includes literally the facilities, folks like thousands of people who work to get the office space up and running, all the communications directorates, even the communications offices is under that office. so he is overseeing -- he has overseen a lot of people for years at this point, but depending on when the confirmation process could happen for hegseth, which is most likely over the weekend, he will not be in this role very long. host: the chairman of the joint chiefs, general c. q. brown, has said he will stay at his post. he attended the inauguration monday. what are you hearing about his future? guest: i was asking about this yesterday. officials in the building that i spoke to said that his interactions with donald trump at the inauguration were generally positive and left everyone feeling a little more confident that maybe general

brown would continue in the role . as we have seen in the previous trump term, everybody stares at the pleasure of the president. and he had hot and cold relationships with military officials and civilian leaders, so nobody's job in this building is secure when it comes down to it. host: tara copp, thank >> washington journal continues. host: joining us to discuss climate disaster and insurance market is amy bach the executive director of united policyholders. guest: good morning. host: joining us early from san francisco. we appreciate that. let's talk about year organization. tell us about united policyholders when and why did you start it? guest: actually, the original history came from new york.

i was working in the new york state legislature on behalf of the consumer protection board where i was the insurance analyst and hank greenberg came up to lobby for a whole slate of reforms that would have made it harder for people to sue insurance companies and there was no one saying is that a good idea. i said i could make myself useful so i got my law degree, came to campbell and met a whistle blower from state farm and felt they were not handling claims properly and we started to form a group and they had the oakland fire and how do you get through it. we built our road map to recovery and preparedness program and advocacy.

so for three decades we have been providing information and a voice to people across the country and businesses that have bought insurance and want the straight scoop and be treated fairly. host: when were talking about those issues who are you working with? guest: right now in california it has been in the grip of an insurance crisis which has been impacting a lot of or states. in the past we were focused on disaster recovery which we are doing in l.a. we have in recent years built a very robust work stream around advancing mitigation and risk reduction. this is not just in california. helping people deal with insurance companies' increasing reluctance for a price people can afford but very severely in florida and california and now a

little bit colorado. we have been thinking of strategies to help people take steps to be less likely that their homes will be damaged and improve insurability. insurance companies were one of the first economic powerhouses to recognize that climate change is a thing and it is real and they have been moving to protect themselves and my organization has been working to help consumers adapt to how insurers are changing. host: explain what home insurance is, homeowners insurance, what it is and what it course, what it doesn't cover. guest: home insurance in california covers the peril of fire. wildfire, house fire. unlike after a hurricane, people here don't have to worry about whether their insurance policy

will cover them for fire. home insurance is suppod put you back where you were before the loss, for everyday adversity and tipically gives you a defense if somebody sues you but basically it is supposed to give you money to be what is called indemnified put back as close as possible before the thing that happened. that is the basic purpose of it. host: we have been hearing a lot about homeowners insurance this month and even late last year with the climate disasters we are seeing. the cost of homeowners insurance like a lot of our insurances has jumped. according to landing tree the state of home insurance in 2024 reset 37.8% accumulate la actively since 2019. what are some of the factors as

to why the rate are increasing the way they are? guest: one of the first one is that inconvenient truth that al gore talked about that there is a increasing price tag for the change of weather higher winds, more frequent hurricanes, tornados like wildfires in january. that is number one, climate change, insurance companies saw it coming many years ago. then making changes which includes raising rates saying we need to charge more because risk has increased. there is also inflation since the early covid era supply chain interruption that drove,the cost of materials, car parts, all they are asked to pay out on

claims from customers. that is two. number three is the explosion in unregulated tech tools that insurance companies buy and use to run their operations. to decide who they want to insure and that is including aerial drone, ai. like shall has a credit score and that affects the interest rate when they borrow people have an insurance score based on their claim history and rick characteristics -- risk characteristics. now, instead of insuring a lot of risks more blindly the way at the used to they have tmi, too much information. they can see all the warts in your home or business, they can see it from the air, read it in the stats they get. and some of those technique

tools are exaggerating risks. that is where the projections they are using, catastrophe models that purport to crystal ball see the future, they always seem to err on the side of guessing higher. leak this risk is higher. it is more likely that the insurance company will get a claim on this property and that information is really scaring insurers out of doing what they have traditionally done and what we expect them to do which is to take on risk in return for money. host: our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is amy bach the executive director of policy unite -- i'm sorry -- united policyholders. we are talking about the impact climate disasters are having on the insurance market. if you have a question or

comment being call in now. the lines are broken down regionally. in you are in the 1-202-748-8200. 1-202-748-8201 and you can shoot us texts at 202 shall a head line from cbs thousand of los angeles homeowners were dropped by the insurer before the palisades fire. not just the increasing costs of homeowner insurance but the availability. talk to us about what is happening there. guest: what is happening here is very similar to what has been hang in florida for a number of years. the company people have been relying on have been becoming

were pickier about which properties they will ensure and they have been shrinking their footprint basically selling fewer policies and being a lot more selective at the point of sale. that is leading to some shifts. coverage is more expensive for people that have to go into a state run insured of last resort. in florida it is citizens. in california it is california fair plan. we have seen more people lose their brand name policies and have to go to either a state run insurer of last resort where the price is higher because it is high risk an coverage is thinner or turn to a new brand that they have never heard of that may not have a track record of paying claims and may be highly

regulated. insurance has been fairly well regulate and treated like a utility. so insurance companies by law in california do not have to insure people they don't want to insure. there is no rule that says they must offer a policy to mrs. smith in the palisades. it is their choice. there are rules about when they have been insuring mrs. smith and don't want to insure her any more they have to give her 75 days notice and be fair in applying underwriting guidelines which are the internal criteria of what customers they want and don't want and then what they are going to charge customers based on their rick -- risk profile are