The new set of congresscritters is again trying to figure out how to pay for catastrophic wildfires . . .
Congress is taking another stab at fixing how to pay for forest fires.
After failing last year to pass a measure allowing the U.S. Forest Service to fund wildfire defense the same way the federal government pays for other natural disasters, U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Kurt Schrader, D-Oregon, have introduced a new version of the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act.
The move would end the Forest Service’s practice of “fire borrowing,” in which it diverts annual budget money from regular activities to pay for firefighting.