[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 180 (Wednesday, November 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H5186-H5187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PROVIDING TAX RELIEF FOR FIRE VICTIMS

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the House Committee on Ways and 
Means is marking up a comprehensive tax relief bill for disaster 
survivors. My bipartisan bill, H.R. 4970, the Protect Innocent Victims 
Of Taxation After Fire Act, is included as a provision.
  H.R. 4970 will exempt all wildfire relief payments from Federal 
income taxes and is especially time-sensitive given the recent 
extension from the October 16 tax filing deadline in California until 
November 16.
  It is essential that Congress get this done and every Fire Victim 
Trust beneficiary has this massive tax headache alleviated. Fire 
victims need this tax relief to help rebuild their lives, and they 
should not go through this tax season with this uncertainty about what 
they are going to have to pay this year.
  The initiative has been a long time coming. Indeed, the fifth year 
anniversary of the Camp fire in Paradise, California, and surrounding 
communities is coming up in 1 week.
  In the previous term, we had a similar bill included in the 
government funding package at the end of the year,

[[Page H5187]]

but it was removed by the Senate because of a disagreement on tax 
policy.
  The bipartisan bill is a top priority. I commend and thank my 
colleague   Mike Thompson, from the wine country, in helping, and our 
Ways and Means chairman, Jason Smith, in seeing it through in committee 
in order to bring this relief to disaster survivors and fire victims.

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