[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 97 (Monday, June 5, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CALIFORNIA INSURANCE OPTIONS LIMITED

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, in California and in the Western States, we 
see massive wildfires year in and year out due to the nonmanagement or 
mismanagement of our forests.
  The result here lately has shown that, in California, you are seeing 
major insurers pulling out of the State. They are either no longer 
offering new insurance policies to homeowners or are even withdrawing 
old ones upon their expiration, which means costs go up for the 
remaining companies, fewer choices for consumers, and even more 
disaster in the fact that insurance will no longer be affordable at all 
for any of them as they have seen skyrocketing costs.
  What do we do about this? What should government do? Well, it 
probably shouldn't be getting into the insurance business. Indeed, the 
California one called FAIR is already expensive and hard to get, beyond 
what the private ones are.
  It comes down to forestry, having positive forestry that makes the 
level of risk in line, as well as not fees and mandates on top of what 
it takes to build a home already too costly in California, and making 
land available instead of getting sued over using the land in order to 
build new housing.
  Now, you are going to hear the regulators say: It is all due to 
climate change.
  No, it is other government actions that are doing this.

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