For his first legislation in the US Senate, Adam Schiff (D-Calif) joined a Republican colleague to propose federal tax credits to certain homeowners who will remodel and strengthen their homes against wildfires and other natural disasters.
Schiff is introducing the measure along with fellow freshman Sen. Tim Sheehee (R-Mont.), a former US Navy seal and founder of Bridger Aerospace, an aerial fire company.
Schiff said the bill will help families protect families and homes for less than $300,000 a year by helping them provide remodeling, while also encouraging insurers to cover more homes in vulnerable areas that have been spread out due to climate change.
Like the wildfires that destroyed parts of the Los Angeles area this year, insurance industry is reassessing the threats and potential costs of major climate-driven disasters, making it increasingly expensive to secure in California and other states, and insurance contracts are becoming more and more expensive.
“The fires we experienced were truly unprecedented in their scope and devastation, and while I wanted the first bill to be an effort to deal with them, I also wanted to address the incredible risks of climate-related disasters across California and the country,” Schiff said in an interview with the Times.
Schiff said the bill, titled “Improved Resilience, Increased Environmental Weathering, and Lowering Responsibility, or Firewall, Promoting Actions,” is an effort to help LA victims be reconstructed and incorporate them into the reconstruction of various materials and technologies that will help them survive natural disasters. [to] Encourage and encourage others around the state and country, whether they are affected by fires, floods or other disasters, to help them strengthen their homes. ”
The tax credits would cover up to half the cost of upgrading eligible homes, including new fire-resistant roofs in states such as California and Montana, which the federal government has declared disasters in recent years, Schiff said.
The bill spells out qualified upgrades that include roof upgrades, water walls, storms and vegetation buffers, but they can expand over time, Schiff said.
Credit is $25,000 for families earning less than $200,000 per year, and the cap is indexed to advances in inflation, he said. When an annual income reaches $300,000, the family gradually decreases for families making more than $200,000 a year.
Sheehee also praised the bill, saying in a statement that he, as a former aviation firefighter, “has witnessed firsthand the devastating aftermath of a natural disaster to the community and families.”
“Given the unpredictability of natural disasters, this bipartisan bill ensures that Americans receive the support they need to protect themselves from future disasters,” Sheehee said.
The fire that devastated the Pacific Pallisad and Altadena in January was one of the most expensive natural disasters in US history, with January estimates from Accuweather, a January weather forecast service, bringing total forecast damage and economic losses from $250 billion to $275 billion. The fire also killed 30 people.
Many homeowners who lost their homes in the fire said insurance companies dropped their policies last year, adding to the devastation.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued orders designed to make it easier for people to rebuild, raising questions about how and whether homes should be rebuilt in areas where fire is prone to fire.
Schiff said there is no estimate of how much the bill would cost the federal government, but research suggests that such measures will save taxpayers money in the long run by reducing the overall cost of disaster recovery.
“What we saw during La Fires was that we traveled a mile, went through a vent in someone’s house, set the house on fire, that house on fire, the other houses in the same block, in the same neighborhood, and soon the entire block was gone,” Schiff said. “If we can prevent that first house from being set on fire, we can save the whole neighborhood.”
Schiff said he and Sheehee met during the orientation of the new Senator, saying, “We have discovered that we have a strong shared interest in controlling and repairing wildfires.” When he raised the idea for a tax credit, Sheehee mentioned a similar effort in Montana, “it seemed like a very natural fit for both of us,” Schiff said.
Schiff said the bill is a good starting point for what is needed to make broader efforts to strengthen the insurance market in the face of Republicans and the White House (which has been lightly missed past climate change).
“Their attitudes must change because their members demand it, because their members can’t guarantee their homes or businesses,” Schiff said. “It’s already beginning to happen.”
This year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention expanded its “moderate”, “high” and “very high” wildfire hazard zones by roughly 6 million acres of land, or about 6% of the state, adding 2.8 million Californians to the population living in such zones.
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