II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4969 

To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study regarding 

insurance coverage for damages from wildfires, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2024 

Mr. HEINRICH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct 

a study regarding insurance coverage for damages from 

wildfires, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wildfire Insurance 

5 Coverage Study Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GAO STUDY REGARDING INSURANCE FOR WILDFIRE 

7 DAMAGE. 

8 (a) STUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 

9 States, in consultation with the Director of the Federal 


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1 Insurance Office and State insurance regulators, shall 

2 conduct a study to analyze and determine the following: 

3 (1) RISK ASSESSMENT.—The extent and nature 

4 of wildfire risk in the United States, including— 

5 (A) identifying trends in declarations for 

6 wildfires under the Fire Management Assist7 ance grant program under section 420 of the 

8 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer9 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187), with 

10 respect to geography, costs, probability, and 

11 frequency of wildfire disasters; 

12 (B) identifying mitigation practices that 

13 would assist in reducing premiums for insur14 ance policies covering damages from wildfires; 

15 (C) identifying existing programs of the 

16 Federal Government and State governments 

17 that measure wildfire risk and assess their ef18 fectiveness in forecasting wildfire events and in19 forming wildfire response; and 

20 (D) analyzing and assessing the need for a 

21 national map for measuring and quantifying 

22 wildfire risk. 

23 (2) EXISTING STATE OF COVERAGE.—With re24 spect to the existing state of homeowners insurance 

25 coverage and commercial property insurance covVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Sep 04, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4969.IS S4969

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1 erage for damage from wildfires in the United 

2 States— 

3 (A) the extent to which private insurers 

4 have, during the 10-year period ending on the 

5 date of the enactment of this Act, increased 

6 rates, cost-sharing provisions, or both for such 

7 coverage (after adjusting for inflation) and the 

8 geographic areas in which such increased rates, 

9 cost-sharing, or both applied; 

10 (B) the extent to which private insurers 

11 have, during the 10-year period ending on the 

12 date of the enactment of this Act, refused to 

13 renew policies for such coverages and the geo14 graphic areas to which such refusals applied; 

15 (C) the events that have triggered such in16 creased rates and refusals to renew policies; 

17 (D) in cases in which private insurers cur18 tail coverage, the extent to which homeowners 

19 coverage and commercial property coverage are 

20 terminated altogether and the extent to which 

21 such coverages are offered but with coverage for 

22 damage from wildfires excluded; and 

23 (E) the extent to which, and circumstances 

24 under which, private insurers are continuing to 

25 provide coverage for damage from wildfires— 


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1 (i) in general; 

2 (ii) subject to a condition that mitiga3 tion activities are taken, such as hardening 

4 of properties and landscaping against 

5 wildfires, by property owners, State or 

6 local governments, park or forest authori7 ties, or other land management authorities; 

8 and 

9 (iii) subject to any other conditions. 

10 (3) REGULATORY RESPONSES.—With respect to 

11 actions taken by State insurance regulatory agencies 

12 in response to increased premium rates, cost shar13 ing, or both for coverage for damage from wildfires 

14 and exclusion of such coverage from homeowners 

15 policies— 

16 (A) the extent of rate regulation; 

17 (B) the extent of moratoria on such rate 

18 and cost-sharing increases and exclusions and 

19 on non-renewals; 

20 (C) the extent to which States require 

21 homeowners coverage to include coverage for 

22 damage from wildfires or make sales of home23 owners coverage contingent on the sale, under24 writing, or financing of separate wildfire cov25 erage in the State; 


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1 (D) the extent to which States have estab2 lished State residual market insurance entities, 

3 reinsurance programs, or similar mechanisms 

4 for coverage of damages from wildfires; 

5 (E) any other actions States or localities 

6 have taken in response to increased premium 

7 rates, cost sharing, or both for coverage for 

8 damage from wildfires and exclusion of such 

9 coverage from homeowners policies, including 

10 forestry and wildfire management policies and 

11 subsidies for premiums and cost sharing for 

12 wildfire coverage; 

13 (F) the effects on the homeownership cov14 erage market of such actions taken by States; 

15 and 

16 (G) the effectiveness and sustainability of 

17 such actions taken by States. 

18 (4) IMPEDIMENTS IN UNDERWRITING WILDFIRE

19 RISK.—With respect to impediments faced by private 

20 insurers underwriting wildfire risk, what is or are— 

21 (A) the correlated risks and the extent of 

22 such risks; 

23 (B) the extent of the inability of private in24 surers to estimate magnitude of future likeliVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Sep 04, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4969.IS S4969

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1 hood of wildfires and of expected damages from 

2 wildfires; 

3 (C) the extent to which need for affordable 

4 housing contributes to people relocating to more 

5 remote, heavily wooded areas with higher wild6 fire risk; 

7 (D) the potential for wildfire losses suffi8 ciently large to jeopardize the solvency of insur9 ers; 

10 (E) the extent to which, and areas in 

11 which, risk-adjusted market premiums for wild12 fire risk are so high as to be unaffordable; 

13 (F) the manners in which the Federal Gov14 ernment and State governments can alleviate 

15 any of these impediments, including through— 

16 (i) improved forest management poli17 cies to reduce wildfire risk; 

18 (ii) improved data to estimate risk; 

19 (iii) relocating homeowners from wild20 fire zones; 

21 (iv) allowing insurers to charge risk22 adjusted premiums for wildfire risk, com23 bined with subsidized premiums for lower24 income homeowners; and 


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1 (v) taking a last-loss position in rein2 suring wildfire risk; 

3 (G) the available policy responses if private 

4 insurers exit the wildfire coverage market and 

5 the advantages and disadvantages of each such 

6 response; 

7 (H) the effects of lack of wildfire coverage 

8 or more expensive wildfire coverage rates, cost9 sharing, or both— 

10 (i) on local communities, including on 

11 low- or moderate-income property owners 

12 and small businesses; 

13 (ii) by race and ethnicity; 

14 (iii) on rebuilding in communities pre15 viously damaged by wildfires; and 

16 (iv) on the demand for wildfire cov17 erage by property owners; 

18 (I) the effects of potential State prohibi19 tions on termination of policies due to wildfire 

20 claims on insurer solvency; and 

21 (J) the manner in which private insurers 

22 are modeling or estimating future wildfire risk. 

23 (b) REPORT.—Not later than the expiration of the 

24 24-month period beginning on the date of the enactment 

25 of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 


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1 shall submit to the Congress a report identifying the find2 ings and conclusions of the study conducted pursuant to 

3 subsection (a). 

Æ 


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