Three U.S. Senators were in Boise Monday to restate their support of legislation that would overhaul the way the nation pays for its biggest wildfires.
Senators Mike Crapo, R-ID, Jim Risch, R-ID, and Ron Wyden, D-OR, visited the National Interagency Fire Center for the third timein support of the proposal.
They want to use federal emergency money to pay for catastrophic fires - similar to the way damage from floods, earthquakes and hurricanes gets paid for. That, supporters argue, would free up more funding for forest management and fire prevention. Crapo says the worst 1 percent of fires require about 30 percent of fire suppression funding.
Risch says so far members of Congress from other regions have been reluctant to support the change.
"They, of course, jealously guard the FEMA funds," he says. "And we're trying to tap into that because the disaster that a fire brings, obviously, is no different than that."
While there are geographical interests in play, Wyden says the issue has bipartisan support in the West.
Risch and Wyden will be on a Congressional conference committee starting in September to tweak the proposal to attain more buy-in. They labeled the upcoming period as a "sweet spot" to get the legislation passed.
They also discussed growing support in the Senate, including naming one unlikely ally. Risch told reporters a growing beetle problem that’s killing New York ash trees used to make baseball bats – and the Forest Service’s lack of funding to deal with the problem – has led Schumer to join their cause.
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