The President’s January 27, 2026, executive order addressing the rebuilding of Los Angeles after the catastrophic 2025 wildfires landed with a thud for California leaders. It is highly relevant for policyholders who are still waiting for insurance checks that will actually allow them to rebuild, and for those who want to rebuild. The order directs federal agencies to fast-track rebuilding by attempting to bypass state and local permitting, allow builder self-certification, and pressure California through audits of federal hazard-mitigation funds. The political framing noted in the executive order is that government red tape is the problem.
California officials did not mince words. Governor Gavin Newsom publicly dismissed the order as detached from reality, responding that “an executive order to rebuild Mars would do just as useful.” He then issued a plea that spoke volumes about where the real bottleneck lies: “Please actually help us. We are begging you.” Newsom’s frustration was not rhetorical theater. California has already issued thousands of rebuilding permits, suspended environmental review requirements, and streamlined construction approvals. In other words, the regulatory door was already open. The people who could not walk through it were those without adequate insurance proceeds or access to capital. FEMA is an entity that has traditionally provided quick access to that capital. 1
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was even more explicit about what policyholders already know from lived experience. Calling the executive order a “political stunt,” she urged the federal government to focus less on local permitting and more on the financial choke points that keep families from rebuilding. Bass said the administration should “speed up FEMA reimbursements” and “demand the insurance industry pay people for their losses so that survivors can afford to rebuild.” She went further, calling on banks to extend mortgage forbearance and to create no-interest loan programs for fire survivors. That list reads like a checklist from every post-disaster claims seminar I have ever attended. Permits do not rebuild homes. Money does.
Mayor Bass’s position is backed by her own actions. Early in the disaster, she issued emergency orders designed to clear bureaucratic obstacles and, in her words, “clear the way for Angelenos to rapidly rebuild the homes they lost.” Her administration emphasized that an “unprecedented natural disaster warrants an unprecedented response.” The city acted. The state acted. What many policyholders did not receive was full, timely, and fair payment under their insurance policies. 2
While California Attorney General Rob Bonta has not issued a wildfire-specific press release responding to the executive order, his office’s posture toward sweeping federal action is well established. Marking one year of litigation against the Trump administration, Bonta stated that California has been “standing up for California families and businesses, defending constitutional rights, and protecting approximately $188 billion in funding.” That record matters. If federal agencies attempt to impose rebuilding schemes that override state authority or shift costs and delays onto policyholders, California is institutionally prepared to push back in court.
For those of us who work in property insurance claims, the legal and political subtext is impossible to ignore. The executive order assumes that local permitting delays are the primary reason people remain displaced. Yet reporting from the ground and statements from state and local officials tell a different story. Homeowners are waiting on insurance payments, fighting scope and valuation disputes, facing underinsurance, or being forced into appraisal, mediation, or litigation just to obtain enough money to start rebuilding. That is not fully a zoning problem. From my view, it is a claims-handling problem.
From a constitutional standpoint, the order also walks directly into federalism limits. Preempting state and local building authority is not something a president can simply declare. Agencies must point to clear statutory authority, and courts are skeptical when executive action tries to substitute federal judgment for state police powers. Those legal battles may matter most to governments, but their downstream effects always land on policyholders, often in the form of delay, confusion, and finger-pointing between agencies and insurers.
What troubles me most is the missed opportunity. If the federal government truly wanted to accelerate rebuilding for wildfire survivors, it would focus on enforcing prompt and fair insurance payments, expanding temporary housing coverage, and ensuring disaster aid reaches policyholders before savings are exhausted and credit is ruined. Governor Newsom’s plea and Mayor Bass’s call to make insurers pay what they owe are not partisan talking points. They are policyholder-centric truths.
The lesson for policyholders and claims professionals is simple but sobering. Political announcements may generate headlines, but rebuilding happens only when insurance payments and financing are provided. Until insurance proceeds flow fairly and timely, no executive order, no matter how forceful its language, will put families back in their homes.
Thought For The Day
“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
— William E. Gladstone
1 “Here are all the actions Governor Newsom has taken in response to the Los Angeles fires,” Press Release, Governor’s Office, Jan. 24, 2026.
2 “Mayor bass Issues Sweeping executive Order to Clear Way for Angelenos to Rebuild their Homes Fast,” Press Release, Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, Jan. 13, 2026.