Senate Bill 11 Passes Senate & Assembly Insurance Committees
June 25th – Napa, CA – The Napa County Farm Bureau is proud to announce that Farm Bureau sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 11, designed to address the lack of wildfire insurance coverage in Napa Valley and throughout California and provide wildfire insurance coverage to agricultural infrastructure, has yesterday passed out of the Assembly Insurance Committee by a unanimous vote and is quickly advancing through the Legislature where it should soon reach Governor Newsom’s desk.
The Farm Bureau has made the lack of wildfire insurance coverage for its members a top priority. Building from the Farm Bureau hosted event with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara last month in Calistoga where the Farm Bureau discussed the lack of wildfire insurance coverage in Napa Valley, the Farm Bureau not only sponsored Senate Bill 11, but successfully worked to add an urgency clause to the legislation to expedite its movement through the Legislature and begin to immediately address this issue for Napa Valley and the rest of the state.
Yesterday, Senate Bill 11 successfully passed out of the Assembly Insurance Committee by a unanimous vote. This follows successful passage out of the Senate Insurance Committee on April 8 by a vote of 12-0 and successful passage from the State Senate on April 22 by a vote of 38-0.
“This issue has been a #1 priority for the Farm Bureau and SB 11’s ongoing successful movement is a testament to the hard work that our team has put into this issue and we’re seeing the benefits of all of that hard work right now,” said Johnnie White, President of the Napa County Farm Bureau.
“This is exciting news and the hard legislative work that the Farm Bureau has done on this issue is showing real results for our members right now,” said Ryan Klobas, Chief Executive Officer of the Napa County Farm Bureau. “A significant number of Napa County’s commercial farms and ranches have lost property insurance availability because of increased wildfire risks and our work on this legislation is a first step to correcting that problem and an avenue to begin to provide relief for our members. We’re hopeful this will reach Governor Newsom’s desk soon.”
Farming and ranching operations currently do not have access to basic property insurance provided by the California FAIR Plan, leaving commercial agricultural infrastructure, wineries, farming equipment and other components uninsured. Senate Bill 11 would authorize these operations to access the California FAIR Plan for basic property coverage and provide a necessary property insurance backstop for Napa County’s agricultural infrastructure.
