Senate Standing Committee on Emergency Management

Alright. The Senate Emergency Management Committee will come to order. If all Members of the committee can move to Room 113, we'll establish a quorum, hopefully.

We have five bills on today's agenda, but to keep things moving here, we're going to start as a subcommittee, if that's all right, and allow Senator Richardson to present first. So welcome, Senator.

File item number four, this is SB 1270, folks.

Well, good afternoon, Chair and Members. Thank you for allowing me to jump right in so we can keep the train moving. I'd like to thank the Chair and the committee staff for being forward thinking and, working with our office to incorporate amendments that I believe will frankly maximize

financial assistance for home hardening across California. I'm pleased to accept those amendments officially right now. The California wildfire mitigation program is currently conducting home hardening projects in six counties, five of which are located in Northern California.

The Office of Emergency Services and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection identified that a minimum of 10 counties have the highest actual wildfire risk and social vulnerability, Los Angeles being one of those.

In January 2025, Los Angeles, not being on the list, experienced two of the most destructive wildfires in California's state history. The Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire consumed more than 30 thou 38,000 acres of land, destroyed over 16,000 structures, and displaced just under 13,000 households.

Excuse me if I slur a little bit between DayQuil, Thorough Flu, and Sudafed. We're pushing through here.

SB 1270 formally codifies, that the legislation the legislature would have the intent to expand the California wildfire mitigation program. This bill also directs that any remaining state funds would be able to be allocated appropriately.

Further, this bill requires future legislative appropriations to also consider expanding in the various county areas based upon where the need is identified.

As we continue to rebuild and fortify the communities ravaged by the Palisades And Eaton Fires, home hardening assistance is critical to provide relief to homeowners, cities, counties, and frankly, insurance companies as well.

With me to testify, we have, Jordan Wells with the California State Association of Counties who will chime in on the need regarding the counties.

Thanks so much. Welcome. You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, Chair stern, and Member of the committee. My name is Jordan Wells. I'm here on behalf of the California State Association of Counties, which represents all of California's 58 counties.

I'd like to thank, Senator Richardson for authoring this important measure and for the committee staff for their work.

Existing law established the California Wildfire Mitigation Program to cost effectively Harden homes and create defensible space in high risk and socially vulnerable communities with the primary goal to provide financial assistance to underserved populations in California's wildfire prone areas.

Targeting funding based on both wildfire risk and community need better aligns resources with on the ground conditions and strengthens overall resilience to increasingly frequent and severe wildfires.

Project participants receive an assessment of their home and financial assistance to implement proposed retrofits. Through a $95,000,000 hazard mitigation assistant grant from FEMA and state funding, the program developed a statewide framework for community level home hardening

and launched pilot programs in six counties with the goal to complete retrofits to over 2,000 homes.

As of this month, an estimated 140 homes have been completed and 27 more are in progress. However, all 58 counties play a role in wildfire prevention, response and recovery.

SB 1270 would build upon the program's success by expanding the eligible counties while continuing to target resources to communities with the greatest need.

The bill advances cost effective, data driven investments in wildfire mitigation. And for these reasons, we respectfully urge your aye vote on SB 1270. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We'll turn to general support. Anyone can come forward at this time. I want to support the bill. Seeing one. Welcome.

David Quintana on behalf of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in support.

Okay. Thank you. Seeing no others in support, any in opposition? Welcome to come forward at this time if there's lead opposition. Seeing none, we'll look for general opposition.

And seeing none, bring it back to the dais. Sir, any questions? Concerns? Okay. Hearing good bill.

Thanks for working with us. I also wanna thank, Chair of the previous committee and sending that to research and water for helping craft these amendments.

I think we're we're making real progress, and the idea here is that, you know, we've limited state dollars for hardening, and we're trying to make it last go as far as we possibly can.

We know it's never gonna be enough to with public funding, so we wanna make, you know, whatever existing federal dollars you've got work, but also to, to make sure we're as broad as possible here.

