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A subcommittee from the United States Representatives Chamber will hold an audience on Thursday on how regulatory policy affects the prevention of natural disasters, with an focus on forest fires that devastated southern California last month.
The Judicial Subcommittee of the House of Representatives of the Republican Party on the Administrative State, the Regulatory Reform and the antimonopoly will begin the hearing, entitled “California Fires and the consequences of the envelope regulation”, at 10 am on Thursday.
The hearing will not only examine how regulatory policy in the Golden State has affected natural disasters prevention, specifically forest fires, but also address how “excessive regulation” in insurance and permits slow down recovery.
Days after the fires began, Governor of California Gavin Newsom Suspended regulations related to reconstruction, renouncing the requirements of permits based on the coastal law of California and the California Environmental Quality Law to allow a faster reconstruction process.
Firefighters work from a terrace while Palisades fire burns a property in front of the sea in Malibu, California, on January 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Following the fires, an announcement of March 2024 of the largest private insurer in California, State Far, stating that it was discontinuing the coverage of 72,000 household policies and resurfaced apartments, generating a violent reaction and questions that surround the Insurance accessibility in that area specifically.
The insurer said that a letter sent to the California Insurance Department (CDI) shortly after that announcement was an “alarm that indicates the serious need for rapid and transformative action.”
Now, State Farm is asking the CDI to “immediately approve” a 22% rate increase for non -tenant housing owners, a 15% increase for tenants and condominium owners and 38% for rental homes .
The smoke of Palisades’s fire rises over residences in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday, January 11, 2025 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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The increased rates are to help “avoid a serious situation,” said State Far, and would take effect on May 1, 2025.
“As of February 1, State Farm General (Sol Fire) has received more than 8,700 claims and has already paid more than $ 1 billion to customers,” the insurer wrote in a statement on its website. “State Farm General will finally pay significantly more, since collectively these fires will be the most expensive disasters in the history of the general state farm.”
An aerial photo shows multiple carbonized houses after the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, on January 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Kelsey Grammer says that California legislators removed the ball “in the forest fire catastrophe
The audience occurs a day after Newsom traveled to Washington, DC, to meet with President Donald Trump and the members of the Congress in efforts to obtain more federal funds for the recovery of forest fires.
The secretary of California natural resource agency, Wade Crowfoot, who supervises the water and fire policy throughout the state, also attended the meeting.
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Witnesses at the audience include Steve Hilton, founder of Golden Together; Steven Greenhut, a senior resident member of the R Street Institute and director of the western region; and Edward Ring, who supervises the water and energy policy at the California Policy Center.
Rachel Wolf of Fox Business contributed to this report.
