Community Hardening Commission: wildfire mitigation program.

Senators Rubio, Cortese, and Stern propel a measure that situates wildfire risk management within a new Community Hardening Commission established as an independent unit inside the Department of Insurance, tasked with formulating community hardening standards and overseeing a wildfire risk data-sharing framework while requiring the joint powers authority that administers California’s wildfire mitigation program to revise its activities in line with these standards.

The Commission would consist of seven members, including the Insurance Commissioner as chair, the State Fire Marshal, and four state agency directors, plus two public members appointed by the Assembly Speaker and the Senate President pro Tempore and a Governor-appointed public member. It would be advised by an advisory council featuring scientists, industry representatives, consumer advocates, local-government representatives, and associations such as the California Building Industry Association and the California Fire Chiefs Association. Beginning January 1, 2026, the Commission would convene at least quarterly to develop new wildfire community hardening standards that cover both home hardening and community-scale mitigation, assess barriers to investment in hardening, and propose revisions to related regulations and programs to align underwriting considerations with risk reduction measures. It would also identify funding mechanisms and certification processes to demonstrate compliance to insurers and coordinate with CAL FIRE, OES, and other agencies to align programs and inspections.

A central element is a governance and data framework: by July 1, 2027, the Commission would complete the new standards and provide a report on further actions needed to support local communities in hardening and mitigation, with periodic updates thereafter. It would oversee and facilitate participation in a wildfire data sharing platform, establish guidelines for data collection, aggregation, access, and verification, and incorporate privacy and equity protections. Data-sharing would be voluntary, subject to opt-out rights, and could involve confidential agreements with insurers, modelers, actuaries, and both state and local agencies under Commission oversight. The chapter also directs after-action investigations for specified wildfire events, assembling standardized post-disaster data, evaluating the effectiveness of hardening measures, and issuing recommendations to update the standards; a governing board from within the Commission would oversee state and local participation in the platform, and CAL FIRE, OES, and the Commission would coordinate to ensure alignment with existing building standards processes where applicable. By January 1, 2032, select provisions tied to the data-sharing framework and after-action reporting are scheduled to become inoperative unless extended by future law.

In relation to existing programs, the bill requires the joint powers authority overseeing the statewide wildfire mitigation financial assistance program to consider revising its activities to reflect the new community hardening and home hardening standards, with funding subject to annual appropriation. Funding decisions and potential local-cost reimbursements would flow through standard budgetary and mandate-reimbursement mechanisms, while no separate dedicated fund is created in the measure. The package also anchors privacy safeguards for data collection and access, and contemplates cross-agency coordination with CAL FIRE and the Office of Emergency Services to harmonize standards, inspections, and program regulations, potentially influencing how home inspections and underwriting considerations are aligned with risk-reduction measures.