So, you know, that whether you're in, what, the Orinda Hills or, you know, the, in Mount Diablo, or if you're in, you know, the oil fields of, Los Angeles, or if you're in Ventura and Santa Barbara County, we know wildfire risk chases us everywhere and that you can't, solve it one home at a time,

and we need to take a community based approach. So hopefully, these amendments comp accomplish that, and, we really do look forward to working with Cal OES and CAL FIRE going forward on making this happen. So thanks for being a partner with us, Allow you to close.

As a good Senator, I respectfully ask for an aye vote, but I do, for the record, wanna thank the chair in the last committee. You asked some very opposing questions that we had as well. And I think this bill is far better for it. So thank you for your leadership and committee staff of working with us.

Appreciate it. Okay. When we get a quorum, we'll, entertain a motion. So thank you. Seeing no you don't have anything before us right now.

Alright? We may oh, I can present. Can I present to you? Yes. Alright.

How about that? Gonna turn over the gavel to Senator Grayson. Hello, sir. Good to see you. Yeah.

Welcome back.

Sir, you may begin when you are ready.

Okay. Thank you. SB 1079, we're we're trying to really jump start and expand our ability to to do fire innovation in this state. I think we all know that the the risk is evolving rapidly, but so is our ability to fight these fires, to detect these fires and to mitigate them before they even start in the first place.

We've got a a great office of wildfire technology research and development that currently exists, but this bill really seeks to build on that and create a permanent structure to evaluate, test, and deploy new technology, whether it's getting smarter about how we contract,

how we connect technologists to frontline personnel, coordinate field demonstration, and accelerate statewide deployment through more flexible contracting.

We're hoping this bill really advances the fire tech innovation space, which incidentally is one of California's leading new technology industries.

So we're hoping that through this risk, we actually become a job creator, a technology exporter, and we're hoping that the committee amendments that the cChair in his wisdom imposed upon this author, which I will be accepting today, great work us, will improve this bill even further,

make sure that we're we're leaning on Cal OES as well to get this work done, that we're that we're not sort of over micromanaging, how the scope of these the the the technology scope in Section two b, that we're looking for a more operational feedback and participation.

And then, again, we're looking to coordinate across state agencies because we know as, the previous bill indicated, OES does a a critical role to play here. Turn to my lead witness, Eric Horne, California Director for MegaFire Action.

Well, thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Eric Horne, California Director of MegaFire Action, and we're proud to sponsor and speak in support of Senator Stern's SB 1079.

California has a strong culture of wildfire innovation, and CAL FIRE is widely recognized most innovative departments in the world.

Despite that strong foundation, however, there is currently no dedicated system to consistently identifying operational needs from firefighters, connecting those needs with the technology community, rigorously evaluating new tools through pilots and demonstrations,

and then scaling successful solutions across the department.

SB 1079 closes that gap. The bill establishes a fire innovation unit within CAL FIRE, which builds upon the department's existing office of wildfire technology, research, and development.

And that's two new programs, the innovation outreach, innovation outreach and coordination program, which works with firefighters and innovators to identify problems, test solutions, and the rapid acquisition and deployment program,

which helps move validated technologies quickly from pilot projects into operational use. The Fire Innovation Unit Act is also about securing the highest return on investment possible for taxpayers.

Every improvement in wildfire detection, suppression, and mitigation multiplies the impact of the billions of dollars California spends every year on wildfires.

It also ensures that taxpayer dollars are spent on technologies that have been rigorously tested, validated by operators, and proven to work in real world conditions.

Fire innovation unit will be a force multiplier that helps firefighters do their jobs more effectively and more safely. And with that, we respectfully ask for your support on October.

Thank you for your testimony. Any other members of the public would like to add on and support, simply step up to the mic. Name, organization, and position.

