{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/10/risch-crapo-wyden-press-senate-leadership-to-include-bipartisan-wildfire-funding-fix-in-upcoming-disaster-aid-legislation", "Risch, Crapo, Wyden Press Senate Leadership to Include Bipartisan Wildfire Funding Fix in Upcoming Disaster Aid Legislation", "2017-10-18", "2017", "2017-10", "Republican", "House", "ID", "Jim Risch", "R000584", "www.risch.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 With deadly fires still raging in California and across the West, a bipartisan group of senators led by Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and others today pressed Senate Leaders Mitch McConnell and Charles E. Schumer\u00a0in a letter\u00a0to include a wildfire funding fix in disaster aid legislation the Senate will soon consider.\r\nIn addition to Crapo, Risch, and Wyden, the senators who signed the letter are: Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Jon Tester, D-Mont..\u00a0\r\nThe House of Representatives passed disaster aid legislation last week to provide funding for hurricanes and wildfires that have hit the country this year. That bill will allow the U.S. Forest Service to pay back the funds it has been forced to borrow from other accounts to cover the cost of fighting wildfires. However, the House-passed legislation does not include a long-term solution to provide consistent funding for fire suppression and prevention.\u00a0\r\nThe bipartisan\u00a0Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (WDFA)\u00a0would fix the way the federal government funds and fights wildfires. It would end the practice known as \u201cfire borrowing\u201d by funding the largest wildfires from disaster accounts similar to accounts used to fund other natural disasters, freeing up funding for fire prevention and forest health projects.\u00a0\r\n\u201cWe request that you work with us to include the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, legislative language that ensures the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Interior (DOI) have stable, reliable funding to help prevent wildfires,\u201d\u00a0the senators wrote.\u00a0\r\nSo far, the Forest Service and the Interior Department have spent almost $2.9 billion this year to put out wildfires. The Forest Service has had to take funds from other accounts, or \u201cfire borrow\u201d to pay for the record-breaking cost of this year\u2019s fires.\u00a0\r\n\u201cPassage of the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act will free up funds to do the prevention work that reduces the risk of catastrophic wildfires that our country has suffered this year -- funding that could have prevented the deaths of Americans, destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses, the loss of business revenue due to evacuations, and the loss of millions of acres of forests,\u201d\u00a0they wrote.\u00a0\u201cWe ask that you work with Western senators to include a comprehensive wildfire funding fix in any disaster supplemental bill that comes before the Senate.\u201d\u00a0\r\nIn September, a similar group of bipartisan senators\u00a0wrote to the Senate leaders\u00a0urging them to include the bipartisan wildfire funding fix in any disaster aid package that passes through Congress.\u00a0\r\nWildfires have burned about 8.7 million acres of land this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate from their homes in California this year alone.\u00a0\r\nWyden and Crapo introduced bipartisan legislation to fix the way the federal government funds the fight against wildfires, the\u00a0Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, in 2013.\u00a0\r\nRead today\u2019s\u00a0letter here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/10/risch-crapo-wyden-press-senate-leadership-to-include-bipartisan-wildfire-funding-fix-in-upcoming-disaster-aid-legislation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7974212057888508, "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"}