After months of suggesting different ways the federal government could do a better job of helping fight wildfires, Congress may approve two of them before quitting for the year.
The two potential changes are to thin at-risk forests so they are less likely to experience catastrophic burns and to designate wildfires as natural disasters with money set aside to fight them. Both are part of discussions between the House and Senate on a compromise to an energy bill Congress hopes to pass before it ends this month.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who originally proposed the forest thinning or “pine pilot” program as separate legislation that never got a debate, said she hopes it will wind up in the final compromise of the Energy Bill.