U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said Trump administration officials traveled to Los Angeles to outline a federal plan to speed up the permitting process for rebuilding tens of thousands of homes destroyed by last year’s wildfires. Zeldin said President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at allowing homeowners to rebuild without being blocked by what the White House described as “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive” requirements, and he said the administration will focus on cutting “bureaucratic red tape” that is slowing reconstruction.
Speaking during a Wednesday news conference after meeting residents in Pacific Palisades, where the first of two major infernos erupted in January 2025, Zeldin said his staff will examine why applications are being returned to homeowners seeking to rebuild. He said the administration wants “to know why every single one of these applications are sent back to the applicant” and asked what “that hurdle … that’s preventing them the ability to be able to rebuild their home?” It was not immediately clear whether Zeldin was referring to applications for the Palisades or Eaton fire areas.
Local permitting data cited by the conference showed that Los Angeles County’s permitting progress dashboard reflects 619 permit applications returned with comments for people in unincorporated areas connected to both fires. A spokesperson for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office, Helen Chavez, said the applications were “mostly returned for local code compliance issues,” including building too close to property lines and requirements related to building height and roofing standards.
Zeldin and the Trump administration plan includes a federal self-certification mechanism for some rebuilders. Under the new federal rules described by the EPA administrator, anyone approved for a Small Business Administration Disaster loan can “self-certify” that a building plan meets state and local requirements if a permit is not approved within 60 days of applying. The order also directs federal agencies to expedite waivers, permits and approvals to work around rules related to environmental protection, historic preservation and natural resources where those laws might stand in the way of rebuilding.
State and local officials questioned whether the federal government can legally take over permitting authority and said they had received little to no information about how the new process would work. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking Monday in San Diego, said officials did not know when the executive order would take effect and said, “Is it legal? Almost certainly not,” calling it “typical Trump.” Newsom said that, in contrast to the timeline the administration and others have praised, the legal authority to change local permitting rules would be disputed.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not join the Wednesday roundtable, but Zeldin said he met privately with Bass. Bass previously characterized the executive order as a political stunt and said rebuilding plans in Pacific Palisades are being approved in half the time compared with single-family home projects citywide before the wildfires, adding that “more than 70% of home permit clearances no longer required.” The office of Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who represents Palisades, said in the Wednesday briefing that she was not invited and said the Trump administration’s effort would not bring meaningful relief.
County and local officials also disputed the premise that permitting—not financing—is the central obstacle to recovery. Barger, who joined Zeldin, said she shared the view that a lack of money rather than permitting issues is keeping many from rebuilding, and she pointed to the fact that the Trump administration has not approved California’s $33.9 billion disaster aid request. Zeldin also called on insurance companies to speed up payouts, saying there are “a number of number of people waiting for their full insurance payment” and that they are “desperate to receive every last penny that they need from their policy to be able to rebuild their lives.”
Local officials said permitting for reconstruction is already moving relatively quickly, with about 3,000 permits approved and more than 1,000 homes under construction according to county data shared during the briefing. The Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday directing county attorneys and planning officials to monitor the federal government’s implementation of the executive order and, if necessary, take legal action to defend local permitting authority. The Los Angeles City Council also took steps to wave permitting fees in the Palisades, a move the city’s budget analyst, Matt Szabo, said could cost as much as $90 million over three years.
Legal experts cited in the briefing said the federal government’s proposed approach would likely face major legal obstacles. Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School, said there is little the president can do in the short term to speed up rebuilding, adding that while Trump could press Congress to pass new national permitting laws, those changes might take years. Levitt said a federal effort to supersede local rules would trigger a long court fight, describing “the claim that the federal government can just come in and boot these local laws out of existence” as “not a thing.”
The Palisades and Eaton fires killed 31 people and destroyed about 13,000 residential properties, according to the briefing. The fires burned for more than three weeks, and cleanup took about seven months, a timeline that both Newsom and Trump have praised as especially quick.