Sponsors (6)
The bill creates a federal pathway to buy out high-risk wildfire properties and improve targeting, coordination, recovery, and equity — but it requires significant federal spending and poses risks to local tax bases, privacy, and fair implementation.
Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas would have a federal option to sell high-risk properties, reducing their personal financial exposure and safety risk.
A national buyout database would improve transparency and coordination across FEMA, HUD, and state/local programs, helping planning and reducing duplicative spending.
Study-directed mapping and eligibility methodology would better target federal resources to the highest-risk areas, improving cost-effectiveness and public safety.
Setting up and running a federal buyout program would increase federal spending and could require higher taxes or divert funding from other priorities.
Large-scale buyouts could shrink local property tax bases, straining municipal budgets and local services.
If mapping and eligibility criteria are poorly designed or implemented, buyouts could favor higher-income areas and produce uneven, inequitable outcomes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs GAO to study within 12 months whether federal grant programs can buy properties voluntarily sold before or after catastrophic wildfires and to recommend program design, data, and agency roles.
Introduced March 27, 2025 by Laura Friedman · Last progress March 27, 2025
Directs the Government Accountability Office to study, within 12 months of enactment, whether federal grant programs can be used to purchase homes voluntarily sold by homeowners before or after catastrophic wildfires. The GAO must analyze existing buyout programs, recommend how a national database and interagency information sharing could work, propose which federal agency or program should administer a wildfire-focused buyout program, outline land‑use and mapping approaches for high‑risk areas, and return findings and definitions to Congress.