Congress shields power companies from wildfire liability—victims lose right to sue

What it does

This bill grants manufacturers of critical infrastructure equipment (power lines, transformers, telecommunications equipment, etc.) immunity from lawsuits and liability for damages caused by wildfires, unless the manufacturer is proven to have acted with willful misconduct. Citizens harmed by wildfires linked to equipment failure would lose the right to sue manufacturers for compensation.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a blanket immunity grant to a specific industry sector. Despite the framing around 'critical infrastructure' resilience, the functional effect is to remove legal accountability for manufacturers and shift wildfire losses to citizens.

What the text implies

• The 'willful misconduct' standard is extremely high—negligence, recklessness, and design defects are not covered. Manufacturers can escape liability even for known hazards or failure to maintain equipment to industry standards.
• Immunity applies to 'all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from wildfire incidents'—this sweeps in not just direct equipment failure but any loss remotely connected to a wildfire, even if the manufacturer's role was marginal.
• The bill references definitions in the USA PATRIOT Act and the Cyber Incident Reporting Act, which define 'critical infrastructure' and 'critical manufacturing' broadly. This may cover far more than power utilities—potentially telecommunications, water systems, chemical plants, and other sectors.
• State tort law is explicitly preempted ('Federal and State law'). Citizens cannot seek remedies under state negligence, products liability, or nuisance law—a significant federalization of immunity that overrides state sovereignty.
• No requirement for manufacturers to maintain insurance, report hazards, or implement safety improvements. The immunity is unconditional and creates no offsetting public-safety obligation.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Citizens harmed by wildfires caused or worsened by defective or negligently maintained critical infrastructure lose their right to sue for damages. The immunity is broad—covering negligence, design defects, and maintenance failures—and applies across federal and state law, eliminating a key accountability mechanism and shifting wildfire losses entirely to victims rather than the parties responsible for equipment safety.

Who stands to gain

• electric utility equipment manufacturers
• power transmission equipment suppliers
• telecommunications infrastructure manufacturers
• critical infrastructure component suppliers

Named in the bill

critical infrastructure manufacturers, USA PATRIOT Act (section 1016(e)), Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (section 2220A(a)(2)), Federal and State law, wildfire incidents

Where it stands

21 cosponsors: 21 Republicans.

• Jun 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Jun 26, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

7 lobbying clients named this bill on 13 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $4,555,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 86% of bills with at least one filing.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the sponsor, reported $2,407,952 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American Property Casualty Insurance Association — $3,540,000 on 2 filings
• National Electrical Manufacturers Association — $515,000 on 1 filing
• National Association of Electrical Distributors, Inc. — $200,000 on 2 filings
• American Property Casualty Insurance Association Fka Property Casualty Insurers — $100,000 on 2 filings
• National Electrical Manufacturers Association — $100,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.