WASHINGTON (AP) -- Frustrated with a perennial lack of money budgeted to fight wildfires, lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill to raise an extra $500 million for federal agencies to face what is expected to be another tough fire season.
``If the president won't act, we will,'' said U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. ``The fire season has only just begun and the Forest Service has grounded the firefighting tankers, is short personnel and admits they only have half the money they need for the entire fire season.''
The federal budget gives the U.S. Forest Service $597 million and the Department of Interior $203 million this year to fight wildfires, for a total of $800 million, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
Federal agencies spent $1.7 billion in 2002, and nearly $1 billion in 2001, according to the center. Final figures have not been tabulated for 2003, but state and federal agencies reported spending an estimated $1.5 billion.
When federal agencies overspend their firefighting budgets, they have to draw from other budgets, such as recreation, and hope that Congress will reimburse them. That does not always happen, forcing cuts to other programs.
After years of drought, about a dozen Western states face the possibility of an above-average fire season, including pockets of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Alaska, federal forecasters say.
The greatest threat lies in the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana, and the Southwest, including Southern California, where conditions are the driest.
