Carbajal secures wildfire budgeting victory to end ‘fire-borrowing’
Representative Salud Carbajal.
–Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) commended the inclusion of a fix to the disruptive wildfire budgeting practice in the FY18 Omnibus Appropriations bill. The bill, which was signed into law today, addresses the rising cost of fire suppression and provides parity with other natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes.
Unlike the response to other natural disasters which can draw from an emergency fund, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Department of the Interior (DOI) were required to fight fires within their appropriated budgets and, if costs exceeded the budget, to divert money from other important initiatives like land management. The legislation makes roughly $2.5 billion in funding available each fiscal year only if the agencies exceed their suppression budget, leaving prevention funds intact and ultimately reducing the severity of future fires.
Earlier this month, Carbajal led Central Coast representatives to advocate for this funding fix in the spending deal. The letter addresses the long-term problem of consistently underfunding fire suppression, a practice which currently forces federal agencies to steal from fire prevention and mitigation funds to fight fires, so-called “fire borrowing.”
“After California’s most destructive wildfire season on record, this funding adjustment for our firefighting agencies is welcome news,” said Carbajal. “For far too long we have forced the Forest Service to sacrifice proactive land management practices in order to fight active fires. This practical wildfire funding fix will help agencies better plan for fires and devote the resources necessary to combat them.”
The United States Forest Service (USFS) spent a record $2.4 billion to put out fires in 2017, requiring $527 million in transfers from other mitigation accounts within the USFS.
On Tuesday, Carbajal will host a wildfire mitigation listening session with local firefighting agencies. The session will kick-off a series of similar meetings to hear from local stakeholders on how Carbajal can best support fire mitigation and suppression in Congress.
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