Trump signs order to speed up rebuilds of homes affected by 2025 LA wildfires | Donald Trump
Donald Trump announced that he has signed an executive order to “cut through bureaucratic red tape” and speed up the rebuilding of tens of thousands of homes destroyed in the Los Angeles area wildfires in January 2025.
The President’s order, announced on Tuesday but signed on Friday, aims to allow homeowners to rebuild without having to deal with “unnecessary, duplicative or prohibitive” permit requirements, the White House said in a statement.
The order directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to find a way to enact regulations that would circumvent state and local rules on permitting and allow builders to “self-certify” that they comply with “essential health, safety, and construction standards.”
The order also instructs federal agencies to expedite waivers, permits and approvals to bypass any environmental, historic preservation or natural resource laws that could pose obstacles to rebuilding.
But it’s not immediately clear what authority the federal government might have over local and state permits.
California governor Gavin Newsom scoffed at the idea that the federal government could issue local rebuilding permits and urged Trump to instead focus on approving the state’s request for $33.9 billion in disaster aid. Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., to defend the money, but the administration has yet to approve it.
“An executive order to rebuild Mars would be just as helpful,” Newsom wrote on social media. He added: “Please really help us. We’re begging you.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass echoed these pleas, saying in a statement that the Trump administration should expedite Fema reimbursements rather than meddle in the permitting process.
Bass called Trump’s move a “political stunt” and said he should issue an executive order to “demand that the insurance industry pay people for their losses so survivors can rebuild, force the banking industry to extend mortgage forbearance by three years, force them to expire 30-year mortgages, and bring banks together to create a special fund to provide interest-free loans to fire survivors.”
Wildfires that began on January 7, 2025, killed 31 people and destroyed nearly 13,000 homes in the communities of Palisades, Malibu, Altadena, and Pasadena. The largest of the fires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, burned for more than three weeks and cleanup efforts took nearly seven months.
The Associated Press found that less than a dozen homes had been rebuilt a year after the disaster. Construction as of December At least 511 houses are under construction Eaton on fire footprint and At least 370 in Palisades.
Nearly 2,600 rebuilding permits had been issued in Los Angeles County as of Jan. 5, according to county and city records released by the state. Approximately 41% of applications received. Applications for most of the burned properties are not yet on file.
Redevelopment plans in Pacific Palisades were approved in half the time compared to single-family home projects citywide before the wildfires, with “more than 70% of home permits no longer required,” Bass said.
But to many survivors, progress felt slow. “It’s predominantly the wealthy who are rebuilding,” said Dr Thomas Chandler, executive director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.
Those with resources, especially developers equipped with knowledge and ready-made networks, got started faster.
Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivor’s Network, a network of more than 10,000 survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, said furlough assistance “is always welcome,” but it’s not the primary concern of those trying to rebuild.
“The number one hurdle for Eaton and Palisades fire survivors right now is money,” Chen said, as survivors struggle to get paid from insurance companies and face staggering gaps between the money needed to rebuild and actual construction costs.
In a December survey by Ministry of Angels, a nonprofit organization that advocates for fire survivors in Los Angeles, nearly a third of survivors cited rebuilding costs and insurance payouts as major obstacles to rebuilding, while 21% cited allowing for delays and obstacles.
Trump’s executive order also directs Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Fema acting administrator Karen Evans to oversee California’s use of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding, a typical add-on to major disasters that allows states to recover with greater resilience. The audit must be completed within 60 days; Noem and Evans are then instructed to determine whether future conditions should be placed on the financing or whether “compensatory or recovery actions” should be taken, if possible.
Trump has not approved a single HMGP funding request from states since February; this was part of a broader effort to reduce federal funding for climate change mitigation.
