Posted on 06/27/2002 8:35:31 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
— WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies could need as much as $1 billion in emergency funds to cover the cost of fighting wildfires like those ravaging the West, senators said on Thursday.
But budget pressures forced a key Senate committee to trim $217 million in extra firefighting funds from a spending bill for public lands in fiscal year 2003, likely foreshadowing coming battles with a White House eager to keep federal spending down in the face of mounting fiscal pressures.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to clear the $19.3 billion bill, which funds many programs of the Interior and Energy departments. The measure is one of the 13 bills Congress must pass to fund the government.
That total was already $393 million more than President Bush had requested, but lawmakers said the bill might still become a vehicle to carry additional firefighting funds later as it moves through Congress.
"We're going to make sure those needs are met ... when better projections and the actual costs are available," said Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. The Forest Service has already spent all of its available firefighting funds this year and estimates it may need another $600 million, he said.
New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici said that cost could climb to as much as $1 billion if forecasts of a long and difficult fire season are borne out, and suggested an emergency supplemental appropriation might be necessary to cover the shortfall in this fiscal year, which ends in September.
However, the Bush administration and the Senate are already locked in battle over a $30 billion emergency counterterrorism spending bill, which the White House says is too expensive, and how much money the government should spend next year.
The Appropriations Committee on Thursday also unanimously agreed to allocate around $11 billion more than Bush had sought in total discretionary spending. The House of Representatives has so far adhered to the White House request and the difference is expected to complicate the process of reconciling their respective spending bills later this year.
There's your (OUR) money.
Don't environmental groups also oppose things like firebreaks? If firebreaks were created before the next major fire, its damage might be confined much more easily than is even remotely possible today (fires can sometimes jump firebreaks, but if people are prepared for that possibility the spreading fires may be stopped).
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