Nevada Ruby Mountain Hotshot Fire Crew at the Dixie Fire in 2021
Photo credit: Joe Bradshaw, Bureau of Land Management
On Wednesday evening, the House passed a critical provision from Rep. Harder’s landmark package to address the wildfire crisis as an amendment to a larger bill
Watch Rep. Harder speak on the House floor in support of his amendment HERE
September 26, 2024 - WASHINGTON -- Representative Josh Harder passed a critical amendment to support wildland firefighters and address the wildfire crisis. This marks an important step towards implementing the comprehensive, bipartisan Modernizing Wildfire Safety and Prevention Act, which Rep. Harder introduced in June. The House passed two of Rep. Harder’s amendments last night, including a bipartisan amendment to require the Forest Service to create a strategy for protecting wildland firefighters and reducing the physical threats they face in their jobs.
“We don’t have a wildfire season in California anymore – this is a year-round crisis. The amendment we just passed in the House is a huge step toward tackling this threat and supporting wildland firefighters who are on the frontlines,” said Rep. Harder. “This is a major win for our wildland firefighters, and I’m going to keep working to get the Modernizing Wildfire Safety and Prevention Act passed and signed into law.”
Harder’s amendment aims to retain expert wildland firefighters by expanding protections for them and their loved ones. Specifically, the amendment establishes a Casualty Assistance Program at the Department of Interior to support critically ill, injured, or deceased wildland firefighters and their loved ones. Other agencies, including the Forest Service, already have similar programs, but since the Department of Interior does not, almost 5,000 firefighters and their families aren’t receiving the critical support they deserve during the hardest moments in life.
The amendment is endorsed by the National Federation of Federal Employees, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, Alliance for Wildfire Resilience, and the International Association of Fire Fighters.
This continues Rep. Harder’s work to address the wildfire crisis. In June, he introduced the Modernizing Wildfire Safety and Prevention Act which takes a four-part approach to combating the dangerous rise in megafires:
- Combat firefighter shortages by establishing a new Middle Fire Leaders Academy and grant programs to train and hire more firefighters
- Retain expert wildland firefighters with increased benefits and better working conditions
- Improve fire response time with updated technology like developing risk maps and establishing the Joint Office of Fire Environment Center
- Address the public health crisis caused by wildfire smoke by establishing a nationwide real-time air quality monitoring and alert system
Source: Congressman Josh Harder
