Sponsor
Jeff Merkley
Senator · D-OR
Senator · D-OR
The bill directs federal funds, vouchers, and favorable tax treatment to reduce wildfire risk—particularly for low-income and Tribal communities—while relying on state administration, limited per-household caps, and short-term authorization that may produce uneven access, affordability gaps, and incomplete protection absent further follow-up.
Homeowners and small multifamily residents can receive up to $10,000 per household for home-hardening and smoke-mitigation measures, lowering immediate wildfire vulnerability for many households.
Low-income homeowners in high-wildfire-risk areas can receive vouchers to reduce wildfire insurance premiums, lowering out-of-pocket housing costs for vulnerable households.
Administrative overhead is capped at 10%, maximizing the share of funds that reach households and on-the-ground mitigation projects.
Homeowners in high-cost areas may find the $10,000 per-household grant insufficient for comprehensive retrofits, leaving many properties only partially protected.
Implementation will be uneven and administratively burdensome: states and state insurance agencies administer programs which may delay access, produce varying voucher values and eligibility across states, and impose reporting burdens on recipients and local implementers.
Requiring that risk-reduction investments be completed to qualify for vouchers may be unaffordable or inaccessible for many low-income households, limiting who can benefit from the program.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates grant and voucher programs to fund wildfire mitigation and subsidize homeowner wildfire insurance, and excludes qualifying mitigation payments from taxable income.
Official title: Establish a grant program to promote wildfire resilience investments and a pilot program to reduce the cost burden of insurance premiums, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 23, 2026 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress July 23, 2026
Creates two federal programs to reduce wildfire risk and make homeowner wildfire insurance more affordable. One program gives formula grants to States, territories, and Tribes for home-hardening, defensible space, fuel management, smoke mitigation, and related resilience measures; another is a means-tested pilot that helps low- and moderate-income households pay wildfire insurance premiums. The bill also amends the tax code to exclude certain State catastrophe mitigation payments from gross income so grant recipients are not taxed on those mitigation payments.