Back in January, there was some hope in Altadena that President Donald Trump would survey up close and in person the mammoth landscape of charred rubble of the town in the wake of the Eaton fire.

Local clergy was praying for it. Local leaders hoped it would happen. Residents felt even a tinge of possibility.

Ultimately, Trump didn’t make it to the fire-ravaged town, but amid his trip to the Palisades, Rep. Judy Chu, D- Pasadena, pledged at the time that more members of Congress would.

And that they have this week, in a final push to urge property owners of key recovery deadlines, while at the same time warning that amid congressional budget battles, more recovery funding will be needed down the line. That’s because federal disaster assistance unlocked during the Biden administration in January will only last so long.

As it is, then then-President Joe Biden authorized the federal cost-share to be increased from 75% to 100% for a period of 180 days of the state’s choosing within the first 270 days of the incident period, according to the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

Congressional leaders have been coming to the disaster zone to make the point.

First came Thursday, when U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., joined Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, in a tour of Altadena’s debris cleanup, followed by Friday, when U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., came to town.

In both cases, fresh off federal budget fights in D.C. and during a congressional recess, officials exhorted property owners and residents to push to make assistance deadlines coming on March 31.

“Why this is important for my colleagues, and me, when I go back to Washington next week, is that many of you know we just passed a spending package last week that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year,” Padilla said. “But one of the reasons I was a no-vote on that was because it did not include supplemental disaster funding. Not for Los Angeles, not for the Carolinas, not for other regions of the country that have been impacted by disaster, so we still have that pending work in Washington.

“The accounts at FEMA, the Army Corps and elsewhere need replenishing in the next couple of months, so the assistance keep coming, the resources keep coming and rebuilding continues.”

As it stands, Schiff on Thursday assured that money is being allocated, but that additional funds will be needed down the line.

“I believe there’s bipartisan support to make sure the federal government continues to remain a good partner when states experience these kinds of disasters which, with the climate changing, we’re going to see more and more of,” Schiff said.

“Wildfires have no political affiliation,” Chu said. “North Carolina, at the same time, asked for $45 billion in disaster (aid). So we have blue states, we have red states, that all need the disaster aid.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been pressing Congress since February to approve $40 billion in fire aid to help Los Angeles recover from the January wildfires.

“We’ve been working with the governor’s office, with the majority leader, and the [Trump] administration to support this request to try to identify at what part of the budgetary process and the appropriation process about how we are going to be able to seek these sorts of funds,” said Schiff said.

But Schiff noted that getting these funds approved is dependent on the resolution of the budget fight that consumed Congress last week over the stopgap bill to keep the government funded.

“I think it’s pretty clear that it was not going to be in the Republican-written-only bill. We’re going to need more supplemental appropriations to get through this as well as to meet other exigencies,” Schiff said.

In the meantime, lawmakers have been doing what they can to extend the deadlines and let it be known that this was not just a local emergency but a national one, involving personnel from all over the nation.

At the beginning of March, after pressing from a bipartisan list of local congressional representatives, the deadline for victims of the Los Angeles-area wildfires to apply for assistance through FEMA was extended to the end of the month.

Two key deadline are now looming, on March 31: 1) to opt in to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Phase 2 debris removal program and 2) for federal disaster assistance from FEMA.

The chance to opt in to the debris removal program — where Corps of Engineers crews clear properties of ash and debris — expires with the deadline. But to do it, officials are asking people to complete a Right-of-Entry (ROE) form. Residents also have the option to opt-out . But they’d need to hire their own contractor do the work, when the opt-in comes at no cost, officials said.

State and federal agencies cleared ash and debris from the first 1,300 properties in just over 70 days, a record pace, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

Completing the ROE enables government contractors to enter private properties and remove debris at no cost to the homeowner. It’s a legal document that grants government agencies and contractors permission to conduct debris removal and perform necessary assessments, officials said. For more information about debris removal, visit CA.gov/LAfires.

“It’s all necessary work before we begin to rebuild, whether you are family seeking to rebuild your home, a business owner wanting to rebuild and open your business, we need to do the clean-up work first,” Padilla said Friday.

And then there’s the federal disaster assistance. Biden’s initial emergency declaration unlocked federal funding for individual assistance, public assistance, the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and other forms of support.

FEMA assistance can help wildfire victims pay for rent, temporary housing, home repairs and other needs not covered by insurance. The FEMA grants do not have to be repaid.

People can apply for grants at disasterassistance.gov or by calling 800-621-3362, or by visiting at Disaster Recovery Center for the Palisades or Eaton fires.

Flanking Padilla, Booker, too, said he was “humbled” by what he saw in L.A. County.

“This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “It’s not a left-right issue. It’s about how we move America and Americans move forward. We as a country cannot divide against each other. It’s really one time to pull together and stand together.”

Freelance writer Julianna Lozada contributed to this report.