Senate panel advances firefighting funding fix

Provisions to pay for the most extreme wildfires through federal disaster funding were included in the Fiscal Year 2016 Interior Appropriations Bill, which was passed by a Senate panel today.

The funding method is similar to legislation introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who along with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) have been concerned that firefighting budgets in recent years have taken funding from other programs, including those that restore habitat and maintain jobs in national forests.

The Wyden-Crapo bill, S. 235, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, would draw from disaster and emergency accounts whenever costs exceed 70 percent of the 10-year average cost of wildfire suppression, freeing up funds that could be used for wildfire prevention activities in the nation’s forests.

Year after year, money is borrowed from fire prevention funds in order to pay for wildfire suppression, the lawmakers said.

The Interior Appropriations measure,approved in a markup by the Senate Appropriations Committee, ends fire borrowing and calls for the use of disaster funding when 100 percent of the Forest Service budget for wildfire suppression is exhausted.

“I’m pleased the Senate Interior funding bill addresses the dangerous cycle of fire borrowing, because fires are getting bigger, hotter, and more expensive, and federal agencies shouldn’t have to go bankrupt to fight these devastating infernos,” Wyden said.

“But solving fire borrowing is only half the battle – Congress must also ensure that adequate funds are available to get out ahead of the problem and prevent wildfires from raging out of control in the first place.”

“Firefighters, county officials and property owners alike deserve expedited action now that the fire season is underway,” Crapo said. “Not only do we need certainty to protect lives and property, we also need to perform the maintenance, prevention and restoration work that prevents future fires.”

Severe drought this year has exacerbated the fire danger, with Douglas and Jefferson counties in Oregon receiving new disaster declarations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All told, drought emergencies have been declared by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in 19 of the state’s 36 counties.

In Idaho, Adams, Washington, Payette, Canyon, Owyhee, Elmore, Custer, Blaine, Butte, Cassia and Twin Falls counties have all received primary drought disaster designations.

The National Interagency Fire Center reports, as of Thursday, 12 large fires this year have burned 35,372 acres in Alaska, Arizona, California and Oregon. Smaller range fires have also been reported in Idaho.

NIFC officials say although mid- to late-spring rains have delayed the onset of severe fire activity in much of the Western continental U.S., low moisture over the winter and persistent drought have created conditions for above-normal fire potential in July and August, particularly in parts of California, Idaho and Arizona, and all of Oregon and Washington.

To the north, Alaska already this month is experiencing large, severe fires burning in the southern and eastern portions of the state and burning homes and other structures.

Merkley also has fought for the provision to finally end the practice of “fire-borrowing” and allow wildfire-fighting efforts to use natural disaster emergency funds during the worst fire years.

Currently, wildfires are funded unlike any other natural disaster. Even when exceptionally large and devastating wildfires occur, the cost of fighting them is not covered at all by emergency disaster funds.

As a result, in bad fire years, agencies must cut from critical programs to pay for the full costs of fighting fires. Merkley said this creates a vicious cycle in which fire prevention funds are robbed to pay for fires that are already burning, which in turn makes future fire seasons even worse and further increases the disparity between planned wildfire funding and the actual cost of fighting fires.

The provision passed by the committee Thursday would change that.

“When a huge hurricane or a tornado strikes, we fund the response and recovery as exactly what it is – a natural disaster,” Merkley said. “But despite the fact that the largest wildfires are natural disasters, we’ve forced agencies to steal funding from other critical programs – including wildfire prevention – to cover the cost of fighting them.

“I’m glad that today the Senate Appropriations Committee recognized it’s time to end that vicious cycle, stop raiding fire prevention, and finally treat the most devastating fires as the natural disasters they are.”

Specifically, the provision Merkley fought to include in the FY2016 Interior Appropriations bill, which was passed by the full Appropriations Committee, would budget upfront 100% of the 10-year average of firefighting costs.

It would then ensure that any firefighting funds needed beyond what has been budgeted would come out of FEMA’s emergency natural disaster fund, instead of raiding from other programs.

This provision was inspired by the Wyden-Crapo bill, co-sponsored by Merkley, that would have eliminated fire borrowing in a similar fashion.

If passed into law, the provision would go into effect next year.

The 2014 fire season cost Oregon $280 million and charred 847,000 acres. As record drought continues across the West, more severe fire seasons are expected in 2015 and beyond.

Merkley said he and many other Democrats voted against the broader bill Thursday due to concerns over unrelated, extreme anti-environmental policy riders included in the overall package.

But Merkley expressed optimism that the wildfire funding fix would be able to rise above politics and be included in whatever final funding bill is agreed on by both parties.

“As we face down another extreme fire season in the West, this is a bipartisan, common-sense fix to make sure we aren’t robbing fire prevention funds to pay for fires that are already burning,” Merkley said.