New bipartisan bill would create FEMA wildfire resilience grant programme
Iain Hoey
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Wildfire resilience grant programme proposed through FEMA
U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Tim Sheehy have announced bipartisan legislation to establish a new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act grant programme aimed at helping local communities reduce wildfire damage.
In a 7 January 2026 press release from Padilla’s office, the senators said the bill would create a new community hardening grant programme within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and invest $1 billion per year.
The senators said the funding would support Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans developed with community members, first responders and relevant state agencies, covering actions such as early detection technology, alerts and warnings, evacuation planning and execution, access for first responders, and measures for vulnerable populations including the elderly and people with disabilities.
The plans would also include hardening critical infrastructure and homes, applying community-scale defensible space across contiguous areas, building local capacity to implement and oversee plans, deploying distributed energy resources such as microgrids with battery storage, strategic land use planning, community education, and coordination with existing wildfire plans including a Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
What the bill would fund and how grants would be prioritised
The press release said the bill would provide grants of up to $250,000 to develop a Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plan and grants of up to $10 million to implement a plan.
It said grants would be prioritised for low-income communities at high risk for fire or wildfire and communities recently impacted by a major wildfire.
The bill would also require a report on federal authorities and programmes to protect communities from wildfires, a study on whether a plan could be used as a certification tool for insurance companies assessing community resilience, ongoing updates to wildfire hazard maps, and an assessment of impediments to emergency radio communications across departments and agencies.
The senators said the bill would also add home hardening as an allowable project under the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Wildfire Defense Grant programme and allow structure hardening to be covered under existing community wildfire protection programmes.
Backers in Congress and endorsements cited in the release
Padilla and Sheehy described themselves as co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus and said Representatives Jared Huffman and Jay Obernolte are leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
Padilla said: “One year ago today, Pacific Palisades and Altadena families lost loved ones, homes, businesses, places of worship, and so much more as their neighborhoods were reduced to rubble.
“These catastrophic disasters serve as a stark reminder that megafires can devastate both forested and urban areas.
“That’s why I’m working across the aisle with Senator Sheehy to deliver lifesaving federal support to help mitigate the growing risk of catastrophic wildfires and harden our communities and critical infrastructure against disasters.”
Sheehy said: “To keep American cities and towns from burning to the ground and save lives, we must be proactive in aggressively hardening communities against the year-round threat of catastrophic wildfire.
“The Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act delivers the tools needed to better safeguard people, homes, and property from disaster, and I’m proud to support this bipartisan, commonsense effort to make America more wildfire resilient.”
The press release said the bill is endorsed by groups including CalWild, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Silvix Resources, Trust for Public Land, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Wilderness Society and John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute.
