RCRC’s Officers traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to advocate for funding for Federal PILT, for a permanent fix to the way wildfires are funded, and for Fee-to-Trust reform, among other issues. In meetings with the California congressional delegation and House and Senate Appropriations Committees, RCRC’s leadership team argued for the need for a permanent solution to fund Federal PILT, as well as the need to end “fire-borrowing” by passing the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act.
The RCRC leadership team heard repeatedly that significant legislation will be difficult, if not impossible, to pass in a presidential election year. Despite this obstacle, RCRC’s officers stressed the need for legislative action to fully fund these programs, and to quickly address Secure Rural Schools and forestry management.
RCRC Chair John Viegas (Glenn) discussed the need for a permanent wildfire Budget fix before the RCRC Congressional delegation and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. Viegas impressed upon Congress the Budget phenomenon known as “fire-borrowing” – the raiding of forest management accounts to pay for rising wildfire suppression costs – arguing that fire-borrowing is severely limiting the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) ability to do the proactive work that maintains forest health and prevents large-scale catastrophic wildfire.
RCRC’s meetings with Congressional leaders proved very timely as the USFS was called to testify before Congress to explain the President’s proposed wildfire Budget fix just one day after RCRC’s meetings. At the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the President’s FY2017 Budget request, USFS Chief Tom Tidwell testified in defense of the President’s proposal to allow the USFS access to a disaster funding cap adjustment in order to cover suppression costs for the most severe fires. The President would allow the USFS to access an amount equal to 30 percent of the 10-year average of suppression costs while leaving the remaining 70 percent to be funded through the annual appropriations process in Congress. The Subcommittee was receptive of the Administration’s idea but seemed skeptical that forest management accounts could be fully protected from rising suppression costs. The Interior Appropriations Subcommittee will continue to review the President’s request in the coming weeks and may vote on a bill at the end of March.
RCRC leaders also met with key congressional committee staff and legislators on Capitol Hill to discuss pending legislation to reform the process for acknowledging new Tribes and the process for the federal government taking fee land into trust. The prospects for both bills remain uncertain given a lack of consensus and the limited legislative calendar this year.
The House Natural Resources Committee has conducted two hearings on legislation (H.R. 3764) introduced by Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) to require Congress to act on acknowledgment petitions. The Senate could consider S. 1879 this year after the legislation was approved by the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs last December. RCRC provided Senate offices with a package of amendments supported by all California counties to further revise S. 1879, encouraging cooperative agreements between Tribes and local governments and ensuring that off-reservation impacts are mitigated. Senator Feinstein advised committee leaders late last year that she, too, will seek significant revisions to the legislation when it reaches the Senate floor. The House bill on tribal acknowledgment is controversial, and RCRC is analyzing the bill ahead of any further congressional action.