BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER
Senator Fran Pavley, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AJR 18 Hearing Date: July 14,
2015
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|Author: |Patterson | | |
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|Version: |July 2, 2015 Amended |
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|Urgency: | |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant:|William Craven |
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Subject: Federal Wildfire Disaster Funding Act.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
This resolution is authored jointly by Mr. Patterson and Mr.
Gatto.
United States Forest Service is facing a huge backlog in its
efforts to restore its 58 million acres of national forest
lands, a significant portion of which is at risk to catastrophic
wildfire, a situation exacerbated in many parts of the West,
particularly California, by extreme drought.
Reports from Washington, D.C., have documented that the
escalating costs of wildfire suppression on these forest lands
consume nearly 51% of the annual federal fire budget, a
percentage that has increased from 17 percent since 1995. Thirty
percent of the fire fighting budget is spent on fires on 1% of
the wildfires on national forest lands.
To compensate for the shortages in the fire fighting budget, the
United State Forest Service and the Department of the Interior
have diverted more than $2 billion in funds from other forestry
and land management programs. In 2012, this "fire borrowing"
amounted to $440 million moved to fire suppression, thereby
depriving other projects of funding for forest restoration, fuel
reduction, vegetation management, and related activities.
Governors of California, Washington, and Oregon have stated
AJR 18 (Patterson) Page 2
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their support for previous similar legislation.
PROPOSED LAW
This resolution calls on 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. This bill would treat wildfires like other natural
disasters and disallow the practice of borrowing from other
agency funding sources.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
This bill is supported by California forestry industry groups,
the Rural County Representatives of California, the California
Native Plant Society, and others. H.R. 167 is identified by the
California Native Plant Society as a bi-partisan measure that is
intended to focus on the need for the federal government to
improve its forest management practices in California to reduce
wildfire risk, protect rural communities, and prohibit the sort
of "fire borrowing" that has occurred in the past. The
supporters believe that this bill will help establish more
secure funding both for forest restoration as well as for fire
suppression.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received
SUPPORT
Forest Landowners of California
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Forestry Association
California Licensed Foresters Association
California Native Plant Society
Cresenta Valley Fire Safe Council
Fire Safe Council of Mariposa County
Rural County Representatives of California
OPPOSITION
None Received
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