Perdue Remains Focused On Wildfires

You typically don't think of the wildfire season stretching past Thanksgiving, but this year California is anything but typical.  Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently said Congress made some important distinctions regarding wild land fires, treating many as disasters similar to hurricanes, tornados or floods.  And while that change was needed, it is expensive.

"What the U.S. Forest Service had to do for years, and had to do for many years, was borrow from their operational budget to suppress fire,” Perdue noted.  “And that, sometimes, took hundreds of millions or billions of dollars away from the management techniques we could use."

Now Perdue expects the situation to improve.

"This past spring, Congress gave us the authority and the fire funding fix that will take effect next fiscal year, beginning in the fiscal year 2020, to authorize funds for fire suppression and not have to borrow from that."

The Secretary said that until the fix is enacted, the U.S. Forest Service is still borrowing from its forest management funds.

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