Assembly Standing Committee on Emergency Management

Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Assembly Member Rhodesia Ransom, Chair of Emergency Management, and we are going to go ahead and start our meeting. I would like to welcome everyone. Well today we will hear an Assembly Joint Resolution this afternoon regarding the cuts to FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Act Grant Program.

Because I am going to be presenting, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Assembly Member Lisa Calderon, but before we do that, let's establish a quorum. Secretary, please call the roll.

Quorum call. [Roll Call].

Okay, we have a quorum, and seeing the presence of Vice Chair Hadwick, we're going to go ahead and turn it over to her to chair the meeting, and we will proceed. Thank you.

Chair Ransom will be presenting AJR 11, regarding federal reductions to hazard mitigation projects across the state. Whenever you're ready. All right.

Thank you. Are we on? Okay. Thank you and good afternoon, Vice Chair and committee.

I am pleased to present Assembly Joint Resolution 11, which is a nonpartisan effort to urge the President of the United States and Congress to restore funding to FEMA's Building Resilient Communities and Infrastructure Grant Program in order to avoid predictable, costly, and preventable disasters.

The cancellation of all approved BRIC Program Hazard Mitigation Progress--program applications from fiscal year 2020 to 2023 leaves Californians vulnerable to disasters that could have otherwise been prevented.

Eliminating these critical projects will result in a divestment of over $870 million of federal funding and will disrupt hundreds of millions of dollars in local, state, and private sector matching funds. This decision will have severe consequences for local communities that were counting on funds to reduce the impact of natural disasters.

For example, Napa County will lose up to $35 million. Mendocino County will lose up to $37.8 million. Santa Cruz County will lose up to 11.2 million for wildfire mitigation projects. Additionally, the California Earthquake Authority will lose over $40 million allocated for seismic retrofits in urban areas.

The Paradise Irrigation District will also be set to lose up to $37.5 million for critical safety improvements to the Magalia Dam. At a time when we are already working to fill critical prevention gaps, we cannot afford to be handicapped by the cancellation of these pre-designated funding sources.

With me today to testify in support is Catherine Freeman with the California Association of Counties, and I would also introduce Robyn Fennig, Cal OES's State Hazard Mitigation Officer who will be available to answer any technical questions. She has also been actively engaged in helping with the Los Angeles wildfire recovery efforts, so I appreciate the two of them being here and all of the work they've done. And with that, I will turn it over to my witnesses. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Catherine Freeman, and I represent California's 58 counties with the California State Association of Counties. Today before you is a resolution supporting the restoration of funding from the Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities Program or BRIC, as you've heard.

The federal government ended BRIC on April 4, 2025, canceling existing and future grants for the program, and this has devastated some of our counties and our communities in their efforts to prevent wildfires and disasters.

In recent years, California, along with other states, has experienced an increasing frequency of disasters: wildfires, droughts, floods, floods after wildfires, snowmageddons, and water system failures--the middle one is important as well. California counties play an incredibly critical role in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Disasters are local and they move to larger. BRIC funding was intended to prevent future disasters around communities.

We know that funding for disaster prevention must be flexible, and BRIC funding was a key piece to that flexible funding. Proactive funding is the only way to turn the corner on disaster prevention, and that's what we're doing, we're trying to do in California. CSAC has prepared--CSAC is the California State Association of Counties.

We've prepared a blueprint for strengthening disaster resilience, and one of those pieces is this key federal funding component. But we also have local and state funding that we're looking at as well, and locals provide those matching funds for folks.

I did ask, instead of just listing some of the programs, which the chair has kindly done, I asked a couple--I phoned a friend, phoned Sonoma County. Sonoma County has had successive wildfire disasters, and I asked them a little bit about what does this mean to them. And they said, you know, Sonoma County's made significant progress under BRIC funding. They have phased projects where they have gone out and looked at the different types of wildfire resilience they need. What is the gap that they need for their communities?

What kind of home hardening projects do they need? What kind of wildfire prevention projects do they need? And not every project can be funded by a single source of funding. We can't use bond funding for ongoing projects. We need to put together projects in a way that are meaningful, and this federal funding is a part of that.

What they said to me is wildfires are not just a natural disaster, they're financial, they're public health and environmental threats to every resident of the county. And when we look at that as a combine, we think that the only way to to look at funding from the federal government is to be an all-in approach.

So I'll say the cliché: an ounce of prevention. The Camp Fire caused $16 billion in damages in a small community in rural Butte County. These projects took years to develop, these wildfire projects, many of which are underway in phase construction. Losing these BRIC dollars will set California back years.

It'll set other parts of the country back years as well. As we look at climate change, ever stronger wind-driven events, flashy whiplash water years, and the threat of seismic events increasing in California--and frankly, with our partners across the nation--we need to take action now to reduce disaster risks in California and we must work all together to prevent the next natural disaster. So with that, we urge you to support this resolution and thank you for your time.

Good afternoon. My name is Robyn Fennig, and I'm our State Hazard Mitigation Officer and I also am our Assistant Director that oversees all the hazard mitigation assistance programs at Cal OES.

When the memo came out at the beginning of April announcing the BRIC program cancellation, I think you can all imagine the panic of the 49 communities that have reached out to our office in determining next steps.

We've been meeting with them--some of them several times a week since that--in person, virtually, trying to support what those next steps are. I'm really here today to answer any questions that you all might have about any of the impacts of those individual projects that were selected or obligated, and then also, you know, if you have any questions about the potential financial impact, happy to just give you that additional clarification. So thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any witnesses in opposition? Seeing none. Let's bring it back to the members. They were support witnesses. Does anybody have any question? Nope. Okay.

I just wanted to comment that I have several of my district's projects on here that would be detrimental to not have--one of which I actually got a budget request from the state to add on to the Karuk Fire Resiliency Center and it makes the project probably not--it won't be successful without that $10 million, so, very encouraged and thank you for doing this.

And as the person that used to write the hazard mitigation grants, that is one of the hardest, most intense, like labor-intensive grants to write and get, so being awarded is a feat already and then to be taken away is very disappointing. Let's--Chair Ransom, would you like to close?

Yes. Do we have any other additional witnesses in support?

Do we have any other witnesses in support or--sorry.

Hello. My name is Stephanie Stephens. I am the Mitigation Director of the California Residential Mitigation Program, which was established as a joint powers authority under California Earthquake Authority and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

We lost 40--just over $40 million in BRIC funding for our Earthquake Multi-Unit Soft-Story Retrofit Grant, which helps homeowners and building owners throughout the State of California obtain seismic retrofits. And we support this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Would you like to close now?

Yes, Vice Chair Hadwick. Thank you very much. As mentioned, this is a no--this is a common sense, you know, bipartisan effort to ensure that funds that were previously allocated 2020 to 2023 are continuing to be available to serve communities who are trying to recover from disasters as well as prepare to mitigate future disasters.

This resolution urges the President of the United States and Congress to reverse the elimination of the Critical Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to ensure that our communities receive the support they need to protect themselves from preventable disasters.

Already in Congress, there is a House Resolution that we would love to see our bipartisan congressmen throughout the country add on to in order to ensure that our communities are continuing to be kept safe. I respectfully ask for your support in adopting this resolution.

Thank you. We have a motion by Bennett and a second by Bains. Secretary, please call the vote. The motion is be adopted in order to Third Reading.

For AJR 11, motion is be adopted in order to Third Reading. [Roll Call].

Thank you. The bill is out.

Thank you very much.

And we adjourn. I don't even get to hit the thing.