9-27 IAT Wildfire Funding
Simpson's Wildfire Funding Provision Included in House Continuing Resolution
Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson has included critical wildfire suppression funding for the Forest Service and Department of Interior in the short-term continuing resolution. The CR, which would extend government funding at sequestration levels through mid-December, provides $600 million to the Forest Service and $36 million to the Department of the Interior to restore wildfire suppression accounts that have been depleted during the devastating 2013 fire season. Simpson chairs the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees the budget for public lands agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM.
The funding in the CR helps to address what is referred to as "fire borrowing." When budgeted fire suppression funding is depleted, agencies are forced to take money from other non-fire accounts in order to continue fighting fires. Here's Congressman Simpson spokesperson, Nikki Watts: "Congressman Mike Simpson feels that one of the biggest problems with fire borrowing is that it perpetuates the cycle of catastrophic wildfires in forests that are not being adequately managed. Siphoning money away from resource management accounts during a bad fire year means that those forests will be more susceptible to devastating fires in the future—and when almost every year is a bad fire year, land managers' hands are tied. Restoring this funding will help ensure that fire fighters can continue to put out fires without jeopardizing the important work of hazardous fuels removal, resource restoration, and timber harvests that we need to do in order to return our forests to health."
