Dianne Feinstein: “I rise to speak in support of legislation that I introduced today along with Senators Alex Padilla and John…”

“I rise to speak in support of legislation that I introduced today along with Senators Alex Padilla and John Hickenlooper. This is a companion to the bipartisan bill that Representative Mike Thompson has introduced in the House of Representatives. In 2020, the Fire Victim Trust was established after Pacific Gas & Electric, PG&E, was found legally responsible for major California wildfires in 2015, 2017, and 2018. PG&E contributed about $13 billion to this fund to pay victims of these wildfires to cover losses they suffered. Unfortunately, the specific situations of each of these victims is different, and it is unclear to many whether they will need to pay Federal income tax on the amounts they receive. Moreover, it is unfair that these victims should have to worry about paying taxes on amounts that are simply intended to make them whole. In addition, about 30 percent of settlement payouts are devoted to attorney fees, for attorneys whom the victims did not hire. It appears that victims will even owe taxes on the full amount of the settlement, including these attorney fees. This is a problem now for wildfire victims in California. However, as the frequency and severity of wildfires grows across the Western United States due to climate change, it is more likely that this is a problem that California and other States will face again. Our legislation would do two things. First, it would clarify that such wildfire settlement fees are not taxable.…”