House Panel Advances Wildfire Bill Meant to Deter ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuits, Start Thinning

In this photo provided by Pam Bonner, smoke rises from fires in Ruidoso, N.M., on June 17, 2024. Thousands of southern New Mexico residents fled the mountainous village as a wind-whipped wildfire tore through homes and other buildings. (Pam Bonner via AP)

The House Natural Resources Committee has advanced a land management bill that proponents say would expedite environmental reviews, deter “frivolous” lawsuits that delay the thinning of overgrown forests, and use “fireshed mapping” to identify areas most at risk of wildfires.

The committee approved the Fix Our Forests Act, H.R. 8790, co-sponsored by chair Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Scott Peterson (D-Calif.), in a June 27 voice vote. The bill now goes to the House floor.

“It’s no secret that I’m passionate about implementing scientific forest management solutions and the Fix Our Forests Act is a pivotal step toward making America’s wooded areas healthier, more abundant, and resilient,” said Mr. Westerman, an engineer and forester by trade.

About 55,571 wildfires were reported across the United States in 2023, engulfing more than 2.6 million acres and killing more than 183 people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information’s annual 2023 Wildfires Report.

While the 2023 figure is below the average of 7.1 million acres burned per year over the previous decade, the National Interagency Fire Center reports an acceleration this year, with 19,834 fires burning more than 2.2 million acres as of June 25—nearly twice the pace and acreage of 2023.

The 2024 wildfires include the Feb. 16–March 14 Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest in Texas history, and six in New Mexico spanning more than 60,000 acres, including three that are not yet contained.

“Wildfires used to be once-in-a-generation events,” Mr. Westerman said. “Now, wildfire seasons have become wildfire years and sadly, large wildfires have become so commonplace that millions of acres have to burn in the West before national news even gives the story a passing glance.”

The NOAA estimated that wildfires in 2022 and 2023 caused more than $3.2 billion in damages, but calculations vary widely. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association reports that U.S. private insurers paid more than $50 billion in wildfire losses between 2017 and 2022.

An October 2023 Democrat majority Joint Economic Committee (JEC) analysis estimated that wildfires cause between $394 billion and $893 billion dollars in damages annually, or between 2 percent and 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

The JEC analysis factored in diminished real estate values, lost income, damage to watersheds and aquifers, insurance payouts, timber loss, property and infrastructure damage, electricity costs, evacuation costs, federal wildfire suppression costs, and other impacts not included in other assessments.

The bill states that it would give federal land managers, including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, “critical tools” for forest restoration treatments, including doing so as environmental impact analyses are still ongoing. It also says it streamlines reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Under the measure, agencies will use “fireshed mapping” to identify the top 20 percent of high-risk forests. It establishes a Fireshed Center as a centralized federal office “across agencies and inform suppression and management decisions” and creates a Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program to advance research on wildfire resilience and land management.

The Fix Our Forests Act also gives utilities “expedited authorities” in rights of way to clear trees within 150 feet of power lines and reduces “frivolous litigation by including commonsense limitations on injunctions.”

Smoke billows over a road during the Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas panhandle on Feb. 27, 2024. (Texas A&M Forest Service via Getty Images)

The measure does not earmark specific allocations but redirects about $2.5 billion in the annual federal wildfire budget to the new programs.

Mr. Westerman, noting the bill has bipartisan support—five of its 12 co-sponsors are Democrats—urged the committee to adopt it and get it onto the House floor as quickly as possible.

“Time is not on our side,” he said. “Last year alone, a record amount of rainfall out West cut back on the severity of wildfires, but it also spurred new growth of brush and grasses. ... As we head into the drier summer months, swift action is essential to prevent these new fire fuels from turning into a potential powder keg with the slightest spark capable of triggering a monumental explosion.”

Democrat Amendments Denied

However, several panel Democrats balked at moving the bill to the floor without amendments.

“I actually want to use my time to talk about what’s not in this bill,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) said. “The issue that we should be addressing first and foremost ... an honest and livable wage for people who actually do the work—our federal firefighters.”

Many will see 50 percent pay cuts at the end of fiscal year 2024 on Sept. 30, she said, urging the panel to incorporate into the bill the proposed Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act sponsored by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.).

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said the bill does little to help tribes manage lands and submitted an amendment authorizing $638 million for tribal wildland fire-fighting programs.

Rep. Katie Porter (R-Calif.) submitted an amendment striking the bill’s language “limiting injunctive relief and blocking access to judicial review.”

“Only one of every 450 [National Environmental Policy Act] reviews are ever litigated further,” she said, calling for the adoption of the measure “without undermining the public’s and our constituents’ legal rights.”

The amendments failed in 19–14 votes.