WASHINGTON - The Small Business Administration could rule in a matter of days on a disaster-relief request for Apache and Cochise counties in the wake of wildfires that scorched the counties recently.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday requested the relief for the two counties, where the Wallow and Monument fires consumed nearly 570,000 acres combined and damaged or destroyed dozens of homes and businesses.

“It’ll go to the Washington office, and they will act on it in a matter of days,” said Mark Randle, a spokesman for the SBA office in Sacramento, Calif., which got Brewer’s letter Wednesday. “We’ll probably know next week.”

An Arizona Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman said a ruling might come even sooner, since SBA officials were on the ground with state officials last week to conduct preliminary damage assessments of the area.

“We could have a decision as soon as tomorrow,” Judy Kioski, the spokeswoman, said Thursday. “They’re usually quick to turn around a decision. This is a great part about them being part of the preliminary assessment team: They’ve already seen everything.”

The promise of assistance was welcomed by some in the fire-damaged areas.

“Our whole economy is based on tourism, the hunting, the camping, the photography,” said Becki Christensen, director of the Springerville-Eagar Chamber of Commerce. “This is going to have a devastating effect on our economy if we don’t get help.”

The preliminary damage assessment determined that Apache and Cochise counties did not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid, but that both counties might qualify for economic injury disaster loans. Cochise County businesses and individuals might also be eligible for physical disaster loans.

The economic injury relief comes in the form of low-interest SBA loans of up to $2 million to small businesses to help with payroll or other bills that would go unpaid because of the wildfires.

The physical disaster loans of up to $200,000 can go to either businesses or homeowners for damaged real estate. People who need to replace items such as clothes or cars damaged by the fire can seek up to an additional $40,000.

Amanda Baillie, executive director for the Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce, was a little skeptical about the speed of federal assistance, but remained hopeful.

“We had businesses burn down, but this community, during this whole crisis, dealt with this very well,” Baillie said. “As long as there’s no bureaucratic red tape that makes it drag on, I think any assistance would be good.”

Sierra Vista Assistant City Manager Mary Jacobs said that while the Monument fire did not enter the city limits, those affected are part of “one big community” which is happy to see federal aid coming.

“The families who lost their homes are our neighbors,” Jacobs said. “We just want to make sure they can be made whole so that they can get their lives back to normal.”

Christensen said a quick response could help, since the threat of rain damage during the July monsoon season is looming.

“We are also looking long-range to what the monsoons will do to the tourism,” Christensen said.

“We’re not over this yet,” she said. “(The money) would be helpful to our businesses. It’s scary to us. We’re not sure how we’re going to get through this.”

“Senator Pearce and his colleagues are to be commended,” said Bachmann, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, referring to Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa. “They have had to pick up where the federal government has left off; they have to secure the safety and economic security of the people they represent.”

Bachmann met behind closed doors at the State Capitol with Pearce and several other GOP lawmakers, as well as U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and Cochise County Sheriff Larry A. Dever.

At a news conference afterward, she declined to say what the group discussed but thanked Pearce for leading the charge for SB 1070, which, among other provisions, requires local police to check the immigration status of suspects. With the law’s strictest provisions blocked in federal court, Gov. Jan Brewer has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I don’t dis’ this law; I thank this law,” Bachmann said.

She also applauded a law authorizing the state to raise money and use inmate labor to construct fencing along the border but said it’s really the federal government’s responsibility.

“The failure of the federal government to secure that border has put undue pressure on the state’s and local budgets,” Bachmann said.

Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, the law’s author, was among those who met with Bachmann and introduced her as a leader in the fight against illegal immigration. He and other supporters are in the process of raising private donations for the project.

“You need the political horsepower for the president to actually stand up and say, ‘It’s my job,’ and allocate the funds,” he said. “Otherwise Arizona gets to work at it.”

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, D-Tempe, who didn’t attend the session, said that while he agrees the federal government should do more he doesn’t consider Bachmann a leader on the issue.

“She as a member of Congress has not been a part of solving this problem,” he said.

Rachel Jimenez is a reporter for Cronkite News Service.

WASHINGTON – Children were less likely to have health insurance in Arizona than in any state except Texas or Nevada, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

It said 12.58 percent of children in the state – roughly one of every eight age 17 and under – was uninsured in 2010, when the numbers were gathered. The national rate was 8 percent.

A state official said the number of uninsured children in Arizona “tends to be a little bit deceiving” because of the high number of undocumented immigrant children who are ineligible for most coverage.

But child health advocates in Arizona said the numbers sound about right.

“If you look at a number of factors in this state … then it’s not a surprise,” said Arizona’s Children Association President Fred Chaffee.

The recession has been the primary cause of the high rate of uninsured children, said Matt Jewett, director of health policy for the Phoenix-based Children’s Action Alliance.

Many Arizonans have health insurance through their or a family members’ work, according to Census data. But as parents lose jobs, families lose that health coverage.

For such families, privately purchased health insurance is often unaffordable, according to a Census report based on the data.

“As the economy deteriorates … yes, we do have more children that are uninsured,” said Chris Sexton, director of the Apache County Public Health Services District.

Apache County had the highest percentage of uninsured children in the state, among the counties broken out by the Census. The bureau did not release numbers for the five smallest counties, even though they were included in the overall state figures.

Arizona does provide KidsCare, a state–federal insurance program for eligible children whose families earned between one and two times the federal poverty limit and have no other options for healthcare, Jewett said. But the state froze enrollment in KidsCare in January 2010.

Nearly 30,000 children who were on the program have lost coverage since the freeze began and the KidsCare waiting list has ballooned to more than 120,000.

“If you have people (at) that lower end of the income scale who would be eligible for KidsCare, they may not have the option for private insurance, so they basically have no options,” said Dr. Eve Shapiro, a Tucson pediatrician.

The Census data, which was gathered throughout 2010, likely does not reflect the full impact of the KidsCare freeze, Jewett said.

Without insurance, families will wait until an emergency to seek care for their children, Chaffee said.

“In many instances, their primary–care physician will become the emergency room,” he said.

But Monica Coury, spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, cautioned against reading too much into the Census numbers.

“Aggregated data is good … but it doesn’t always tell the specific state story,” Coury said. She noted that the rate of uninsured children in Arizona is inflated by the state’s unique demography, which includes many undocumented immigrants.

“Our number tends to be a little bit deceiving in that regard,” she said.

Whatever the reasons for the high rate, child health advocates believe the KidsCare freeze to be the wrong decision.

“The policies they have chosen to balance the budget on the backs of children (are) ridiculous,” Shapiro said. “Because in the long term it’s going to have such far-reaching implications.”

Chaffee of Arizona’s Children Association agrees.

“Kids who are sick don’t thrive as well as healthy kids in school,” he said. “There will be some … workforce issues in the intermediate to long term.”

Max Levy is a reporter for Cronkite News Service