Allyson Groff, 202-226-9019 (Natural Resources)

Natalie Luna, 520-622-6788 (Grijalva)

George Behan, 202-226-1175 (Dicks)

Washington, D.C. - Faced with increasing numbers of catastrophic, emergency wildland fires and diminishing resources with which to fight them, U.S. Reps. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and Norm Dicks (D-WA) today introduced legislation to establish a new federal fund to cover the growing costs associated with fighting the devastating blazes.

"Increasingly, tragic fire seasons across the country have threatened lives and taken a toll on our treasured public lands.  As a result, the dramatic rise in federal costs to fight these fires has eroded critical funding for non-fire programs and severely altered the core mission of our Federal land management agencies.  The Administration's budget request continues this sad trend - turning the Forest Service into the Fire Service.  This legislation aims to turn this situation around by ensuring that America has the necessary tools to combat wildland fires," said Rahall, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

"Our nation will be facing longer and more intense fire seasons due to factors such as climate change and drought.  This bill will help public land managers finally get ahead of the curve by having regular funding available for prevention and protection without having these accounts gutted every year by the expense of fighting catastrophic fires.  Without the ability to be proactive, programs that work to protect our communities will go unfunded, leaving our citizens at grave risk," said Grijalva, Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Dicks is also a supporter of the FLAME Act.  He said he believes the bill represents "a very constructive response to the problem of escalating fire costs, which are threatening the ability of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to carry out their core functions as land management agencies." 

The Federal Land Assistance, Management and Enhancement Act (FLAME Act) (H.R. 5541) will establish a federal fund designated solely for catastrophic, emergency wildland fire suppression activities. 

Federal fire suppression spending has increased substantially over the past 10 years, with 48 percent of the Forest Service budget accounting for these activities today.  Much to the detriment of other programs under the auspices of federal land management agencies, the Forest Service and the Interior Department have been forced to borrow funds from other agency accounts to cover these escalating costs.  In the case of the Forest Service, two percent of fires today account for 80 percent of the costs the agency incurs.

The FLAME fund established by this legislation will be separate from budgeted and appropriated agency wildland fire suppression funding for the Forest Service and the Interior Department, and is to be used only for the suppression of catastrophic, emergency wildland fires.  The annual agency budgets will continue to fund anticipated and predicted wildland fire suppressions activities.   Monies for the fund will be appropriated based on the average costs incurred by these agencies to suppress catastrophic, emergency wildland fires over the preceding five fiscal years. 

In light of recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) and USDA Inspector General (IG) reports that found these agencies lack sufficient systems and strategies to plan for and prevent wildland fires - the FLAME Act requires the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to submit a report to Congress one year after enactment.  That plan will lay out a cohesive wildland fire management strategy that implements the GAO and IG recommendations. 

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