# 119-s-3609: Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act

119-s-3609, Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-04-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3609
- As of: 2026-04-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-3609
- Congress: 119
- Title: Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-01-08
- Sponsor: Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Cosponsors: 1
- Policy area: Emergency Management
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-04-21

## Summary

**Creates a FEMA-run grant program to fund local wildfire protection and resilience**. It requires community protection plans, prioritizes high-risk areas, and sets grant caps and cost-share rules. - Families and residents gain funding for measures that reduce fire risk. Grants support defensible space, structure hardening, evacuation planning, public alerts, and special strategies for elderly people, children, people with disabilities, and people experiencing homelessness. - States, Tribes, local governments, volunteer fire departments, or collaborations can apply. Project awards cap at $10 million and generally require a 25% non-Federal share while plan grants cap at $250 thousand and require no share, and the Administrator may waive the share or allow low-income communities to use low interest federal loans. - Federal coordination, mapping, and oversight increase. The bill requires GAO studies on federal wildfire authorities and a possible community resilience certification, updates and publishes at-risk community maps, requires a radio communications report, and allows structure hardening under the existing Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program. *Authorizes $1.0 billion per year from 2025 through 2029 for the new grant program, increasing federal spending over that period.*

## Cosponsors (1)

- Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT] (R-MT), 2026-01-08T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Maps and GAO studies on wildfire risk: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require GAO to publish two reports within one year: one cataloging federal wildfire authorities and funding gaps, and another studying whether a community resilience certification could work and how insurers might accept it. The bill would also require FEMA and the Forest…
- New community wildfire grants program: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would create a new FEMA grant program for local wildfire protection and resilience. Project grants could be up to $10 million each. Plan-development grants could be up to $250,000 each. The bill would authorize $1 billion per year for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 and would re…
- Wildfire radio communications report: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require FEMA, in coordination with USDA and state and local agencies, to prepare a radio communications report within two years. The report would assess whether emergency agencies can talk by radio during large fires, whether reserved frequencies are enough, recommend ext…
- Grants allowed for structure hardening: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would amend an existing Community Wildfire Defense grant program to explicitly allow structure hardening projects. That includes construction or modification to resist flames or embers and changes to nearby areas and vegetation to reduce exposure. Homeowners and property owners…
- Preference for local hiring and contractors: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would require grant recipients to give preference, when practicable, to contracting with businesses and hiring people from the area where a project is done. Recipients would be encouraged to partner with local corps groups like AmeriCorps or conservation corps. This would incre…
- Local cost-share and loan rules: mixed, medium. If enacted, the bill would require most project grants to include at least a 25% non‑Federal share of project costs. Plan-development grants would need no local share. The local share can come from states, tribes, nonprofits, private industry, volunteer hours, or in‑kind donations. Low‑income commu…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026
- 119-s-1462: Fix Our Forests Act
- 119-s-4744: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
- 119-s-306: Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025
- 119-s-5022: Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act
- 119-s-2838: Protecting Our Democracy Act

## Sources
- [119-s-3609 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3609)

## Related
- [119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5066)
- [119-s-1462: Fix Our Forests Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1462)
- [119-s-4744: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4744)
- [119-s-306: Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-306)
- [119-s-5022: Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5022)
- [119-s-2838: Protecting Our Democracy Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2838)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3609 (as of 2026-04-21).