Sponsors (6)
The bill gives at‑risk homeowners a federal buyout option and seeks better targeting, coordination, and equity in post‑wildfire recovery, but it increases federal spending, could erode local tax bases, raises privacy/administrative burdens, and risks unequal outcomes if not carefully designed.
Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas would have a federal option to sell high-risk properties, reducing individual financial exposure and personal safety risk from future wildfires.
A national database of buyouts would improve transparency and coordination among federal and local programs (FEMA, HUD, etc.), helping planners avoid duplicative spending and better align recovery efforts.
Mandated mapping and eligibility methodology could target federal resources to the highest-risk areas, improving cost-effectiveness and public safety of buyouts and other mitigation investments.
Establishing and operating a federal buyout program would increase federal spending and could require higher taxes or divert funds from other priorities.
Large-scale buyouts could shrink local property tax bases if many parcels are removed from the rolls, harming local budgets and services (schools, emergency services, etc.).
If eligibility criteria or mapping are poorly designed, buyouts could favor higher-income areas or produce uneven outcomes, disadvantaging low-income and marginalized communities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires GAO to study the feasibility of using federal grants to buy properties voluntarily sold before or after catastrophic wildfires and to report recommendations within 12 months.
Official title: To require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study regarding a Federal buyout program available to homeowners with properties in high-risk catastrophic wildfire disaster areas, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 27, 2025 by Laura Friedman · Last progress March 27, 2025
Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to complete a study within 12 months on whether federal grant programs could be used to buy properties voluntarily sold by homeowners before or after catastrophic wildfires. The GAO must recommend how to build a national inventory of existing buyouts, how FEMA and HUD can share buyout information, how a wildfire-focused buyout program would work relative to existing buyout programs, which agency should run it, land‑use and mapping approaches, model definitions, and an estimate of costs and incentives. The GAO must deliver findings and recommendations to Congress within one year of enactment.