Thank you, Chair, Members of the committee. Marissa Hagerman with Trattan Price Consulting registering support on behalf of Climate Resolve. Thank you.

Thank you.

Niko Molina on behalf of the California Forestry Association in support. Thank you.

Jessica Martinez on behalf of the California Fire Safe Council in support. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Shearer Spector for Stone Advocacy on behalf of Elevate California in support. Thank you.

Jeff Neal representing the Orange County Fire Authority also in support.

Thank you. Just checking to see if anyone else would like to add on in support. Seeing no other move it toward the microphone. Any members of the public in opposition? I don't believe we have lead opposition registered, so any opposition?

Seeing no one step into the mic in opposition, we will bring it back to the committee. And I have no questions, And, just think it's a good bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for it. And, we'll take up the vote. Great.

Would you like to close?

The appropriate time is ask for your Aye vote.

Thank you so very much.

Alright. We got another author.

And we do have another author. I will wait for the Chair to come.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alright. We'll now move to file a number three, SB 1020, Senator Nilo. Welcome. Thank you. Mister chair and member, appreciate it.

And I am presenting, SB 1020 and would first like to say that I accept amendments from the committee. Thanks so much for the help. I think it gets to the issue that we're looking for.

I also wanna thank the committee staff as well as the legislative analyst deputies who all have put a lot of work in to ensure that this bill is fair and reasonable, and importantly, does not impede on emergency responses in any way.

The bill originated from a report written by the ledge analyst titled improving legislative oversight of emergency authorities. The important thing there is legislative oversight. It outlines existing issues, within governor declared states of emergencies.

The report found that many emergencies remain open for extended periods of time long after the emergencies have passed. This means, and this is a really important point, this means that state resources can continue to bypass the legislative process with virtually no legislative oversight.

Under current law, once a state of emergency is declared, the governor can exercise broad, unilateral authority and emergency orders can remain in place indefinitely.

Legislative involvement is extremely limited. There are currently 57 states of emergency proclamations that remain open today. Recently, the governor has taken the initiative to begin to close some of the states of emergencies, but that is not always the case.

The LAO has raised concerns that emergency authorities have been used for extended periods of time and that some actions taken under emergency powers could have gone through, frankly, the normal budget or legislative process.

States of emergency will remain open until the governor issues a proclamation to end it or with a Concurrent Resolution from the legislature, meaning both houses, of course. Technically, neither one are done in a particularly timely manner.

The bottom line is that temporary powers are at risk of becoming long term governance tools. This bill will, with the committee amendments, create an annual report of the governor's office of emergency services regarding each open emergency, including state spending, local assistance provided,

the the items of concern, or lessons learned. The report will then be provided to the joint legislative budget committee, and importantly, the Ledge Analyst's office. The bill does not eliminate or weaken emergency powers.

The governor still retains full authority to respond rapidly and maintains the ability to suspend laws when necessary. Emergency powers are essential, but so is democratic accountability.

This bill ensures that emergencies remain temporary, power remains balanced, and the decisions remain transparent. I have with me today, Drew Soderborg, with the LAO office. Great.

Mister Soderborg.

Drew Soderborg, legislative analyst office. So our office doesn't take positions on bills before the legislature, but because this bill does implement several recommendations from our recent report, I'm here to provide, technical assistance and, help answering any questions.

Alright. Thank you. You wanna turn to your, witnesses in support, if there are any? Would that be alright?

If there are any here, I do not have any other primary Okay.

We'll just take general witnesses in support at this time, if there are any. Seeing none, we'll look for opposition. If there is any opposition, welcome to come at this time. Okay. Seeing none, bring it back to the dais for questions, concerns.

Appreciate you working with us, Senator Niello. I emergency powers are a lot like war powers, where, you know, when when when the disaster hits, you need them. But there's also a coequal branch of government, and so I rather than just say no here, we wanted to work with you.

And who knows? Maybe in Washington, DC, they'll start to take our, take our lead on this one and assert their own prerogative, to assert some oversight and accountability around war powers.

