Insurance trade group backs Fix Our Forest Act, cites massive wildfire losses and mitigation ROI
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Summary
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association urged passage of HR 471, described recent catastrophic wildfire losses and urged the committee to support mitigation, resilience-building and improved coordination to limit future insurer and taxpayer costs.
Robert Gordon, senior vice president for policy research and international at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), told the committee APCIA supports the Fix Our Forest Act and outlined the industry’s view of recent wildfire losses and mitigation priorities.
Gordon said California’s recent fires caused between $95 billion and $275 billion in economic losses and that insurers had already expedited roughly $6.9 billion in payments, with final insured losses expected at $40 to $50 billion. He also said residential exposures at high wildfire risk rose about 23% in the last year.
APCIA urged investments in upfront mitigation, building resiliency standards developed by IBHS, support for resilient utility infrastructure and local adoption of fire‑resistant building codes. Gordon said the bill’s coordination provisions, support for fuel reduction, and encouragement of local building codes aligned with insurer recommendations and industry-backed commission findings.
“Unless we invest more upfront in wildfire mitigation, taxpayers are going to keep getting stuck with ever increasing costs for disaster response and recovery,” Gordon said.
Senators and witnesses discussed how insurer-backed standards, targeted fuel treatments and community planning could reduce future claims and the long-term public cost of wildfire response.