Sens. McCain, Flake propose budget amendment for wildfire funding
Oct 19, 2017, 4:35 AM | Updated: Mar 1, 2018, 3:41 pm
A firefighter, center, and two onlookers watch a smoldering wildfire from a hilltop, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017, in Oakville, Calif. With the winds dying down, fire officials in California say they are finally getting the upper hand against the wildfires that have devastated wine country and other parts of the state over the past week. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
PHOENIX — U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake have filed an amendment to the Senate’s budget proposal that would provide more funding the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire management account.
The Arizona senators are arguing that the account is strapped for cash after the cost of the Forest Service’s wildfire suppression operation exceeded $2 billion — making it the most expensive wildfire year on record.
More than 55 percent of the Forest Service’s budget is allocated to wildfire suppression operations, according to the agency, up from 15 percent nearly two decades ago.
The amendment that McCain and Flake introduced would allow the Senate to call a point of over against the Interior Appropriations Bill if it does not provide enough funding for wildfire suppression operations.
Congress typically makes this distinction using the government’s most accurate wildfire budget forecast. According to McCain, this amount of funding has not kept pace with the “ballooning” costs of wildfires.
Twelve of the past 16 years has seen more than $8 billion in emergency appropriations for the Forest Service, which is typically used during the wildfire season.
In a statement, McCain said Congress has not figured out how to “effectively address fire-borrowing or reduce hazardous fuels in order to lower the cost of fighting wildfires.”
“This amendment would incentivize appropriators and the authorizing committees to compromise on a long-overdue solution to prevent and fight wildfires, which continue to devastate communities in Arizona, California, and across the arid West,” he said.
Flake, in a statement, said the country “cannot afford to keep kicking the can down the road on fire-borrowing.”
“The time has come for a fiscally responsible solution to give the USFS assurances that unanticipated wildfire costs will not erode the service’s other important functions,” he said.