But, we have only what is here before us, so, I think this bill is going to be a really important step forward, make sure that the kind of deliberation that LAO pointed out in its report will occur without unnecessarily impeding or burdening that process so that we don't get people the aid they so

desperately need in these in these disasters. So when we have a full committee, certainly we'll entertain a motion, but would allow you to close at this point.

Well, thank you very much. And I do very much appreciate your engagement on this. You and I had several conversations about this, and it helped quite a bit.

Again, my interest is not in compromising the, governor's powers. It is important when things are immediate and there's a potential disaster or whatever, we are all served by quick executive action on those things.

But we're not particularly well served if it goes on too long because, again, he has the power during that time to do pre or she he or she has the power to do pretty much whatever they want irrespective of legislative involvement.

So that's the coequal branch of government, and it's in respect for that as well as the importance of of emergency powers. Appreciate the consideration.

Thank you very much. We'll entertain a motion at the appropriate time. Thank you, Senator Niello. Let's see. Yeah.

We're just gonna wait Senator Allen here, but assuming he's tied up, we may take a brief recess. Hold on one Sec. Alright. We're gonna take a brief recess and await our final author and a quorum.

Realtors for working with us on clarifying language. We know that California is facing an ever increasing challenges associated with wildfire with the deadliest, largest, most destructive fires in state history occurring in the last decade.

And, of course, the interim Chair and I know all about this. We know that fires have been spreading from forests to wild lands now, creating urban conflagrations, exacerbated, of course, by the impacts of climate change and development.

And now homeowners are increasingly struggling to find affordable insurance options. Insurance are raising insurers are raising premiums to cover increased risk. Some are leaving the state altogether.

We know that implementing wildfire, hardening measures such as upgrading roofing and windows and replacing siding, managing nearby vegetation can reduce a structure's fire risk by more than 35%, just that alone. And, I know this is something that we've discussed extensively at this committee.

But we also know that a lot of that home partnering work can be really expensive.

It can sometimes cost tens of thousands of dollars for homeowners and affordable and there's simply not a lot of financing for this kind of work. It's just there's not a market for that.

So we've been trying to find a way to get more money out to people that wanna do this hardening work, so that they can then take advantage of things like Senator Perez's bill and other efforts, that are gonna provide some relief on the insurance side. We've looked around for all sorts of different examples.

Go Green was one, that's operated by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority that provides state backed funds on a loan program to support energy efficiency upgrades to homes.

The way that Go Green works is it it offers a a credit enhancement to mitigate the risk of default, which enables participating lenders to then offer lower rates, longer payback terms, higher loan amounts to a broader base of borrowers for energy upgrade loans.

And so for every $1 in credit enhancements that are allocated, $8.08 and a half dollars in private capital is then leveraged under the program.

So this bill seeks to create a a resilience loan program modeled after Grow Grow Greens specifically for wildfire mitigation projects, seeking to leverage public dollars to unlock private capital, lower interest rates, finance home hardening, and defensible space improvements for more people around the

state to protect their homes. So here with me to testify in support of the bill, we have Eric Horne, who's the California director of MegaFire Action. And then Connie Chan, is here on behalf of our state treasurer, Fiona Ma.

Well, thank you, Senator. Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the committee. We're proud to sponsor and speak in support of Senator Allen's SB 894.

We know what works to protect homes from wildfires, proven measures like vegetation clearance around and ember resistant vents, eaves, gutters, and other features can more than double the odds that a home survives a wildfire, but adoption remains far too low.

Unlike prescribed fires or fuel breaks, home hardening is an individual purchasing decision made by homeowners. And if the goal of the state is to see adoption at the necessary scale, it must make these investments easy and affordable for average Californians.

That is a big challenge. More than 2,000,000 homes sit in the highest fire hazard areas and where most and most of them were built before modern wildfire safe building codes were adopted.

