News and Views

House Disaster Relief Bill Fills Firefighting Funding Gap for U.S. Forest Service

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives Wednesday approved $500 million in emergency spending to cover unexpected U.S. Forest Service firefighting costs and an additional $250 million in fuels management and fire prevention funding as part of a stopgap spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year, Congressman Jerry Lewis said.

“This year’s fire season is just beginning in Southern California , and so I am gratified that my colleagues have seen the need to cover the extraordinary firefighting costs facing the Forest Service this year,” said Lewis, the lead Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “This funding will allow the Forest Service to replace funds taken from other vital programs to fight the seemingly never-ending fires in Northern California .”

The Forest Service funding was approved by the House Wednesday as part of a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government running through March 6, 2009. That bill became necessary because Congress has been unable to pass any of the annual spending bills for Fiscal Year 2009. The bill, which also includes $22.6 billion in disaster relief for areas ravaged by hurricanes and fires, is expected to be approved by the Senate later this week.

Lewis advocated for the increased funding with Congressman Norm Dicks of Washington , the chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Dicks and Congressman Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, the lead Republican on the subcommittee, agreed to the emergency funding after the Forest Service announced it was taking hundreds of millions of dollars from land acquisition, maintenance and even some fire prevention programs to cover the huge cost of firefighting this year.

In order to give the Forest Service a chance to prevent future fires, Lewis urged the subcommittee to approve more spending for hazardous fuels reduction in addition to ensuring that funds already allocated would not be transferred to cover firefighting costs. The bill includes $125 million for Forest Service grants to state and private forestry prevention programs, $50 million for fuel reduction on the forest lands and $75 million for rehabilitation of forests that have been burned. An additional $135 million was provided for Bureau of Land Management emergency fire needs and $100 million was allocated to the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s emergency watershed program.

The bill also provides $25 million to help the Forest Service address an on-going manpower shortage in the lower ranks of its fire-fighting personnel. The problem has been especially acute in the San Bernardino National Forest and other Southern California forests, where more than four out of 10 basic firefighters have left to work in better-paying state and local firefighting jobs.

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