{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-unanimously-passes-padilla-bill-to-help-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-increase-use-of-prescribed-fire/", "Senate Unanimously Passes Padilla Bill to Help Prevent Catastrophic Wildfires, Increase Use of Prescribed Fire", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, the Senate unanimously passed U.S. Senator Alex Padilla\u2019s (D-Calif.) Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act (WEPA) of 2026, a bipartisan bill to make it easier for states and communities to use prescribe fire to reduce hazardous fuel and prevent catastrophic wildfires. The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.\n\n\u201cCalifornia is no stranger to devastating wildfires \u2014 and we cannot afford to wait until the next fire starts to take action. We must ensure that communities across the state and country have the necessary resources to proactively prevent and mitigate these disasters,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cPrescribed fire is one of the most effective tools we have to confront the growing impacts of the wildfire crisis. I am proud to see the Senate unanimously pass our bipartisan bill to help communities protect their land as they face growing threats of wildfires.\u201d\n\nWEPA would make it easier for states and communities to use prescribed fires to prevent wildfire emissions, protect ecosystems and wildlife habitats, and make American forests and communities safer, healthier, and cleaner. The bill also promotes the efficient use of state air quality resources and provides certainty that states will not be penalized for taking action to prevent wildfires.\n\nSpecifically, WEPA would:\n\nMake it easier for states and communities to use prescribed fire to prevent wildfire emissions;\n\nProvide certainty that states won\u2019t be penalized for taking action to prevent wildfires;\n\nPromote the efficient use of state air quality resources; and\n\nMake our forests and communities safer, healthier, and cleaner.\n\nIn addition to Padilla, WEPA was introduced with Senators John Curtis (R-Utah), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).\n\nPadilla took to the Senate floor to advocate for the bill, highlighting the urgent need to make it easier for communities to use prescribed fires to prevent wildfire emissions and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires.\n\n\u201cWestern states, including Oregon, California, and others, are confronting a crisis of wildfires that aren\u2019t just growing larger and larger every year, but more destructive every year, and emitting massive amounts of toxic smoke,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cNow, there\u2019s no silver bullet for solving the wildfire crisis, but we know that prescribed fires \u2014 experience tells us and the data tells us \u2014 prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools in reducing hazardous fuels and preventing catastrophic wildfires.\u201d\n\nEarlier this month, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on WEPA. The bill also advanced out of committee unanimously.\n\nIn the aftermath of the catastrophic Southern California fires, Padilla has introduced more than a dozen bills to help prevent and respond to future wildfires. Last year, he and Senator John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced the Fix Our Forests Act, bipartisan legislation to combat catastrophic wildfires, restore forest ecosystems, and make federal forest management more efficient and responsive. Last January, Padilla introduced a suite of bipartisan bills to strengthen wildfire recovery and resilience, including the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act, the Fire Suppression and Response Funding Assurance Act, and the Disaster Housing Reform for American Families Act. On the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles fires, Padilla and Senator Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) announced bipartisan legislation to establish a new grant program to help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfires.\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available here.\n\nTranscript of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available below:\n\nThank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, I\u2019m proud to join our colleagues from Utah and Oregon in bringing up this bill. I can\u2019t overstate both the importance and the urgency of the Wildfire Emmission Prevention Act, which is a result of within a year of bipartisan negotiations and a measure that recently passed unanimously out of the Environment and Public Works Committee.\n\nAs my colleague from Oregon has begun to paint the picture. Western states, including Oregon, California, and others, are confronting a crisis of wildfires that aren\u2019t just growing larger and larger every year, but more destructive every year, and emitting massive amounts of toxic smoke.\n\nNow, there\u2019s no silver bullet for solving the wildfire crisis, but we know that prescribed fires \u2014 experience tells us and the data tells us \u2014 prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools in reducing hazardous fuels and preventing catastrophic wildfires.\n\nWill they continue to happen? Fires? Yes, but if we can prevent them, that\u2019s ideal \u2014 or at least mitigates their size, their scope and the damage that they cause, however we can.\n\nBut the problem that brings us to this measure, is that while the EPA regulations have allowed prescribed fires to qualify as exceptional events since 2016, the agency has never actually approved one, leaving states worried that using this critical tool, this provenly effective tool, to protect communities could jeopardize their air quality goals. Right? By trying to do good and prevent fires or mitigate fires from a public safety standpoint, you\u2019re penalized on the air quality side of things.\n\nSo, this bill creates a narrow, targeted pathway specifically for prescribed fire, while preserving existing air quality standards for other exceptional events.\n\nI want to thank my colleagues from Utah and Oregon for their partnership in this important bill, and kudos to Chairwoman Capito and Ranking Member Whitehouse on the committee who helped craft this measure as well. Thank you, Mr. President.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "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.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-unanimously-passes-padilla-bill-to-help-prevent-catastrophic-wildfires-increase-use-of-prescribed-fire/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8423631079494953, "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"}