On Wednesday, the President signed into law a Continuing Resolution that will temporarily fund the government through December 11, 2015. Beyond funding the rest of the federal government, the resolution also sends the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture an additional $700 million in emergency wildfire suppression funds.
The additional money is equal to the amount that the agencies have already transferred from non-fire accounts so far this calendar year to pay for suppression activities. Some lawmakers had hoped to include the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, an RCRC-supported bill that would allow the land management agencies to access disaster funding during a fire event to prevent borrowing prevention funding, into the continuing resolution but were ultimately unsuccessful. Congress may address the issue this year as a part of the forest management or drought measures.