Weekly Column: Wildfire Funding Fix Must Be Renewed

Historic drought and record-breaking heat our state has experienced have only exacerbated wildfires in Idaho. I am grateful for the thousands of brave men and women risking their health and safety responding to wildfires. I am working with my colleagues to back firefighters’ dedication to the protection of people’s lives, property and landscape with federal policies that help reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires and improve long-term forest management. This includes ongoing efforts to address how the federal government budgets for fire suppression. As wildfires have intensified across the West, wildland firefighting costs have escalated and often exceeded budget estimates. Before Congress addressed this problem, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) diverted funds from important projects that improve the health of our forests and enable recreational activities on our public lands to cover pressing wildfire suppression costs. This practice, known as fire borrowing, resulted in fewer resources for the very activities that can prevent large, devastating fires and worsened the harmful fire cycle by delaying forest health projects. To correct this, in 2013, I joined Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) in introducing legislation to end fire borrowing and worked steadily over the years with a bipartisan group of senators and representatives, including fellow members of the Idaho Congressional Delegation, to enact legislation in 2018 to stop the erosion of the Forest Service’s and BLM’s budgets and ramp up fire prevention projects. The 2018 law improves federal budgeting for wildfires by providing additional suppression funding through a budget cap adjustment when regular wildfire suppression resources are exhausted. The results demonstrate the value of this approach. In May, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz estimated the wildfire funding fix has prevented more than $12 billion in fire borrowing since taking effect. Given the current fire borrowing fix is set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2027 and federal agencies’ wildfire suppression funding needs are on pace to exceed budget caps, I am working with congressional colleagues to iron out bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the funding fix. Renewal is necessary to provide certainty for wildfire suppression funding and prevent funds from once again being diverted from forest management and hazardous fuels reduction accounts to pay for emergency firefighting. We cannot let needed fire suppression efforts jeopardize the critical forest health work required to reduce the risk and severity of future fires. In addition to this legislation, I continue to support other efforts aimed at reducing the risk and severity of wildfires, as well as improving response, prevention and mitigation efforts. This includes legislation that provides public land managers and affected stakeholders with the tools necessary to improve forest health; and encourages the responsible stewardship of our public lands. Congress must renew the wildfire funding fix before it expires. Allowing this proven funding mechanism to lapse risks returning federal land management agencies to the damaging practice of fire borrowing. Sound forest management and reliable wildfire suppression funding must work in tandem to reduce the threat of devastating fires and protect Idaho communities and landscapes. I will continue to advocate for sound forest management policies as well as improved coordination between federal, state, local and tribal governments to ensure rapid response to future fires in Idaho. # # #