Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB550 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 550
5	5	To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study regarding
6	6	insurance coverage for damages from wildfires, and for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8	8	JANUARY16, 2025
9	9	Ms. W
10	10	ATERS(for herself and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the following bill;
11	11	which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
12	12	A BILL
13	13	To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct
14	14	a study regarding insurance coverage for damages from
15	15	wildfires, and for other purposes.
16	16	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
17	17	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
18	18	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
19	19	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wildfire Insurance 4
20	20	Coverage Study Act of 2025’’. 5
21	21	SEC. 2. GAO STUDY REGARDING INSURANCE FOR WILDFIRE 6
22	22	DAMAGE. 7
23	23	(a) S
24	24	TUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 8
25	25	States, in consultation with the Director of the Federal 9
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28	28	•HR 550 IH
29	29	Insurance Office and State insurance regulators, shall 1
30	30	conduct a study to analyze and determine the following: 2
31	31	(1) R
32	32	ISK ASSESSMENT.—The extent and nature 3
33	33	of wildfire risk in the United States, including— 4
34	34	(A) identifying trends in declarations for 5
35	35	wildfires under the Fire Management Assist-6
36	36	ance grant program under section 420 of the 7
37	37	Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-8
38	38	gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187), with 9
39	39	respect to geography, costs, probability, and 10
40	40	frequency of wildfire disasters; 11
41	41	(B) identifying mitigation practices that 12
42	42	would assist in reducing costs and risks for in-13
43	43	surance policies covering damages from 14
44	44	wildfires; 15
45	45	(C) identifying existing programs of the 16
46	46	Federal Government and State governments 17
47	47	that measure wildfire risk and assess their ef-18
48	48	fectiveness in forecasting wildfire events and in-19
49	49	forming wildfire response; and 20
50	50	(D) analyzing and assessing the need for a 21
51	51	national map for measuring and quantifying 22
52	52	wildfire risk. 23
53	53	(2) E
54	54	XISTING STATE OF COVERAGE .—With re-24
55	55	spect to the existing state of homeowners insurance 25
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58	58	•HR 550 IH
59	59	coverage and commercial property insurance cov-1
60	60	erage for damage from wildfires in the United 2
61	61	States— 3
62	62	(A) the extent to which private insurers 4
63	63	have, during the 10-year period ending on the 5
64	64	date of the enactment of this Act, adjusted 6
65	65	rates, policyholder cost-sharing provisions, or 7
66	66	both for such coverage (after adjusting for in-8
67	67	flation) and the geographic areas in which ad-9
68	68	justed rates, policyholder cost-sharing, or both 10
69	69	have increased; 11
70	70	(B) the extent to which private insurers 12
71	71	have, during the 10-year period ending on the 13
72	72	date of the enactment of this Act, declined to 14
73	73	renew policies for such coverages and the geo-15
74	74	graphic areas to which such declinations ap-16
75	75	plied; 17
76	76	(C) the events and economic factors that 18
77	77	have contributed to any such increased rates 19
78	78	and declinations to renew policies; 20
79	79	(D) in cases in which private insurers have 21
80	80	curtailed their overall wildfire exposure, the ex-22
81	81	tent to which homeowners insurance coverage 23
82	82	and commercial property coverage were termi-24
83	83	nated altogether and the extent to which such 25
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86	86	•HR 550 IH
87	87	coverages are still offered but with coverage for 1
88	88	damage from wildfires excluded; and 2
89	89	(E) the extent to which, and circumstances 3
90	90	under which, private insurers are continuing to 4
91	91	provide coverage for damage from wildfires— 5
92	92	(i) in general; 6
93	93	(ii) subject to a condition that mitiga-7
94	94	tion activities are taken, such as hardening 8
95	95	of properties and landscaping against 9
96	96	wildfires, by property owners, State or 10
97	97	local governments, park or forest authori-11
98	98	ties, or other land management authorities; 12
99	99	and 13
100	100	(iii) subject to any other conditions. 14
101	101	(3) R
102	102	EGULATORY RESPONSES .—With respect to 15
103	103	actions taken by State insurance regulatory agencies 16
104	104	in response to increased premium rates, policyholder 17
105	105	cost-sharing, or both for coverage for damage from 18
106	106	wildfires or exclusion of such coverage from home-19
107	107	owners insurance policies— 20
108	108	(A) the extent to which States have lever-21
109	109	aged their respective authorities to regulate rate 22
110	110	increases; 23
