Wyden highlights 'Fire Borrowing Fix,' says prevention funding must be protected

Sen. Ron Wyden said he authored legislation he called the "Fire Borrowing Fix," which he described as a structural change to prevent raids of prevention accounts for suppression and to shift large disaster costs to the disaster fund. "For years, what we would do is we would raid the prevention money to go put the fires out," Wyden said, adding that the bill puts the focus back on prevention.

Wyden said the law lets managers prioritize fuels reduction, prescribed burning and training in the off-season rather than cannibalizing prevention budgets during emergencies. He framed those policy changes as investments that reduce the ultimate cost of disasters and improve firefighter safety; he also said he will bring frontline input to the staff of relevant committees in Congress to inform future work.