An Honest Economy for Shasta County
Ground zero for California's wildfire crisis — and the community that refuses to give up
Shasta County is the beating heart of Northern California. Redding is the largest city north of Sacramento — the regional hub for healthcare, commerce, and everything in between. But the Carr Fire, the Zogg Fire, and fire after fire have turned this community into ground zero for California's insurance collapse. Families who survived the flames are now losing their homes to non-renewal notices. These three bills attack the wildfire crisis from every angle: the insurance market, the overgrown forests, and the broken federal system.
You Survived the Fire. Then Your Insurance Company Left.
Shasta County has been hit by catastrophic wildfires that killed people, destroyed neighborhoods, and scarred entire communities. The survivors rebuilt — and then their insurance companies dropped them. The forests that keep catching fire are overgrown because nobody's managing them. These three bills attack the problem at every level: stabilize the insurance market, create a federal backstop for catastrophic losses, and fix the forests so they stop burning. Not promises — drafted federal legislation with real funding and constitutional analysis.
National Climate Resilience & Fire Safety Reinsurance Act
When the next fire is a billion-dollar disaster, someone has to be able to pay — this bill makes sure they can
Private insurance companies can't handle catastrophic wildfire losses alone. When a single fire costs billions, insurers either go bankrupt or pull out of the market entirely — which is exactly what's happening in Shasta County. This bill creates a federal reinsurance facility modeled on the same proven system that protects the country from flood and terrorism losses. It's the backup behind the backup — so when the Carr Fire or the next megafire hits, insurance companies can actually pay claims instead of fleeing the state. The facility is self-funded through premiums paid by insurers, not taxpayers. It requires transparent risk modeling so communities know exactly why their rates are what they are. And it includes home hardening incentives — real money for homeowners who invest in fire-resistant roofing, defensible space, and ember-resistant vents. You do the work, you get the savings.
Federal Wildfire Insurance Stabilization Act
Insurance companies are using secret algorithms to drop you — this bill rips the black box open
Right now, insurance companies use proprietary risk models that nobody can see or challenge to decide who gets coverage and who doesn't. In Shasta County, those models are wiping out entire neighborhoods. Families who hardened their homes, cleared their brush, and did everything right are still getting non-renewal notices because the algorithm says their zip code is too risky. This bill replaces those secret models with an open-source National Wildfire Risk Model — built with real data, reviewed by real scientists, available to everyone. It creates a national "Zone Zero" standard: a 5-foot noncombustible buffer around every structure that qualifies homeowners for guaranteed discounts. It establishes Firewise Community Certification that rewards entire neighborhoods for working together on fire safety. And it requires insurers to give meaningful credits for home hardening — not just token discounts, but real savings for real investment.
American Forest Resilience & Timber Economy Act
The forests are overgrown because nobody's managing them — this bill fixes that and creates jobs doing it
The Carr Fire didn't just happen. It happened because decades of fire suppression left Shasta County's forests dangerously overgrown — packed with fuel that turns every spark into a catastrophe. This bill designates Shasta as a Forestry Resilience Zone, unlocking federal investment in the sustainable forest management that should have been happening all along. It funds Tri-Zonal Management that divides forests into conservation, sustainable harvest, and intensive management zones — so the right treatment happens in the right place. It creates a biomass circular economy that turns the material cleared from overgrown forests into energy and wood products instead of leaving it to burn. It recognizes cultural burning as a legitimate forest management tool — honoring the practices that kept these forests healthy for thousands of years before fire suppression policies made everything worse. And it brings back timber jobs — not the clearcuts of the past, but sustainable forestry that manages the forests while supporting working families.
Every Bill Meets These Standards
Not campaign talking points — drafted legislation tested against eight ironclad principles. Read the bills. Check the math. Hold me accountable.