Rep. Peters' Landmark Fire Prevention and Protection Bill, The Fix Our Forests Act, Passes the House

Bill would help protect communities from the threat of wildfire

Washington, D.C. - Today, the House of Representatives passed Representatives Scott Peters' (D-CA-50) and Chairman Bruce Westermans' (R-AR-4) landmark Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) by an overwhelming 279 to 141 vote. Their comprehensive legislation to combat the country's wildfire crisis will help reduce the intensity of catastrophic wildfires, restore forest health, and build fire-safety defenses for communities in high-risk areas.

During a floor speech earlier today, Rep. Peters said, "The wildfire crisis we're seeing in California and all across the West is not just a product of inaction, but decades of wrongheaded land management that let our forests, wildlands, and hills turn into tinderboxes. We suppressed all natural fire, all the time, and let invasive, fire-prone vegetation grow unabated."

He continued, "My Fix Our Forests Act with Chair Westerman will simplify and expedite the most critical forest management projects while maintaining strong environmental standards. It will reduce the threat of litigation, and add new ways for communities to provide input early, something that does not exist today and is one of the reasons the National Congress of American Indians supports this bill."

And he concluded, "Let me be clear, this bill protects communities on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis. It helps localities in crafting modern, fire-resistant building codes. It also promotes public-private partnerships to clear flammable vegetation where nature meets our homes."

Watch Representative Peters' full floor speech here.

A century of suppressing all natural fires, which led to excessive and unnatural growth, decades of mismanagement of federal lands due to outdated laws, and rising temperatures have created a perfect storm of federal lands susceptible to drought and wildfires. In California, the nine largest wildfires on record and three of the top five deadliest fires have occurred during the last decade. In 2020, California wildfires contributed more to climate change than the state's entire power sector. Now, catastrophic fire is the single largest source of particulate pollution in the United States, posing a significant threat to watersheds and ecosystems. The cost of further inaction is untenable.

There is scientific consensus on the solution: active and science-based forest management, interagency and state-federal-tribal collaboration, and continued Research & Development on next-generation technologies and solutions. The problem: Forest management projects, like clearing dead trees and dry vegetation that fuel fires, often require multiyear environmental reviews. While we wait for analysis, the forest burns down, adds pollution to the air, contributes to climate change, and threatens communities.

The Fix Our Forests Act will:

• Simplify and expedite environmental reviews to reduce costs and planning times for critical forest management projects while maintaining rigorous environmental standards.
• Create an interagency Fireshed Center to help states, local governments, and communities. The Center will:
  • Assess and help predict fire in high-risk areas near communities through data integration;
  • Help pre-position wildfire suppression assets based on real-time risk;
  • Support post-fire recovery activities, including ecosystem recovery and
  • Provide publicly accessible data, models, technologies, assessments, and fire weather forecasts.
• Create a new Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program and Community Wildfire Defense Research Program, which will help communities and tribes in high-risk areas by investing in innovative fire detection and suppressant technologies and modernizing construction standards and building codes;
• Promote public-private partnerships to help clear flammable materials where our homes meet nature;
• Provide a holistic framework - which does not exist today - for local communities to participate early and often in project planning and implementation; and
• Give fire departments clarity about when and how much they will be reimbursed for wildfire costs.

The Fix Our Forests Act is cosponsored by Representatives: Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19), George Whitesides (D-CA-27), Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), Jim Costa (D-CA-21), Josh Harder (D-CA-9), Ami Bera (D-CA-6), John Garamendi (D-CA-8), Mike Thompson (D-CA-4), Lou Correa (D-CA-46), Jared Golden (D-ME-2), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), Susie Lee (D-NV-3), Adam Gray (D-CA-13), Steny Hoyer (D-MD-5), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO-7), Nick Begich (R-AK-AL), Mike Collins (R-GA-10), Mike Ezell (R-MS-4), Vince Fong (R-CA-20), Dusty Johnson (R-SD-AL), John Joyce (R-PA-13), Jen Kiggans (R-VA-2), Young Kim (R-CA-40), Celeste Maloy (R-UT-2), Jay Obernolte (R-CA-23), Pete Stauber (R-MN-8), Ryan Zinke (R-MT-1).

The Fix Our Forests Act is supported by: The National Congress of American Indian, Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, the Western Fire Chiefs Association, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the National Association of Counties, the Federation of American Scientists, the California State Association of Counties, the Association of California Water Agencies, American Forests, the National Special Districts Coalition (NSDC), Citizens Climate Lobby, MegaFire Action, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the Evangelical Environmental Network, the Edison Electric Institute, PG&E, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Tall Timbers, Xcel Energy, Placer County Water Agency, Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC).

A one-pager on the bill can be found here.

An FAQ on the bill can be found here.

Rep. Peters and Chair Westerman also co-authored the Save Our Sequoias Act, a bill to give land managers the tools and funding to save California's iconic giant sequoias.

Additional information:

FOFA would support more effective and responsible forest management backed by science. Experts have found that fires were significantly less severe in areas where larger-scale projects were implemented. It would not amend any underlying environmental laws, ensuring that strong protections are left in place.

Community engagement is critical to a national wildfire strategy. This bill encourages communities to participate early and often in the process instead of engaging at the tail end when their voices are less likely to be heard. Fireshed assessments pursuant to this legislation are done with the collaboration of local communities and tribes through shared stewardship agreements and technical and financial assistance are made available to help communities build resilience and strengthen their wildland-urban interface. This is a comprehensive framework for engaging communities that does not exist today.

• Over the past decade, 80% of projects challenged under the National Environmental Policy Act were won on appeal by the government and moved forward without any changes to the review.
• Just 10 groups filed 67% of the challenges to forest management projects, winning less than a quarter of cases. These lawsuits delayed projects an average of nearly four years for the 77% of lawsuits they lost.
• These lawsuits do not change the agency's decision, the implementation of the project, or the effect of the project on the community. They simply delay projects to starve them of resources and investment until it becomes infeasible.

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