Governor Newsom Signs Vital Legislation to Extend the Sunset on the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)

Governor Newsom Signs Vital Legislation to Extend the Sunset on the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)

(Sacramento, CA) – Yesterday, Governor Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 1565, authored by the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management. This critical legislation postpones the current sunset date for the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) by an additional five years, from becoming inoperative on March 1, 2023, to now on March 1, 2028. The EMAC is a national interstate agreement that provides for mutual assistance between states responding to emergencies and disasters.

“As a career first responder, I have both received and provided mutual aid, so I know firsthand how vital it can be to prevail in a state of emergency. I was deployed to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to aid those states’ ability to save lives. When I think back on those deployments, I know that the chaos and loss of life would have been drastically worse had other states not supported their responses during that time,” stated Assemblymember Rodriguez.

Under the EMAC, California can send resources such as firefighting equipment, rescue aircrafts, search teams, emergency managers, and other specialized personnel and equipment to assist other states during disasters. Just this year, our state sent a Recovery Team and firefighting personnel to New Mexico to assist in battling their historic wildfires. Similarly, when we were facing the 2021 Dixie, Caldor, and Monument fires, other states such as Utah, Wisconsin, Louisiana, and West Virginia provided various resources to help us battle those horrendous wildfires.

Mutual aid has proven to be an effective and efficient disaster response tool. With climate change making constant ongoing disasters inevitable, the EMAC will continue to support our state and others’ emergency response.

“I want to thank Governor Newsom for seeing how crucial it is that the EMAC is extended. This agreement has proven to save lives by allowing California to receive mutual aid when we are in a state of emergency and lend a helping hand when other states are in need. The EMAC will only further states’ ability to respond in future disasters; especially when they can be simultaneous as wildfires, and extreme heat events were in our state last week,” added Assemblymember Rodriguez. 

Assemblymember Rodriguez (Twitter) represents the 53rd Assembly District which includes the cities of Chino, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, and Upland. He is Chair of the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management.