Chico Times

Today, Assembly Republicans in Sacramento introduced a set of legislative proposals aimed at enhancing California's wildfire prevention, response, and recovery strategies. The proposed bills seek to expedite essential wildfire prevention projects, encourage residents to fortify their homes against fires, enforce accountability for arson and looting, and assist communities in disaster recovery.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher emphasized the urgency of these measures. "California hasn’t done nearly enough to remove flammable vegetation and prevent devastating wildfires – if you don’t believe the science, believe your own damn eyes," Gallagher stated. He further stressed that disaster prevention should be a top priority for California.

The Republican initiatives focus on three main areas: preventing wildfires through fuel reduction and home hardening; improving disaster response by addressing looting and drone interference; and aiding community recovery by supporting local nonprofits and simplifying rebuilding processes.

Key proposals include ABX1 3 (Wallis), which offers tax relief for home hardening; ABX1 6 (Patterson) and ABX1 7 (Essayli), which propose exemptions from CEQA requirements for certain wildfire prevention projects; AB 267 (Macedo), which redirects funds from High-Speed Rail to water infrastructure upgrades; and several others aimed at increasing penalties for aggravated arson, looting, and drone interference near fires.

Additionally, Assembly Republicans aim to maintain funding for the California Wildfire Mitigation Program (CWMP) and streamline processes related to fire safety egress routes in high-risk zones.

In parallel with these state-level efforts, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the "Fix Our Forests Act" with bipartisan support. This federal initiative seeks to streamline permitting for forest health projects and modernize firefighting efforts.

Despite these moves, Assembly Democrats last week opposed an additional $1 billion allocation for wildfire prevention while maintaining a previous budget cut of $143.9 million in fire prevention funding.