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Committee backs $100 million project-level funding and emergency fire account replenishment in Senate File 148
Summary
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Oct. 28 reported Senate File 148 do pass after wide-ranging testimony on wildfire recovery and the need to replenish emergency fire funds and to fund landscape-scale restoration and invasive-species control.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Oct. 28 voted 5-0 to report Senate File 148 do pass after extensive testimony from county commissioners, the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Program, local fire chiefs and conservation partners.
Sponsor testimony said the bill would provide $100,000,000 for project-level, landscape restoration work after major wildfires — primarily to address invasive annual grasses and other noxious weeds — and an additional $10,000,000 for watershed protection and public-utility impacts. The sponsor stressed the funding would be distributed for landscape-wide projects administered through existing entities, not direct payments to individual landowners.
Bob Budd, director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Program, told the committee the program would administer project funding through contracts with qualified entities such as weed and pest districts, conservation districts, local game and fish offices, and qualified nonprofit organizations. "There is no infrastructure, there's nothing in these projects that frankly could be collateralized," Budd said, and "No individuals would receive payment."
Local officials and fire-service representatives urged prompt availability of funds. Bill Novotny, chairman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, said counties need the funds to support habitat restoration and noxious-weed control and described the bill as an "insurance policy" if supplemental budget action changes. Laramie County Division Chief Josh Van Black described emergency fire-suppression-account funds as critical to ordering resources during incidents.
Sponsor testimony and committee record show the bill also includes provisions to refill the emergency fire suppression account and to increase borrowing authority for that account (committee action raised a borrowing-authority figure from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 in committee). Multiple witnesses urged that funds be routed through established grant and contract channels.
After public testimony the committee moved the bill, took a second and recorded a roll-call vote: Senators Driscoll, Giroux, Larson, Smith and Chairman Salazar voted aye. The clerk announced, "5 ayes do pass."
