FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2017 file photo, California's State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones talks during a news conference in Los Angeles. California's insurance commissioner says homeowners who lost their homes in last month's wildfires in Northern California have up to 24 months to collect insurance payments. Jones said Monday, Nov. 20, some out-of-state insurance adjusters brought in by companies to help with the high volume of claims have wrongly told homeowners they have between six and 12 months. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says the new Republican tax bill will victimize many disaster survivors in California. Jones says the bill eliminates the federal income tax deduction for wildfires, floods and other disasters. Jones added residents who suffer damage to their homes and property apart from a disaster wouldn’t be able to deduct those losses either. The other disasters would include theft of a vehicle or other property as well as damage or destruction of a home due to everyday occurrences and losses such as kitchen fires and flooding caused by burst pipes. The IRS reported Americans deducted more than one-point-six-billion-dollars for uninsured losses from natural disasters in 2015.