{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://fulcher.house.gov/2025/01/31/id-f4945163-c282-42ba-8237-1fd50deeea33/", "Fulcher Holds Roundtable to Discuss the Importance of Wildfire Prevention", "2025-01-31", "2025", "2025-01", "Republican", "House", "ID", "Russ Fulcher", "F000469", "fulcher.house.gov", "fulcher", "https://fulcher.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "CONTACT: Christiann\u00e9 Allen, Christianne.Allen@mail.house.gov\n\nCONTACT: Marisa Melton, Marisa.Melton@mail.house.gov\n\nCASCADE, IDAHO \u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher held a roundtable with officials from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL), local county commissioners, and key stakeholders. The discussion focused on addressing the financial toll of Idaho\u2019s devastating 2024 wildfire season, the importance of wildfire prevention and land restoration efforts, in addition to the need for stronger collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies.\n\nIn 2024, wildfires scorched approximately 640,000 acres across Idaho, resulting in an estimated $131 million loss in timber sales. This impact could reduce Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) by $1.5 to $2 million, putting significant strain on local governments that depend on these vital funds.\n\nKey excerpts from the roundtable:\n\n\u201cThese conversations are essential to reduce the devastating impacts of wildfires across the state and help me champion long-term solutions on the federal level in Washington, D.C.,\u201d said Congressman Fulcher.\n\n\u201cI need to tell you the truth,\u201d Congressman Fulcher told the group. \u201cThe calvary is not coming. We are $36 trillion in debt. The budget is going to get cut and I want the stakeholders to know what they are dealing with. They have a big task and their resources are going to go down. Meanwhile, the PILT constraints are going to get harder, and for our county friends who don\u2019t have a revenue stream outside of this funding, that is concerning.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be a welfare county,\u201d Viki Purdy, Adams County Commissioner added. \u201cThe Forest Service won\u2019t let the Rural Fire Protection Agency (RFPA) fight fires on their own land. We want to work with the Forest Service, but we are steamrolled at every chance they get.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere are no loggers in the woods fighting these fires,\u201d Mark Mahon, President of the Idaho Association of Logging Contractors said. \u201cWe are the best-trained people, the best-trained machine to fight these fires, and the Forest Service doesn\u2019t use us.\u201d\n\nThe roundtable discussion also highlighted the growing backlog of deferred maintenance on public lands. The USFS reported $741 million in overdue maintenance for Idaho\u2019s federal lands, while the BLM estimated a $358 million backlog.\n\n\u201cThese fires burned livestock, burned homes, put young men and women in harm\u2019s way, and it costs an incredible amount of money,\u201d Brant Peterson, Boise National Forest Service Supervisor, said in response. \u201cIf we are going to be successful, we need to remove the trees before these fires start, and we try to do this, but we can\u2019t help when we get litigated.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Forest Service has been tied up with sue and settle,\u201d Dar Moon with Idaho on Fire added. \u201c50-year-old legislation has put them in a spot where they cannot manage the scope and size of our forest and it is destroying Idaho because our hands are locked. We cannot mine, we cannot graze, and we are dying on the vine.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T17:10:36Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://fulcher.house.gov/2025/01/31/id-f4945163-c282-42ba-8237-1fd50deeea33/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9332443587481976, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}