In the wake of, and continuing battle with, the Los Angeles fires, several pieces of bipartisan legislation have been introduced, or reintroduced, in efforts to strengthen Wildfire Resilience and Recovery.
On January 17, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced a package of three bipartisan bills to strengthen wildfire resilience and rebuilding efforts. The package includes:
- The Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act, which would protect firefighter pay (View One-Pager);
- The Fire Suppression and Response Funding Assurance Act , which would bolster the pre-deployment of essential firefighting assets (View One-Pager); and,
- The Disaster Housing Reform for American Families Act , which would streamline the construction of temporary disaster housing.
“These bills would improve readiness, response, and recovery for disasters that are becoming all too common across the county, from expanding and expediting disaster housing options to investing in essential prepositioned firefighting forces. And we must make sure the federal firefighters laying their lives on the line to protect our communities are given a permanent pay raise.”, said Senator Padilla.
On January 21, Representatives Jared Huffman (D-Del Norte) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA-23) introduced the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act, which would help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfires. This bill will empower communities to implement science-based methods for mitigating wildfire damage and provide funding to design and implement new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies.
Provisions from Representative Huffman’s former bill, known as the Wildfire Defense Act, were included in President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This included the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program, which helps communities, tribes, non-profit organizations, state forestry agencies, and Alaska Native corporations plan for and mitigate wildfire risks.
The newly introduced measure builds on that success by designating a targeted, specific grant program for home hardening within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and by adding home hardening as an allowable project under the USFS program.
View the one-pager for the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act here.
For additional information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate Staci Heaton.