WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today released emergency wildfire legislation in advance of a Committee markup scheduled for Tuesday, September 13th.
The Emergency Wildfire and Forest Management Act is similar to H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015, which passed the House of Representatives and was referred to the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.
Chairman Roberts’ legislation is a substitute amendment to H.R. 2647 and contains provisions to reduce administrative burdens for Federal land management agencies and provide greater efficiencies for collaborative forest management activities through a variety of authorities.
Further actions regarding provisions like wildfire funding will be determined through other Committees of jurisdiction in coordination with the Agriculture Committee.
Click here to read a summary of the substitute amendment.
The Committee markup is timely given this year’s wildfire season. A wide variety of stakeholders have called for Committee action. Click here for letters of support.
Tuesday’s business meeting will be webcast live on ag.senate.gov. The Committee held a hearing on wildfire stakeholder perspectives in November 2015.
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