Wildfire Funding and Forest Management

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Last session, I came to the floor to speak about the significant wildfire provisions we included in the Omnibus appropriations bill, why Congress could not accept a flawed proposal supported by this administration and a handful of Senators, and to outline a path forward on this important issue in 2016.

As we begin consideration of the energy bill, I have come to the floor to add further definition to that path forward. As many of you know, wildfire budgeting and forest management overlap jurisdictionally with several other Committees so I want to thank my colleagues, Senators Enzi and Roberts, for joining me here.

In my view, the time has come to find real solutions to the challenges we face in each of these areas. This crisis has gone on for long enough. It has grown worse and worse. Our lands are burning. Communities are being devastated. And it is time for Congress to act.

I want to start first with wildfire budgeting. For some time now, Members of this Chamber have been talking past each other. Before we can come up with a solution, we have to at least agree on the problem we are trying to solve.

We have all been saying that we want to solve the problem of ``fire borrowing''--the unsustainable practice of borrowing from non-fire government programs so that fire response activities can continue when wildfire suppression accounts are depleted.

One way to fix the problem of ``fire borrowing'' is to continue to fully fund the predicable costs of wildfire suppression, the 10-year rolling average, while allowing access to additional funds through a limited cap adjustment when the agencies run out of suppression funds, for the emergency and unpredictable costs of wildfire suppression.

Another issue relating to wildfire budgeting is the percentage of the Forest Service's discretionary budget spent on wildfire. The Forest Service has said that it now spends nearly half of its discretionary budget on wildfire. Some of our colleagues and this administration have conflated the fire borrowing problem with this budgeting issue. They have sought to shift anticipated wildfire suppression costs off-budget to limit how much of the Forest Service's discretionary budget is spent on fire with the goal of ``freeing up'' dollars for other programs under the discretionary cap.

Cap adjustments and budgeting generally are within your committee's jurisdiction. I say to Senator Enzi. Have I properly characterized the wildfire budgeting issues we are wrestling with?

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. I thank Senator Roberts. I look forward to working with him as well. And he is right. The wildfire problem is not just a budgeting problem--it is also a management problem. Reforming the way we manage our forests is absolutely crucial. Healthy, resilient forests are fire-resistant forests; yet despite knowing the value of fuel reduction treatments in mitigating wildfire risks, increasing firefighter safety, and protecting and restoring the health of our forests, active management is still often met with a series of discouraging and near insurmountable obstacles.

High upfront costs, long planning horizons, and regulatory requirements--including what seem like unending environmental reviews-- are impeding our ability to implement treatments at the pace and scale these wildfires are occurring. We must also work with our State agencies, local communities, and the public to increase community preparedness and install fuel breaks to break up fuel connectivity to keep fires small.

As you can see here, the chairmen of the committees with jurisdiction over the wildfire budgeting and forest management issues are ready to roll up our sleeves in 2016. We are going to work through regular order, in a transparent and collaborative manner, to come up with a legislative solution.

We look forward to the input of our colleagues, who also care deeply about these issues. My plan is to dedicate whatever time we have in February after this bill clears the floor--and the entire month of March--to producing this legislative product. I appreciate Members' willingness to work with us and believe we are on a good track to find real solutions to our wildfire challenges.

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