Washington, DC – May 29, 2025 – The SmarterSafer Coalition submitted the following comment letter to the House Committee on Natural Resources & House Committee on Agriculture.
Dear Chairman Westerman, Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Huffman, and Ranking Member Craig:
The SmarterSafer Coalition (SmarterSafer) is a national coalition that includes a diverse chorus of voices who champion a united front for environmentally responsible and fiscally sound approaches to natural catastrophe mitigation and the promotion of public safety. The coalition focuses on several policy areas, including flood and wildfire risk, extreme heat, infrastructure investment, environmental protection and conservation, and overall responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
We appreciate your respective committees for considering the critical need to examine the increasingly urgent perils that stem from wildfires. The escalating intensity and frequency of these events have significant consequences for communities, ecosystems, and public health. Addressing this issue through focused legislative and policy discussions is vital for developing effective strategies to mitigate the impact of wildfires and enhance resilience.
The combination of warmer and drier conditions has significantly extended and intensified wildfire seasons, particularly in the Western United States. This trend has made many communities more vulnerable, with a substantial portion of properties facing significant wildfire risk. The Verisk 2024 Wildfire State Risk Report highlights that about 20% of structures in California are at risk of wildfire, with 8% at high to extreme risk. In 2023, California experienced 347 wildfires, burning 391,000 acres.1 Similarly, in other Western states like Utah and New Mexico, 23% of structures are at risk, with 18,000 acres burned in 2023, and 17% are at some level of risk, having burned 179,000 acres in the same year, respectively. 2
The devastating wildfires that struck New Jersey in April and California in January of this year highlight the urgent need for bipartisan, comprehensive solutions that protect both citizens and their property in wildfire-prone areas, while also safeguarding taxpayers. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Estimates of the total economic loss have ballooned to more than $250 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.”3 Additionally, the March North Carolina wildfires were in part fueled by leftover destruction from Hurricane Helene, highlighting how one severe natural disaster can exacerbate another.”4 Lawmakers must work together to craft solutions that incorporate proactive disaster mitigation and resilience measures. These efforts are essential in reducing the risk and severity of future wildfire disasters and ensuring communities are better prepared for the challenges ahead.
Policy Recommendations
SmarterSafer has finalized its list of 2025 priorities, outlining key recommendations for Congress and the administration to help reduce the human and financial impacts of natural disasters. Among these are specific proposals focused on addressing wildfires. The Coalition has identified several recommendations it believes Congress and the Trump administration should consider during the 119th Congress and beyond, including:
- Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program – Congress should establish an interagency coordinating partnership to reduce program friction and create greater alignment and support to proactively address wildfire risk reduction actions and increase ignition resistance of the built environment.
- Update Existing Federal Programs to Include Wildfire – Federal officials should integrate wildfire risk reduction measures and technical assistance into existing programs.
- Improve Hazard Assessments – Those responsible should support data procurement and analytic systems to inform building codes/standards and promote ignition-resistant construction and defensible space. Those responsible should evaluate the need to refine and/or expand state and national wildfire hazard datasets.
- Incentivize Community Preparation Activities – Policymakers should create incentives to encourage state, local, and Tribal governments to improve land use planning while increasing the accessibility of federal grants for wildfire risk reduction efforts. Additionally, they should incentivize innovation in affordable building material design, subdivision design, landscape architecture, and safe, sustainable building practices to create more ignition-resistant structures and communities.
- Hazard Risk Disclosures – Policymakers should require all-hazard risk disclosures for real estate transactions, including both sales of newly constructed homes and existing homes, for all federally backed mortgages, such as those from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Co-stewardship and Co-management Agreements – Federal agencies should be ensured the directive and authority to enter into equitable and meaningful co-stewardship and co-management agreements for multi-jurisdictional lands (areas managed across multiple jurisdictions, such as states or districts), and to support Tribal self-governance in order to address wildfire risk reduction, management, and recovery, as well as to enable beneficial fire practices.
- Utility Hardening – Policymakers should establish federal standards for electric utility wildland fire mitigation plans, along with uniform rules and procedures for managing wildfires along federal rights-of-way. Additionally, we recommend including specific language that prioritizes funding to ensure adequate financial support at the federal level.
- Use Outcome-based Performance Metrics – Those responsible should change the system of land management agency performance metrics beyond acres treated to actual risk reduced.
- Facilitate Prescribed Burning – Federal agencies should be directed to develop a strategic plan for the implementation of prescribed fire at a national scale and clarify the extent to which non federal partners involved in this plan are covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act when burning on federal lands. Additionally, the EPA, DOI, and USDA should be directed to work together to expeditiously evaluate current federal regulations, such as the exceptional events pathway, regarding the treatment of smoke from wildland fire in air quality management programs, with the goal of ensuring that these programs can accommodate the increased use of beneficial fire.
- Expand Shared Data – Policymakers should support data collaboration to advance modeling and improve codes, standards, and the development of ignition-resistant materials.
- Improve Tools – The upcoming administration should direct relevant agencies to adopt new and existing technologies to improve the mitigation and management of wildfires and to establish more flexible means of working with the private sector.
- Expand Recovery – Policymakers should expand FEMA Public Assistance-eligible activities to cover downstream risks caused by wildfires and review or amend existing programs to remove barriers that prevent the distribution of funds for mitigating the impacts of higher flows resulting from wildfires.
- Supporting Communities Impacted by Wildfires – Congress should focus on facilitating the movement of critical firefighting resources and support FEMA in offering guidance for wildfire impacted areas. These measures would help improve wildfire response and resilience in vulnerable regions.
- Climate Finance – SmarterSafer encourages entities to invest in solutions that promote climate finance, with a focus on resilience and strengthened standards. SmarterSafer urges initiatives to explore how private capital and third-party investors can play a role in supporting climate resilience efforts, such as forest resiliency bonds.
Wildfires remain a significant and growing threat to communities across the nation, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. We urge Congress to advance legislation that fosters resilience and supports the well-being of affected individuals and communities.
Thank you for considering these priorities. SmarterSafer looks forward to continuing our work with you to address this critical issue.
Sincerely,
The SmarterSafer Coalition
SmarterSafer is a national coalition made up of a diverse chorus of voices united in favor of environmentally responsible, fiscally sound approaches to natural catastrophe policy that promote public safety. SmarterSafer members include taxpayer advocates, environmental groups, insurance interests, housing organizations, and mitigation advocates.
For more information from SmarterSafer, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
https://www.verisk.com/4acfa2/siteassets/media/campaigns/gated/underwriting/wildfire-risk-report-2024.pdf 2 https://www.verisk.com/4acfa2/siteassets/media/campaigns/gated/underwriting/wildfire-risk-report-2024.pdf 3 https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-24/estimated-cost-of-fire-damage-balloons-to-more-than-250-billion 4 https://www.newsweek.com/north-carolina-wildfires-homeowners-cost-hurricane-helene-2050299