Costa votes to address drought and wildfire challenges in the West

WASHINGTON – Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16), a member of the Natural Resources Committee, released the following statement after the House passed H.R. 5118 – Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, a legislative package that would enhance forest management, improve wildfire prevention, and address the drought crisis in the West.

"Climate change has worsened the drought crisis and caused massive wildfires across California," said Costa. "Our Valley communities need access to a reliable water supply. I voted for this legislation to make essential investments in our water management and wildfire prevention efforts here at home. Certainly, more work needs to be done. We must use all the tools in our water toolbox to improve forest management and preserve every drop of water."

The Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act provides strategic and targeted investments to enhance drought resiliency, protect our communities against wildfires and strengthen our recovery efforts to uplift communities hurt by natural disasters. This legislative package would:


Address Wildfire Risks

• Establishes a minimum basic pay rate (approximately $20/hour) for wildland firefighters and mental health leave and hazard pay.

• Authorizes a 10-year National Wildfire Response Plan, which would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to identify within the next five years up to 20 large-scale forest restoration projects that are at least 100,000 acres each. This would require forest restoration projects to be designed to reduce wildfire risk and protect habitats for wildlife and native species.

• Encourages the use of Conservation and Youth Corps programs in fulfilling the goals of the 10-Year National Wildfire Plan and provides the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior with the authority to waive matching fund requirements.

• Includes H.R. 3442 - National Prescribed Fire Act of 2021, which would direct the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to establish at least one prescribed fire training center in a Western state (West of 100th Meridian) to provide training and enhance inter-disciplinary science. Costa is a co-sponsor of the bill.

Enhance Drought Resiliency

• Authorizes $100 million to assist low-income communities with up to 60,000 residents experiencing significant drinking water challenges. It provides a higher cost share to eliminate a barrier to access many of these communities with other drinking water grant programs.

• Authorizes $250 million for new water well construction in small, low-income communities to improve water supply reliability for communities experiencing drinking water shortages.

• Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish and maintain at least one interdisciplinary National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) strike team per region to assist with the effective and efficient completion of environmental reviews. Teams will be assigned to assist with priority projects to address areas with a high or very high risk of wildfire or to reduce community exposure to wildfire.

• Reauthorizes the Bureau of Reclamation's Basin Study program, which works to assess the impact of climate change on western water resources and develop strategies to address water shortages.

• Provides $50 million for a grant and technical assistance program to help public water systems establish and implement water efficiency incentive programs.

Relief for Residents and Communities

• Waives replacement fees for certain critical documents that are lost in a natural disaster, such as passports, naturalization/citizenship document forms, employment authorization forms, and declaration of intention forms.

• Helps strengthen our electric grid against extreme weather and natural disasters, mitigate smoke impacts, improve FEMA's response to wildfires, and investigate major fires or those with unique characteristics.

• Establishes a National Disaster Safety Board, an independent entity responsible for the purposes of reducing future loss of life, conducting reviews of systematic causes of loss of life, and providing recommendations to the public and local entities.

• Provides $50 million to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for grants to assist communities in developing and implementing collaborative community plans to mitigate the health and environmental effects of wildfire smoke.

• Authorizes $100 million to support the development and use of microgrids, renewable energy, on-site storage, and energy efficiency at critical facilities including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other buildings

A summary of the bill is available here.

The text of the bill can is available here.

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Congressman Jim Costa is a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee and Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.