Two months after the anniversary of the devastating Southern California firestorms, several legislators at the state Capitol unveiled a package of bills aimed at preventing wildfires and lessening their harms.
“California has reached a tipping point,” Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) said during a news conference Wednesday. “In the last nine years, we’ve had the eight largest fires in the history of California — we shouldn’t have this problem.”
Two of the most destructive wildfires ever in California erupted on the same day last January. The fires devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena — destroying homes and businesses, displacing residents and killing 31 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires caused an estimated economic loss of $250 billion.
Among the dozen bills announced Wednesday were:
Assembly Bill 1934, carried by Bennett, would require the state fire marshal’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee to develop a home hardening certification program. (Home hardening involves using ignition-resistant materials to make houses less vulnerable to embers or flames.)
Senate Bill 1079, from Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), would create a Fire Innovation Unit within the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The unit would serve as a hub for wildfire technology research and deployment.
Assembly Bill 1699, by Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), would indefinitely extend the Prescribed Fire Liability Program and expand program eligibility.
Assembly Bill 1891, by Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael), would create the Beneficial Fire Capacity Program to expand training and support for community-led beneficial fire programs, including those developed by universities, volunteer fire districts and California Native American tribes.
Senate Bill 894, from Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), would state the intent of the Legislature to create the California Wildfire Resilience Program, which would increase access to home hardening modifications.
Allen, who represents the Palisades, said neighborhoods are being turned upside down by wildfires.
“Modern fires are now spreading from wild lands into urban communities,” he said. “The reality that so many people in my district have been living through over this past year has been immensely challenging. Tens of thousands of families remain displaced from their homes.”
State Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica) hosts a discussion with local leaders and residents to mark 100 days since the start of the L.A. County wildfires at Will Rogers State Beach on April 17, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Many fire survivors have expressed anger over government action that they believe enabled the disaster and hindered recovery efforts. When asked whether the Legislature had plans to dissect the response, Allen said he would support a robust investigation.
“I think the public is expecting that the state is really looking into this,” he said. “But I know there’s always 10 million different priorities around here — one of my jobs as somebody who represents these folks is to make sure it continues to be on the radar screen.”
Bennett said Californians had a right to expect oversight and transparency but should not “expect perfection” during emergencies.
“I think we are best in California if we develop a culture where everybody says, ‘You do the best you can,’” he said. “I think we would be better off.”
Survivors in Altadena and Pacific Palisades recently marked the anniversary of the disaster with solemn memorial services.
“This year has been the hardest year of our lives,” Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said during a service in Altadena. “Unimaginable grief. The 31 people who died that day, and the hundreds who have died prematurely since. Homes lost. Jobs lost. Incomes lost. A sense of safety and identity stripped away.”
At a luncheon this week for L.A. County politicos, Supervisor Kathryn Barger pitched what she framed as a commonsense reform.
Legislators in Sacramento, she argued, need to change a 2019 law that extended the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits, opening the floodgates for decades-old claims that have cost the county nearly $5 billion and counting in payouts.
“I want them in Sacramento to fix it,” she said. “I have to believe that we are the tip of the iceberg.”
The controversial law, Assembly Bill 218, has led to thousands of claims over abuse that took place in schools, juvenile halls and foster homes. Supporters say it continues to give survivors a chance at justice, while Barger and other officials warn the cost of the litigation is driving local governments to the brink of bankruptcy.
Rolling back AB 218, critics argue, is the single most obvious thing state lawmakers can do this legislative session.
The push has gained momentum amid concerns of fraud in the first of two payouts approved last year by L.A. County officials. At $4 billion, it was the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history, with the money set aside for more than 11,000 victims.
The Times reported last fall on allegations of fabricated claims filed by plaintiffs within the settlement, which prompted L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman to open an investigation. Hochman told the supervisors this week that his office is reviewing “thousands of claims” for fraudulent submissions and predicted savings in the “hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars.”
Speaking at the event Wednesday, Barger suggested capping attorneys fees — acknowledging that some high-powered attorneys in the room were involved in the county’s litigation.
Out of the $4-billion payout, she said, “about $1.5 billion will go to attorney fees — present company included.”
Barger referenced a former state Assembly speaker known for bare-knuckle tactics, which she said were needed now in the Capitol.
“If Willie Brown were up there, I’m sure he’d lock everyone in a room and slap some sense into them at this point,” she said.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has asked California legislators to consider changes to AB 218. Critics say sexual abuse lawsuits are driving local governments to the brink of bankruptcy, while supporters say it is one of the few ways for victims of abuse to get justice. Rivas spoke in Ventura County on Nov. 18, 2025.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
This session, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has assigned a group of legislators to look at what changes might be made to the law.
A spokesman for Rivas, Nick Miller, said the goal is to provide “meaningful access to justice for all survivors” without forcing service cuts in schools and governments.
“There is a group of members discussing possible solutions that strike the right balance on this critical issue,” Miller said.
It’s a tightrope walk that no legislator has mastered.
Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica), who tried last year to increase the burden of proof for these cases, was branded a protector of predators.
Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) got further with a pared-down bill only to watch it blow up last session over concerns he was trampling on victims’ rights.
“I worked hard to strike the middle ground,” Laird said. “It just was too hard.”
