WASHINGTON – Exasperated by the escalating cost of fighting wildfires, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill to help pay for the next disaster.
The bill, approved 412-3, would create a separate fund to cover the costs of combating major wildfires such as those that have devastated parts of California and other Western states in recent years.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Lawmakers in both parties have long complained that the Forest Service and other federal agencies routinely overspend their budgets for wildfires, figuring that additional money will be provided if needed. The Forest Service and Interior Department spent about $2.4 billion last year fighting fires, a $500 million increase over the previous year and double the average amount spent a decade ago.
Lawmakers hope a reserve fund will make it less likely the agencies will have to dip into other parts of their budgets that are dear to Congress members to fight fires.
Spurred by global warming and drought, wildfire seasons have grown longer and more intense by the year, experts say. Fighting the fires is complicated by an increase in small trees and underbrush that serve as fuel for catastrophic blazes, and lawmakers said the money budgeted by the Forest Service to thin forests and clear underbrush is inadequate.
The special fund is dubbed the Federal Land Assistance Management and Enhancement Act, or FLAME. President Barack Obama in his budget proposed a similar fund for wildfires of $357 million. The House bill doesn’t specify a dollar amount, which would be set later in spending bills.
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said about half the Forest Service budget is now devoted to fire suppression and prevention.
“The agency is no longer the U.S. Forest Service, but rather the U.S. Fire Service,” Rahall said. “Fighting these fires is eroding other non-fire programs and impacting the core mission of the federal land management agencies.”
The wildfire fund would not be part of usual agency budgets and would be used only for emergencies, such as a catastrophic fire. Top officials would have to certify that a particular fire is eligible for FLAME Act funding, lawmakers said.
The bill also includes provisions aimed at reducing the threat of wildfires in an estimated 4 million acres of Rocky Mountain forests suffering a massive die-off of trees due to mountain pine beetle infestations.
The problem is increasing rapidly, especially in Colorado and Wyoming, with the number of acres affected in those states doubling since 2006.
The beetle is expected to eventually kill virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado. Montana, Idaho and other Western states are also affected. Small towns, ski resorts, recreation facilities and electricity transmission lines in all three states are at risk.
A provision by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., permits the use of FLAME Act funds to clear pine beetle infested areas during a wildfire to prevent the spread of the fire. Another provision by Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., requires the Interior and Agriculture departments to update their fire management plan every five years to take into account landscape changes that may have taken place due to beetle infestation, global warming and other factors.