Senator Mark Udall (D. CO) was successful in getting an amendment added to the budget to provide more federal funding for firefighters:
http://summitcountyvoice.com/...
A budget amendment that would prioritize funds for fighting wildfires passed the Senate this weekend by voice vote without objection, according to a statement from Sen. Mark Udall’s office.
Udall (D-CO) said the amendment will increase the funding availability for fighting wildfires and modernizing the air tanker fleet by $100 million — critical funds that will help prevent fires from growing and threatening lives and homes in the West.
The amendment was offered by Udall and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who both serve on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The lawmakers said their deficit-neutral and bipartisan amendment underscores the importance of ensuring that the U.S. Forest Service is prepared to fight wildfires, especially during the ongoing drought and continued threat of bark beetle. - Summit County Citizens Voices, 3/24/13
Udall's colleague, Senator Michael Bennet (D. CO) was also a co-sponsor of Udall and Barrasso's amendment:
http://durangoherald.com/...
The amendment is deficit-neutral because it would force the Senate Appropriations Committee to prioritize this funding and reduce spending elsewhere in the budget, said Bennet’s and Udall’s offices. It also calls for modernization of the aging air-tanker fleet, which currently is more than 50 years old.
“We need to reduce the federal budget deficit; we all agree that’s important,” Udall said on the Senate floor Friday. “But if we don’t invest in firefighting efforts and mitigation, that will levy an unacceptably steep and entirely avoidable cost upon Colorado and our entire country.”
Udall and Bennet also filed an amendment to improve wildfire preparedness, and Bennet introduced an amendment to promote states’ clean-energy efforts. Neither amendments were brought to the Senate floor for a vote. - Durango Herald, 3/23/13
Udall has been fighting to increase firefighting funding for a while now. Earlier this year, Udall and Senator Jon Tester (D. MT) tried to restore $653 million to the Forest Service’s Wildland Fire Management Account with an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriation for Disaster Assistance. The amendment failed. The Sequester cuts will result in $134 million in firefighting funds, resulting in 500 fewer firefighters and 50 fewer fire stations. Firefighting funding is needed now more than ever:
http://gimby.org/...
While several late winter storms have momentarily tempered drought conditions around the country, officials are concerned 2013’s wildfire season could be every bit as bad as last year’s.
As the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho detailed in its most recent wildfire forecast, a colder than expected winter will soon be a thing of the past, with the potential for wildfires rising in the South and Southwest as spring turns to summer.
In Florida, where February was quite dry, the NIFC is predicting an “early start” to the season with “increasing potential for significant fires." Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California are also named as likely wildfire hotspots.
But even as federal and state agencies prepare for a year of blazes similar to the record-setting 2012 wildfire season, the strategy has quietly shifted. Earlier this month, the Forest Service, which oversees about 193 million tree-filled acres in 43 states, signaled a slight departure from its more aggressive 2012 firefighting strategy — one that ended up costing the agency $1.3 billion, $400 million more than it had been budgeted. - GIMBY, 3/20/13
Udall has also been working with other Colorado lawmakers to urge congress to grant Colorado it's own air fleet to fight wildfires:
http://www.timescall.com/...
Colorado could better fight wildfires if the state had its own fleet and didn't have to wait for aging federal tankers to be dispatched, says a bipartisan pair of lawmakers drafting legislation.
Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, and Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, want Colorado to join California as the only states in the country to have their own air arsenal to fight wildfires. Last year, fires charred hundreds of thousands of acres, burned nearly 700 homes and killed six people. Both lawmakers represent areas ravaged by wildfires in 2012.
The proposal comes just as firefighters logged 90 percent containment of the 1,400-acre Galena Fire in the foothills west of Fort Collins.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. Sen. Mark Udall has pressed the need to modernize the Forest Service air tanker fleet.
A spokesman from Udall's office said he has questioned maintenance costs for a local fleet and how the crafts' use might be coordinated with that of Forest Service planes.
"We're always one lightning strike, one careless match being thrown, one terrorist attack away from a catastrophic wild fire," King said. - Times Call, 3/18/13
I thank Senator Udall for looking out for firefighters and making federal funding combat forest fires a serious issue. If you'd like to donate to udall's 2014 re-election campaign, you can do so here:
https://secure.actblue.com/...