A bipartisan bill targeting the forest conditions that drive catastrophic wildfire risk has cleared the House and a Senate committee but has not moved to a full Senate vote. The continued delay has a direct cost for brokers placing homeowners and property coverage in fire-exposed markets.
The Fix Our Forests Act, S. 1462, passed the House in January 2025 by a vote of 279 to 141. The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced the Senate version 18 to 5 in October 2025.
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) called on Senate leaders to act, citing active wildfires across the country. "We cannot afford to remain trapped in a cycle of disaster and recovery," said David A. Sampson, APCIA's president and CEO. "Congress should act now to advance proven mitigation solutions that help protect lives, property, and the long-term affordability and availability of insurance.”
S. 1462 targets the upstream conditions that make wildfires catastrophic. Its provisions would expedite environmental reviews for forest management projects and streamline permitting for hazardous fuels reduction on federal land. It also establishes a Wildfire Intelligence Center to coordinate 12 federal agencies, a community wildfire risk reduction program, and a technology testbed to accelerate detection tools.
The insurance market context behind the APCIA statement tells the sharper story. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, has seen its total insured exposure grow from roughly $50 billion in 2018 to $458 billion in 2024 according to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), as private carriers pulled back from high-risk areas.
The California Department of Insurance reported that insurers non-renewed more than 2.8 million homeowners policies in fire-prone ZIP codes between 2020 and 2025. FAIR Plan enrollment surged 43% between September 2024 and December 2025 according to Bloomberg, driven largely by the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
The problem is no longer confined to California. Triple-I reported that more than 35,000 fires burned over three million acres nationwide in the first half of 2026, significantly exceeding 10-year averages. Florida, Georgia, and Nebraska each experienced record wildfire activity while western states face persistent threats.
A coalition of 47 organizations sent a letter on July 2, pressing for S. 1462's inclusion as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Signatories included APCIA, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of American Scientists, and The Nature Conservancy. The coalition argued the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offers a more direct legislative path than standalone floor consideration.
The bill's Senate lead sponsors include Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT).
For brokers, mitigation legislation addresses the hazard itself and gives carriers a basis to re-enter markets they have abandoned. Without upstream risk reduction, the market conditions driving carrier withdrawals and FAIR Plan dependency are unlikely to change.