111	111	(B) the extent to which States have en-24
112	112	acted any moratoria on such rate and policy-25
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115	115	•HR 550 IH
116	116	holder cost-sharing increases or exclusions and 1
117	117	on non-renewals; 2
118	118	(C) the extent to which States require 3
119	119	homeowners insurance coverage to include cov-4
120	120	erage for damage from wildfires or make sales 5
121	121	of homeowners insurance coverage contingent 6
122	122	on the sale, underwriting, or financing of sepa-7
123	123	rate wildfire coverage in the State; 8
124	124	(D) the extent to which States have estab-9
125	125	lished State residual market insurance entities, 10
126	126	reinsurance programs, or similar mechanisms 11
127	127	for coverage of damages from wildfires; 12
128	128	(E) any other actions States or localities 13
129	129	have taken in response to increased premium 14
130	130	rates, policyholder cost-sharing, or both for cov-15
131	131	erage for damage from wildfires or exclusion of 16
132	132	such coverage from homeowners policies, includ-17
133	133	ing forestry and wildfire management policies 18
134	134	and subsidies for premiums and cost-sharing 19
135	135	for wildfire coverage; 20
136	136	(F) the effects of actions taken by States 21
137	137	on the availability, coverage level, and afford-22
138	138	ability of homeowners insurance coverage; and 23
139	139	(G) the effectiveness and sustainability of 24
140	140	such actions taken by States. 25
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143	143	•HR 550 IH
144	144	(4) CHALLENGES IN UNDERWRITING WILDFIRE 1
145	145	RISK.—With respect to the challenges faced by pri-2
146	146	vate insurers underwriting wildfire risk, what is or 3
147	147	are— 4
148	148	(A) the correlated risks and the extent of 5
149	149	such risks; 6
150	150	(B) the factors affecting the extent of pri-7
151	151	vate insurers’ ability to estimate magnitude of 8
152	152	future likelihood of wildfires and of expected 9
153	153	damages from wildfires; 10
154	154	(C) the effects of the need to increase more 11
155	155	affordable housing options, which may con-12
156	156	tribute to increased homebuilding in more re-13
157	157	mote, heavily-wooded areas with higher wildfire 14
158	158	risk; 15
159	159	(D) the potential for wildfire losses suffi-16
160	160	ciently large to jeopardize insurers’ solvency; 17
161	161	(E) the extent to which, and areas in 18
162	162	which, risk-adjusted market premiums for wild-19
163	163	fire risk limit affordability or availability of cov-20
164	164	erage for consumers; 21
165	165	(F) the effects of various existing and po-22
166	166	tential State and Federal Government responses 23
167	167	to help address these challenges and mitigate 24
168	168	wildfire risk, including actions such as— 25
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171	171	•HR 550 IH
172	172	(i) improved forest management poli-1
173	173	cies; 2
174	174	(ii) improved data to estimate risk; 3
175	175	(iii) relocating homeowners from wild-4
176	176	fire zones; 5
177	177	(iv) offsetting a portion of insurers’ 6
178	178	charged risk-adjusted premiums with 7
179	179	means-tested government affordability pro-8
180	180	grams for lower income homeowners; 9
181	181	(v) encouraging the increased use of 10
182	182	private reinsurance and other risk-sharing 11
183	183	mechanisms by insurers to better diversify 12
184	184	wildfire risk; and 13
185	185	(vi) developing programs that offset 14
186	186	the costs of wildfire risk for consumers and 15
187	187	industry; 16
188	188	(G) the available policy responses if private 17
189	189	insurers exit the wildfire coverage market and 18
190	190	the potential advantages and disadvantages of 19
191	191	each such response; 20
192	192	(H) the effects of the availability and af-21
193	193	fordability of wildfire coverage, policyholder 22
194	194	cost-sharing, or both, on— 23
195	195	(i) local communities that are dis-24
196	196	proportionately vulnerable to wildfires, in-25
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199	199	•HR 550 IH
200	200	cluding on low- or moderate-income prop-1
201	201	erty owners and small businesses; 2
202	202	(ii) rebuilding in communities pre-3
203	203	viously damaged by wildfires; 4
204	204	(iii) the availability and affordability 5
205	205	of housing supply; and 6
206	206	(iv) the demand for wildfire insurance 7
207	207	coverage by property owners; 8
208	208	(I) the effects of potential State prohibi-9
209	209	tions on termination of policies due to wildfire 10
210	210	claims on insurer solvency; and 11
211	211	(J) the manner in which private insurers 12
212	212	are modeling or estimating future wildfire risk. 13
213	213	(b) R
214	214	EPORT.—Not later than the expiration of the 14
215	215	12-month period beginning on the date of the enactment 15
216	216	of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the 16
217	217	Congress a report identifying the findings and conclusions 17
218	218	of the study conducted pursuant to subsection (a). 18
219	219	Æ
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