Grant programs will always play an important role, but they simply cannot reach the scale of homes needed that the state requires. SB 894 tackles that challenge directly.

The bill establishes a wildfire resilience loan program, as the Senator mentioned, modeled on the state treasurer's successful Go Green energy financing platform.

I would note that this concept was included in the recently re released SB 254 natural catastrophe study, because the report authors understand that in order to bend the wildfire risk curve downward

and stabilize the utility and insurance markets, we have to make mitigation financially accessible for home owners at scale. For these reasons, we respectfully ask for this committee support for SB 894. Thank you.

Thank you. If we have any other witnesses in support, if you could please come up to the mic.

Hello. I'm Connie Chan on behalf of California State Treasurer Fiona Ma. I wanna echo the points that the Senator made, but also appreciate your office working with us on the language, and we are very hopeful that this is going to save many lives, but also protect many homes and be affordable.

So thank you. We are proud to be cosponsor of SB 894. Thank you.

Jordan Wells on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in support. Thank you.

Nicole Quinonez on behalf of Cal Chamber in support.

Jessica Martinez, Interim Executive Director for the California Fire Safe Council. We are in support. Thank you.

Michael Jarred with the Nature Conservancy in support. Thank you.

Shira Spector for Stone Advocacy on behalf of Elevate California in support. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Sylvia Solis Shaw on behalf of the City Of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in strong support and also voicing support on behalf of the City of Goleta. Thank you.

Mercedes Macias with Sierra Club California in strong support.

Good Afternoon, Interim Chair, Members of the committee. Marissa Hagerman with Traton Price Consulting registering support on behalf of Climate Resolve.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and Members. Rob Wilson with California's Credit Union is here in support. Thank you.

Thank you. K. Anybody else? Alright.

We'll now take witnesses in opposition. If there's any witnesses in opposition, if you could please rise. Seeing no opposition, we'll turn it back to the committee. Do you have any committee comments or questions? Senator Rubio?

Not questions, but, I just wanna make a comment. Thank you, recognizing, the necessity for this. This is gonna be monumental. I equate it to the earthquake authority. It's something needed to be done, and I think this is gonna help so many families.

So I commend you, and I wanna be a coauthor. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator.

Awesome. Alrighty. And I will just say, Senator Allen, I I really appreciate this bill. I think it's it's great and obviously aligns with a lot of the work that my office is leading as well. Obviously, representing Altadena, I appreciate what your bill is doing here.

So the recommendation of the Chairs, and I vote, and I will turn it over to you to close.

No. Just appreciate

Oh oh, apologies. And could you also accept the amendments, please, in your closing?

Yes. Oh, yes. We are we have yes. We are accepting the amendments. Happy to do so.

And I and I do just, you know, thank the the realtors for working with us on some clarifying language that I think has addressed their concerns.

So with that, I appreciate everyone's recognition of how important this is and and this broad sweep of support as we all are grappling with this enormous challenge. And with that, I wish I could ask for an Aye vote.

Thank you so much. Do we have a motion? K. We have a consent.

There's no quorum? I'm here. I don't know. Alright?

Yes. We need a quorum. Yeah.

[Roll Call]

Okay. Thanks. We have a quorum. Appreciate that, especially the Chair for showing up to make the quorum.

You have completed presentation of your bill. Correct? And respectfully closed in all these things? Right.

Rightly respectfully.

Appreciate you taking the amendments. All your work on this bill, due pass is the recommendation of the Chair. Would you entertain a motion at this time? Senator Rubio. Senator Rubio makes a motion?

Yes? Yes. Okay. So the motion is due passed as amended to appropriations. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Okay. Great. We'll leave that on call for the absent members. Let's let's keep working through the rest of the file. If y'all are all ready with that, let's do the do the consent calendar. I would entertain a motion. So moved by Senator Perez. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Alright. That does it. Bill's out. This hearing is hereby adjourned.