BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AJR 18
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR
18 (Patterson and Gatto)
As Amended June 25, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Natural |7-0 |Williams, Cristina | |
|Resources | |Garcia, Hadley, | |
| | |Harper, McCarty, | |
| | |Rendon, Mark Stone | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Urges the 114th Congress to support H.R. 167, the
federal Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, to address wildfire
funding. Specifically, this resolution:
1)Makes various findings about national forest lands and
California's 21 national forests.
2)Declares that over seven of the last 12 years, the United
State Forest Service (USFS) and the United States Department
of the Interior have had to divert over $2 billion dollars in
funds from other forestry and land management programs to fund
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firefighting efforts, which is known as "fire borrowing."
3)Declares that frequent, severe wildfires result in great
environmental damage, and the prevention of wildfires is
necessary to decrease the great risk posed to California due
to draught, climate change, and the large amount of overgrown
national forest lands in the state.
4)Declares that the Governors of California, Washington, and
Oregon supported prior federal bills to address "fire
borrowing" by allowing excess wildfire suppression costs to be
funded outside of discretionary appropriations.
5) Declares that catastrophic wildfires are an ongoing yet
preventable threat to California and its residents, and the
inability of federal agencies to manage national forest lands
appropriately due to funding constraints must be addressed as
quickly as possible.
6)Urges the 114th Congress to support H.R. 167, the federal
Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, in order to provide a
long-term, stable source of funding for federal agencies to
conduct the necessary fuel management on national forest
lands, while retaining resources to suppress truly
catastrophic wildfires.
EXISTING LAW, pursuant to federal law:
1)Funds wildfire suppression through the Interior and
Environment Appropriations bill at the 10-year average.
2)Provides federal agencies responding to natural disasters like
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hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes access to disaster funding
through an annual budget cap adjustment.
Establishes a separate account for funding for emergency
wildfire suppression activities undertaken on Department of
the Interior and National Forest System lands.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
1)Author's statement:
California is home to 21 national forests, many of
which are exceedingly overgrown and present an outsize
risk of fire to the communities that surround them.
Due to many factors, including budget constraints, the
USFS is unable to conduct routine maintenance on these
lands to prevent fires. For example, in 2012 their
"fire borrowing" meant that funds for important fuel
reduction projects in the Tahoe and Plumas National
Forests were depleted and the projects were cancelled.
This type of project deferral happens year after year
and results in a severe lack of proper forest
management and a heightened risk of devastating,
difficult-to-manage wildfires.
2)H.R. 167. Under current budget structures, wildfire
suppression is funded through the Interior and Environment
Appropriations bill at the 10-year average. When wildfire
costs exceed the budgeted amount, the agencies are forced to
borrow from other non-fire accounts to pay for fire
suppression. This means that funding intended for hazardous
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fuels removal and other important land management activities
gets diverted to fire suppression before those projects can be
completed. H.R. 167 would allow for 30% of fire suppression
cost to be funded in annual budget cap adjustments like other
natural disasters. According to proponents of H.R. 167, 1% of
wildland fires make up 30% of the costs and that these larger
fires are natural disasters. H.R. 167 would benefit
California's fire suppression activities because fuel
reduction projects and other fire prevention activities done
by USFS in California would be carried out reducing the risk
of severe wildfire in California.
Analysis Prepared by:
Michael Jarred / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN: 0001091