Committee reviews wildfire recovery spending, home‑hardening pilot and the recent emergency package for LA fires

Senators used the hearing to press the administration about wildfire recovery, the state's wildfire and forest resilience pilot programs and the administration's post‑fire emergency actions.

Committee members noted recent damaging fires in Los Angeles and asked about funding for community hardening and home‑hardening programs. Finance staff explained that a pilot community hardening program has been run county‑by‑county, leveraging FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program; the initial pilot counties (including Lake, San Diego and Shasta) were selected based on risk and federal application timing. Finance said the program relies on local applications that then go through federal approval and acknowledged interest in expanding participation to other counties — including Los Angeles — but warned federal timelines and approval processes can be lengthy.

Senators specifically asked about the governor's proposed climate bond funding for wildfire resilience (the governor's budget would move some climate General Fund spending to the Proposition 4 climate bond and proposed multiyear funding for landscape‑scale projects). Finance said the administration proposed $325 million of the climate bond for wildfire/forest resilience in 2025–26 (part of larger bond amounts) and noted prior wildfire and forest investments totaling several hundred million dollars over recent budgets.

The chair and members also discussed an emergency package enacted in response to the Los Angeles fires: the Legislature and administration acted quickly to provide a roughly $2.5 billion set of emergency funds, and Finance said some allocations from that package were released within days. Committee members asked for accounting and monitoring of those expenditures and for assurances that state contracting, safety and procurement rules would apply to state‑administered funds even where FEMA reimbursement will later be sought; Finance said state entities administering the funds must comply with law and that FEMA reimbursements occur after state expenditure documentation is submitted.

Committee members requested follow‑up on eligibility, application steps for home hardening and a plan to expand pilot participation to additional communities at risk.