Missouri Delegation Urges President Trump to Support Disaster Declaration for Areas Impacted by Severe Flooding Source: Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO, 5th) April 24, 2019
“The severity and magnitude of the flooding has caused several communities to be evacuated and has resulted in the destruction of homes, farms, and businesses,” the delegation wrote. “We respectfully request your prompt action to ensure that these communities receive the immediate support needed to respond to the disaster. Along with our fellow Missourians, we appreciate your attention to this request and stand ready to assist in any way possible.”
Washington, D.C. - November 4, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The R Street Institute welcomes today’s unanimous vote by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to pass legislation that would better coordinate federal agencies to respond to natural disasters.
Sponsored by Reps. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and Leonard Lance, R-N.J., H.R. 4177, the PREPARE Act, would create an interagency council to help plan federal disaster responses and make recommendations on the best way to plan for extreme weather, while also importantly working with stakeholders at the state and local level to disseminate information about preparedness.
“This year’s massive hurricanes and wildfires serve as a reminder that the cost to respond to natural disasters continues to grow, and taxpayers are footing an ever larger part of the bill,” R Street Senior Fellow R.J. Lehmann said. “The PREPARE Act offers a plan to prepare for and coordinate response in ways that are both streamlined and efficient.”
Washington, D.C. - October 23, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- In the wake of another historic wildfire season, Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch have cosponsored bipartisan legislation introduced by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to better prepare for and prevent costly wildfires.
The Wildland Fires Act of 2017 will help further the Federal and State firefighting agencies’ “National Cohesive Fire Strategy” by authorizing additional funding for at-risk communities and directing Federal agencies to treat their most-at-risk forests to better protect communities and to reestablish natural fire regimes.
Crapo and Risch, along with other bipartisan Senators, have been pressing leadership to include a long term solution to the problem of fire borrowing in any upcoming disaster aid legislation. In addition to those ongoing efforts, Crapo and Risch have cosponsored Cantwell’s bill to bolster their efforts in the urgent need to reform how wildfires are prevented and fought moving forward.
The Wildland Fires Act of 2017:
• Directs the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to provide up to $100 million in funding to at-risk communities to plan and prepare for wildfires;
• Establishes a pilot program that directs the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to treat their top 1% most-at-risk, least-controversial lands over the next 10 years (and in doing so install fuel breaks in the wildland-urban interface and, outside of the WUI, conduct prescribed fires); and
• Authorizes longer-term contracts to provide stability to companies involved in restoration projects on Federal land, and gives a preference for companies that will use forest products to create mass timber, e.g., cross-laminated timber;
• Authorizes the Federal agencies to re-purpose unused wildfire suppression funds to conduct preparedness projects to get ahead of the problem.
“Throughout the American west, we have felt firsthand the devastation wildfires have on our habitat, our health and our way of life,” Crapo said. “Congress must continue to pursue efforts aimed at reducing the risk and severity of wildfires, end the fire borrowing that takes funds from other Forest Service maintenance priorities, and improve the response, prevention and mitigation efforts.”
“We need to actively manage our forests to reduce the fuel available for fires to burn,” Risch said. “This bill is a step in the right direction to increase that desperately needed forest management.”
In addition to Crapo, Risch, and Cantwell, the measure is cosponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Sonoma County, CA - October 16, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) today announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has suspended all non-criminal immigration enforcement operations at wildfire evacuation sites or shelters due to the devastating fires that continue to burn throughout the North Bay and the North Coast.
Rep. Huffman urges all residents, regardless of immigration status, to seek shelter and follow public safety and evacuation warnings, without any threat of action by ICE.
"During this wildfire crisis plaguing our community, I am grateful that ICE has announced they will place public safety first and suspend immigration enforcement in the impacted areas," said Rep. Huffman. "That means shelters and foodbanks and other assistance centers are open to everyone, including undocumented individuals and DACA recipients, without fear of deportations or other immigration repercussions. My message to everyone in the North Coast and North Bay community, no matter their immigration status: stay safe, vigilant, and continue to follow all public safety warnings."
The full text of ICE’s announcement, which Congressman Huffman requested yesterday that the agency issue, can be found below:
“ICE is deeply concerned by the devastation wildfires have caused in significant portions of northern California. Our thoughts remain with those impacted by this tragedy, while our highest priority remains the preservation of life and safety wherever possible. In consideration of these distressing circumstances, ICE will continue to suspend routine immigration enforcement operations in the areas affected by the fires in northern California, except in the event of a serious criminal presenting a public safety threat. Likewise, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks."
Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- With fires blazing across the West, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and a bipartisan group of senators urged Senate Leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer to include a wildfire funding fix in any future disaster aid legislation that passes through Congress.
This week, Congress passed a bipartisan funding bill that helps with the cost of fighting the wildfires across western states this summer. However, the funding bill did not fix the long-term problem of consistently underfunding fire suppression, which currently forces federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service to steal funds from fire prevention and other non-fire programs to fight fires, so-called "fire borrowing."
Wildfires have burned almost 8 million acres of land across the West this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate from their homes, and the U.S. Forest Service has already spent more than $1.7 billion this year to put out fires.
"We stand ready to work with our colleagues in a bipartisan way in Congress to do everything we can to ensure the victims of Hurricane Harvey get the assistance they need," the bipartisan group of senators wrote. "As we work to assist Texas and Louisiana on the road to recovery, please do not forget about wildfires - the natural disaster currently raging through the West.
"We ask that any disaster aid package or other must-pass legislation that passes through Congress include a wildfire funding fix. This fix is long overdue and people throughout the West desperately need our help."
In addition to Bennet, the letter's signers include Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID) Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Jon Tester (D-MT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Tom Udall (D-NM).
Washington, D.C. - September 8, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today called on Congress to address the way the U.S. Forest Service is funded so that the agency is not routinely borrowing money from prevention programs to combat ongoing wildfires. Perdue argued that taking funds from prevention efforts only leaves behind more fuel in the forests for future fires to burn, exacerbating the situation. Perdue made his remarks during a ceremonial swearing in of new Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke at the Department of Agriculture.
Currently, the fire suppression portion of the Forest Service budget is funded at a rolling ten-year average of appropriations, while the overall Forest Service budget has remained relatively flat. Because the fire seasons are longer and conditions are worse, the ten-year rolling fire suppression budget average keeps rising, chewing up a greater percentage of the total Forest Service budget each year. The agency has had to borrow from prevention programs to cover fire suppression costs. Perdue said he would prefer that Congress treat major fires the same as other disasters and be covered by emergency funds so that prevention programs are not raided.
Perdue’s verbatim comments are as follows:
“I’ve had serious concerns about an issue. And I want to be very clear about it. You can have the right leadership. You can have the right people. I believe we have the right leadership. I believe we have the right people. I believe that we have the right processes and the right procedures of attacking and fighting fires. But if you don’t have the resources and the means of dependable funding, that’s an issue.
“Every year, when we have to take, in the Forest Service, and hoard our appropriated dollars in order to have money to fight the fires, where we know they are going to be insufficient, that’s wrong. We need with all of our heart and strength and mind, Tony, to appeal to the appropriators in Congress, and the law writers, to fix the fire borrowing problem once and for all.
[Applause]
“As good as you are, and as well as you know the Forest Service, there’s no way you can manage the Forest Service, not knowing what you’re going to have to spend. That is not the way appropriations should work. I’ve communicated that to OMB, I’m communicating that to members of Congress, I’ve communicated that to the president. And by golly, we hope we’re going to get something done about it this year. I think the momentum is there, along with other disasters.
“I met yesterday with [Office of Management and Budget] Director Mulvaney. We described the need and the issue of a permanent fix and I think we’re along our way to get there. Tony’s going to have to meet with members of Congress and to persuade them that’s the ultimate solution so we can manage ahead of time.
“I’ve told people the analogy – it’s like eating your seed corn. You know, when you have to spend so much fighting fires, you can’t spend the money that’s appropriated to prevent forest fires. You know, Smokey wants us to prevent forest fires, don’t you, Smokey?
“You know the facts. Our budget has moved from 15 percent of fire suppression to over half – 55 percent-plus. It may be more than that this year, in having to fight fires. And there’s no way we can do the kind of forest management and the prescribed burning and harvesting and insect control, all those kinds of things that diminish fires.
“Fires will always be with us. But when we leave a fuel load out there because we have not been able to get to it because of a lack of funding, or dependable funding, we’re asking for trouble. We’re asking for disasters, year in and year out. And that’s what we hope to get fixed.
“I want you all to know that I’m fighting hard for that. Tony Tooke’s going to fight hard for that. This whole department at USDA is going to fight hard to communicate to Congress and the administration that we need a permanent fire funding and stop this fire borrowing once and for all. So, thank you all for understanding that and understanding where we need to devote our resources.”
