WASHINGTON — Eager to show they are responding swiftly to California's devastating wildfires, federal lawmakers are beginning work on a $1-billion emergency measure for disaster relief.
But the response will open two contentious issues that go beyond money and could delay the process: whether the federal government should begin subsidizing insurance for catastrophic blazes, and whether it should become more aggressive about preventing wildfires in the West.
Both could open political divisions in Washington and create conflicts with powerful regional and local interests.
"I want to help folks, but I want to condition it on state and local governments taking reasonable steps to minimize putting people in harm's way again," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), a leader in efforts to shift federal disaster funds toward prevention. "We're encouraging people to go up and have a kind of wilderness experience, and then they turn around and expect urban-level fire protection."
The idea of a catastrophic insurance program has been raised by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former FEMA Administrator James Lee Witt. Such a program could prove tricky because it would probably be conditioned on more-restrictive local zoning and building rules to discourage construction of homes in fire-prone areas.
Congress is also considering short-term measures to encourage so-called "fire-wise" land use.
Lawmakers are weighing a funding boost in the emergency aid legislation for prevention programs that involve clearing dead trees and undergrowth that fuel wildfires. Such a forest-thinning program is being credited with helping save homes near Lake Arrowhead. But some environmental groups view the program as opening up protected areas to logging.
Feinstein said she had not made up her mind on specific policy options and would hold hearings to examine alternatives in the interior appropriations subcommittee that she chairs. Nonetheless, she acknowledged that issues involving land use stir up sensitive questions about the balance between federal, state and local responsibilities.
"We don't do zoning," she said. "It's really local. This is the major power of local government, and it's theirs exclusively."
Feinstein raised the idea of federally backed insurance Wednesday on the Senate floor. "It's . . . pretty clear to me that we have to develop some catastrophic, government-helped insurance."
