Wildfire Emergency Act of 2025
Introduced Jan 30, 2025 by Sen. Alex Padilla
It's waiting on a committee vote to reach the full chamber. Most bills never leave this stage.
This bill establishes additional support for forest restoration, the power needs of critical facilities (e.g., hospitals) during extreme weather events, and wildfire mitigation and management.
The bill directs the Forest Service to conduct a 10-year pilot program to carry out up to 20 conservation finance projects to protect, restore, or improve National Forest System land. Such conservation finance projects must (1) leverage other federal or nonfederal investments in addition to funds provided by the Forest Service; and (2) use loaned capital from an investor to cover up-front project costs, with the loaned capital repaid over time by conservation finance project beneficiaries.
The Department of Energy (DOE) must establish a program to improve the energy resilience and energy efficiency of critical facilities (e.g., hospitals).
The bill expands DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program to include support for the use of fire-resistant materials and to increase the amount of financial assistance that may be provided to households for increasing the energy efficiency of their homes.
Read the full summary on Congress.govSummary by the Congressional Research Service.
No floor votes yet — it hasn't reached the floor of either chamber.