Fire Transfers Covered by Congress

It looks like the House may pass a continuing resolution today that would cover the recent monies that were transferred away from the Forest Service and Department of Interior to pay for fire suppression. The current proposal is to cover $775 million for the Forest Service and $135 million for the Department of Interior-- primarily the Bureau of Land Management.

For the Forest Service, the breakdown of the $775 million would entail:

$500 m for fire suppression
$175 m to hazardous fuel reduction
$75 for rehabilitation and restoration
$25 m for preparedness for retention activities in areas of high risk for catastrophic fire

This year, the USFS spent $1.6 billion fighting fire. Fire fighting now accounts for about 50% of the agency's budget.