For Immediate Release

May 12, 2000

REP. DICKS APPEALS FOR RELEASE
OF U.S. FIREFIGHTING FUNDS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the wildfires blazing out of control in the State of New Mexico, taxing federal firefighting resources, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks today called on Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to release a Supplemental Appropriations Bill containing $250 million for U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) firefighting money that is desperately needed.

        The congressman, who serves as the ranking Democratic member of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, said he appealed in a letter to Sen. Lott today after learning that the number of firefighting crews available this year had sunk to historically low levels. If the supplemental appropriations bill had passed in early April when it was sent to the Senate, Dicks wrote, about 30 more crews would have been available today, according to information he received from the Interior Department.

        Typically there are 625 crews available to fight wildfires on federal lands during the summer months when fire danger is the highest. This year, the congressman said, only 550 crews are expected to be on duty unless the additional money from the emergency spending bill is approved. At this point, 50 to 75 crews are available, though 30 more would have been hired and would have been used today if the Supplemental Appropriations bill had passed last month, he said.

        "This is an emergency situation. If we don’t get an infusion of money into the firefighting accounts, the Forest Service and BLM will actually have to layoff seasonal workers in the next months, rendering us even less prepared to handle the summer fire season," Rep. Dicks said. The fires in New Mexico today represent a devastating warning of what could be ahead this year, especially if fewer crews and resources are available," he added.

        Rep. Dicks said that Interior Secretary Babbitt had warned the Senate Majority Leader of the dangers, following Sen. Lott’s early April comments about blocking the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill.

        In an April 6 letter to Sen. Lott, Babbitt wrote that "Chief among these was a request for $100 million to create a contingency fund for suppression of wildland fires and other associated costs, available upon declaration of emergency by the President....The 1999 fire season was one of the worst in recorded history for lands managed by this department....Many of these costs carried over into 2000, and now promise to exhaust prior year emergency funding and current year appropriations combined."

        "I asked Senator Lott to schedule the Supplemental Bill for consideration in the Senate early next week," Dicks said. It has already been approved by the House and it should be sent to the President for signature immediately, he added.

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