to meet grant-match requirements and urgent debris-removal work. Staff told the panel the bill would appropriate $25,000,000 from the state general fund to the Arizona Department of Administration for flood relief in fiscal year 2026 and specify how the money may be spent.

Why it matters: Local leaders said federal assistance has been delayed or denied in early FEMA assessments, leaving small counties with limited tax bases and immediate cleanup costs. Without state help to fund matches and interim work, municipalities said they risk losing larger federal and NRCS grants or being unable to finance time-sensitive mitigation projects.

What witnesses said: Gila County Supervisor Tim Humphrey described roads and businesses inundated by water and large debris piles, noting county crews worked overtime to reopen routes. "We have tons and tons of debris that was washed on our roads that we had to remove," Humphrey said, urging the committee to consider the county’s limited revenue base.

Globe Mayor Al Gameros called the storms "historic rains for us," saying the city removed 66 vehicles and 900 propane tanks from waterways and that the final damage assessment for Globe reached far higher than initial estimates. "This was historic rains for us," Gameros said. He cited an NRCS-approved sediment-removal project of $24 million that still requires about $5.5 million in local match and 220 days to complete.

Alex Rivera, a regional responder and former FEMA Region II member working with Team Rubicon, told the committee an assessment placed roughly $56 million in damages in a concentrated area and stressed that matching funds are critical to unlock federal and NRCS support.

Committee response and vote: Committee members raised concerns about FEMA’s assessment timeline, debris-management rules and the practical difficulty of meeting short deadlines on engineering and right-of-entry requirements. Multiple members urged swift action to get funds before the next rainy season. The committee recorded the result as 7 ayes, 0 nays; the bill will move forward in the legislative process.

What’s next: If the full House and then the Senate approve the appropriation, the governor would receive the bill for signature. Local officials told the committee they will continue appeals to FEMA and press for federal decisions while the state-level measure progresses.