Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act
Senate Committee Reviews Bill to Fund Wildfire Safety Grants Up to $10M for At-Risk Communities
Legislative Progress
Key Points
- Creates a new FEMA grant program to help states, Tribes, and local fire agencies plan for wildfires or carry out wildfire safety projects.
- Grants could fund things people notice day-to-day: better alerts and evacuation plans, help for seniors and people with disabilities, and making homes and key systems more fire-resistant.
- Project grants could be up to $10 million; planning grants could be up to $250,000. Communities at higher wildfire risk would get priority.
- Most project grants would require a 25% local match, but FEMA could waive or reduce that; low-income areas could use a low-interest federal loan to cover the match.
- Also requires new federal reports and maps: an updated map of at-risk communities every 5 years, a study tied to insurance incentives, and a report on wildfire radio communications problems.
Impact Analysis
Personal Impact
How this policy affects specific groups of people
Milestones
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
Related News
3 articlesBipartisan bill seeks billions for wildfire protection
Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) proposed the 'Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act,' which would devote $1 billion annually to help communities devise wildfire protection plans including home hardening, early detection, and evacuation planning.
Berkeley is mandating home fireproofing — and sparking a backlash in the hills
As local cities like Berkeley mandate home fireproofing, federal lawmakers are pushing the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act to provide grants for home hardening and community-scale defensible space, aiming to lower the risk of structure ignition in high-risk zones.
This Bill to Reduce Wildfires Might Actually Make Them Worse
Rep. Jared Huffman has a competing bill, the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act, which centers on financial incentives for communities to write their own fire resilience plans and harden homes, rather than increasing logging on federal lands.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act
Data Sources
Sponsor
Cosponsors
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