Gardner, Hatch introduce bill to make wildfires eligible for natural disaster funding

With costs to fight wildfires reaching a record high of $2 billion in 2017, U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced bipartisan legislation on Wednesday that would make wildfires eligible for disaster funding.

The Forest Service and Interior Department currently have to borrow money from fire prevention and other critical programs when fire suppression funds are exhausted. The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act of 2017 would end the practice, known as by “fire borrowing,” by appropriating funds for wildfires the same as other natural disasters.

“It may not be getting headlines in the national news, but wildfires have burned millions of acres in the West this year and the communities impacted in Colorado need assistance,” Gardner said. “I’ve been working to advance this legislation to stop fire borrowing for several years, and I appreciate the strong bipartisan support to ensure the Forest Service has the funds it needs for clean up and prevention efforts while also finally requiring the government to treat wildfires like it does other natural disasters.”

Agency wildfire suppression budgets are calculated using 10-year cost averages under current budgeting practices. In response to longer fire seasons and rising fire suppression costs, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would freeze the 10-year average and make disaster funding available for cost overruns.

“Wildfires continue to decimate Western communities, ruining sources of drinking water, destroying property and even claiming lives,” Hatch said. “Wildfires have all the qualities of a natural disaster, and it’s time that the federal government treat them as such.”

This year has been the most expensive fire year on record, with fire suppression activities totaling more than $2 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, Hatch added, would put an end to funding requirements that “make it all but impossible” for agencies to shoulder increased wildfire suppression costs.

“Ultimately, our bipartisan proposal will leave the Forest Service better prepared to fight forest fires and better equipped to prevent them from happening in the first place,” Hatch concluded. “It is imperative that we return to a more balanced approach to forest management, not just fire management. I am confident that this bill will help foster safer, healthier forests in Utah and across the west for years to come.”