{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cantwell-thanks-firefighters-calls-for-continued-federal-support-after-pnw-wildfires-briefing-from-cabinet-secretaries", "Cantwell Thanks Firefighters, Calls for Continued Federal Support After PNW Wildfires Briefing from Cabinet Secretaries", "2026-08-05", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "WA", "Maria Cantwell", "C000127", "www.cantwell.senate.gov", "cantwell", "https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Cantwell Thanks Firefighters, Calls for Continued Federal Support After PNW Wildfires Briefing from Cabinet Secretaries\n\nSen. Cantwell: \u201cThe Northwest will continue to benefit from air assets, and I hope that more of them can be deployed.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, received a briefing on Pacific Northwest wildfires from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, U.S. Wildland Fire Service Director Brian Fennessy, and U.S. Forest Service officials. After the briefing, Sen. Cantwell released the following statement.\n\n\u201cToday Interior Sec. Burgum, Agriculture Sec. Rollins, DOI Wildland Fire Service Director Brian Fennessy, and USFS officials briefed Senators on keeping assets in the Northwest as we are at a Preparedness Level 5, an extreme wildfire designation. We are still at the highest risk in the nation and appreciate being the highest resourced,\u201d said Sen. Cantwell.\n\n\u201cThe Northwest will continue to benefit from air assets, and I hope that more of them can be deployed throughout the region, as smoke allows, to help Spokane, Okanogan and all Northeast Washington counties, the Spokane and Colville Tribes, and especially Chelan area communities impacted by the Little Giant Fire,\u201d Sen. Cantwell continued. \u201cThank you to all the firefighters and first responders who are helping us fight these historic Northwest fires.\u201d\n\nOn Tuesday, Sen. Cantwell called for improved wildfire preparedness in a U.S. Senate roundtable with Chief Bob Roper of the Western Chiefs Fire Association and other experts. \u201cWe just have to move faster,\u201d said Sen. Cantwell. \u201cMy heart goes out to the people of Washington who are dealing with this across our state, particularly in Spokane, and in the Lake Chelan area as well.\u201d\n\nOn Sunday, Sen. Cantwell visited county and city command centers in Spokane and took part in a press briefing about the devastating fires there.\n\nIn September 2025, Sen. Cantwell\u2019s Fire Ready Nation Act passed the U.S. Senate unanimously. The bipartisan Fire Ready Nation Act would formally establish a permanent Fire Weather Services program within NOAA and authorize funding for new technologies to forecast weather conditions that cause and impact wildfires.", 1, "2026-08-06T07:37:31Z", "2026-08-06T07:38:34Z"]], "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://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cantwell-thanks-firefighters-calls-for-continued-federal-support-after-pnw-wildfires-briefing-from-cabinet-secretaries"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.002045977860689, "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"}