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Senator urges bipartisan push for prescribed fire, pledges to seek funding
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Summary
An unidentified senator told a Senate committee that prescribed fire is an underused prevention tool for Western wildfires, praised bipartisan work with Senators Murkowski, Heinrich and Lee, and said they would work to secure funding to expand the practice.
An unidentified senator speaking in a Senate committee hearing urged colleagues to expand the use of prescribed fire as a preventive tool against wildfires and pledged to work with fellow senators to secure funding.
The senator said the "prescribed fire tool is particularly important because it's underused now," arguing it presents an "incredible opportunity to do the preventive work" that could reduce the scale of fires sparked by lightning and dry conditions across the West. The senator noted that the issue draws bipartisan support in their state and beyond.
The senator credited Senators Murkowski, Heinrich and Lee for helping bring members together on the topic and cited past bipartisan responses to wildfire-related challenges, saying those earlier efforts produced "useful tools." The speaker described an anecdote from an Oregon business summit, where mentioning prescribed fire produced the "biggest applause of the day," which the speaker used to illustrate broad public interest.
On funding, the senator acknowledged that finding dollars will be a challenge and said they "want my colleague to know we'll work very closely on the challenge of finding the dollars." No specific funding sources or dollar amounts were described in the remarks.
The remarks closed with an emphasis on practical, bipartisan work: the senator said they look forward to continuing collaboration on implementing prescribed-fire programs and related wildfire prevention measures.