Organized labor, a powerful voice in Sacramento, could sway the equation. County unions said they were told repeatedly at the bargaining table last year that they couldn’t get raises because of the massive sex abuse settlements, potentially setting them on a collision course with victim advocates.
Lorena Gonzalez, who wrote AB 218 in 2019 before leaving the Legislature to head up the California Federation of Labor Unions, said lobbying firms had been urging unions recently to take the lead on convincing the Assembly to change the law. The union leaders have yet to take a stance, she said.
“Although there’s some desire to especially fix what happened in L.A., there wasn’t an overwhelming desire to roll it back,” she said.
While serving in the state Legislature, Lorena Gonzalez authored AB 218, a state law that extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits over sexual abuse in government facilities. Gonzalez, now with the California Labor Federation, spoke at Balletto Vineyards in Santa Rosa, Calif., on April 26, 2024.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
A Times investigation last fall found nine clients of Downtown L.A. Law Group, a law firm that represents thousands of plaintiffs in the county’s largest settlement, who claimed that recruiters had paid them to sue. Some clients said they were told to make up stories of abuse that became the crux of their lawsuit.
The firm, also known as DTLA, has denied paying any client to sue. Andrew Morrow, the main attorney on the cases for DTLA, argued in a Feb. 13 court filing that the recent subpoena by the State Bar seeking their court records as part of an investigation into the firm amounted to an “ill-advised fishing expedition.” The firm argued that allowing the State Bar to review its filings violates clients’ privacy.
“No one disputes that these allegations are troubling and, if true, serious,” Morrow wrote. “However, untested allegations printed in a local newspaper — no matter how compelling — do not override the privacy rights” of victims.
Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), a longtime advocate for sex abuse survivors who vehemently opposed the last attempt at changing AB 218, said that “there’s all kinds of discussions about potential solutions” for fraud underway in the Legislature.
But limiting victims’ ability to sue, as some have called on lawmakers to do, is a clear no-go, she said.
“Silencing victims is not the way to get out fraud,” she said.
Like many legislators, she pinned some of the blame for the alleged fraud on poor vetting by lawyers for L.A. County. The county has said the cost of taking depositions for more than 11,000 cases would be “astronomical,” and that no records exist for many of the older cases, leaving them defenseless.
In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for the L.A. County counsel’s office said the Legislature created AB 218 “without a single safeguard against fraud.”
“That is their failure to own,” the statement said. “This is the system the Legislature built, and they need to fix it.”
The county maintains it is not trying to squash victims’ rights, but rather keep vital services — pools, parks, health clinics — open.
“I am tired of whenever a government official stands up and says, ‘Hey, there needs to be some reform here,’ that we’re accused of victim blaming, pedophile protecting,” says Joseph Nicchitta, the county’s acting chief executive.
After agreeing to the $4-billion payout in April, county officials opted into a second $828-million settlement in October covering an additional 400 cases. Since then, more than 5,000 cases have been filed that are not part of either settlement and still need to be resolved.
“Let me tell you what will not work for L.A. County,” Nicchitta said. “The nibbles around the edges — ‘Make the procedure a little tighter, we’ll require a couple more documents.’”
He said he believes the Legislature needs to weigh the need to pay survivors against the obligation to keep the social safety net intact. One solution, Nicchitta said, could involve a victims compensation fund that would eliminate the need for someone to hire an attorney in order to submit a claim and receive money.
“Acknowledge the harm, provide real competition, [and] do it fast,” he said. “You don’t need a lawyer.”
John Manly, a lawyer who has represented sex abuse survivors for more than 20 years, sits at his law office in Irvine on Dec. 29, 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
After getting flooded with sex abuse claims related to juvenile facilities following a similar change in the statute of limitations, Maryland capped sex abuse cases against government entities last year at $400,000 and limited attorneys’ fees to 25% for cases resolved in court.
For many California trial attorneys, ideas such as these are nonstarters.
“The reason they’re proposing a victims’ fund is they continue to know that those people don’t have any political power,” said John Manly, a veteran sex abuse attorney who is part of the second L.A. County settlement. “The only power they have is to hire a lawyer and get justice.
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers on Monday approved a one-time infusion of $90 million for Planned Parenthood and other women’s health clinics, a direct respond to the Trump administration’s cuts to reproductive healthcare and access to abortion providers.
“Trump is tearing down healthcare and increasing costs,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said in a statement. “Democrats are building it up — investing millions in women’s health and maternal care, because families come first in California.”
The legislation providing the funding, SB 106, carried by Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), is intended to help offset the losses from federal cuts that targeted abortion providers. The Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last year by President Trump, prohibited federal Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood.
The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California and a coalition of other Democrat-led states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration last year over the provision. More than 80% of the nearly 1.3 million annual patient visits to Planned Parenthood in California previously were reimbursed by Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, which provides healthcare coverage to low-income Americans.
Assemblyman David Tangipa (R-Clovis) voiced opposition to the legislation Monday.
“Why does Planned Parenthood get a $90-million grant when right now over 60 hospitals in the state of California are on the verge of shutting down?” Tangipa asked, speaking on the Assembly floor. “Hospitals across our state that deliver high quality care to women are on the brink of closure.”
Planned Parenthood offers a range of services, including abortions, birth control and cancer screenings.
