Senator Cantwell, and other democrats on the Committee, sought answers to the agency’s fire suppression funding issue. Almost all members of the Committee, including Republicans, agree that a new mechanism for funding suppression efforts is needed in order to protect other agency programs from being affected by rising suppression costs. Committee Republicans, however, remain divided between their support for the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, a measure that would shift 30 percent of suppression costs to disaster funding, and between a measure sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would allow the agency to access disaster relief money only after all Congressionally appropriated money is expended. The Committee also discussed NEPA streamlining for forest projects, hazardous fuels reductions through the biomass industry, and the need to better protect and promote resiliency at the Wildland Urban Interface.
Source: Rural County Representatives of California