WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Steve Daines today reiterated his call for the federal government to end the practice of fire borrowing, following the U.S. Forest Service’s recent report on the rising cost of wildfire operations:
“Montana has already experienced several high-intensity fires this year. The fire season thus far has been one of the worst in the past decade and has only made more evident the urgent need for a wildfire funding solution. It is critical that Congress end fire borrowing and ensure that the Forest Service can spend more of its budget on making our National Forests more resilient to fire, while also equipping the agency with the tools and authorities it needs to restore active management.”
Last month, Daines authored an editorial to highlight the necessity of implementing comprehensive forest management reforms and ensuring the Forest Services has the resources necessary to fight fires and implement preventative measures.
Daines is a cosponsor of the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which overhauls federal wildfire policy, increases funding for prevention and ensures large forest fires are treated and funded as true natural disasters. This legislation ends the damaging practice of “fire borrowing” and ensures that megafires are treated as true natural disasters. Daines’ release on the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act is available here.
The U.S. Forest Service wildfire report is available here.
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