U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse is bringing back a legislative package aimed at updating the country’s wildfire mitigation strategies, with a focus on bridging gaps at the federal, state and local levels.

The package consists of bills that Neguse, a Democrat representing Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, initially introduced last fall but never advanced out of the House. 

While the bills have already secured some bipartisan support in Congress, Neguse recognized the measures, first introduced under former President Joe Biden, come amid a more turbulent political environment for public land management. 

Within weeks of taking office, President Donald Trump fired thousands of U.S. Forest Service staff, and his budget proposal before Congress calls for billions of dollars in additional cuts to federal land management agencies. 

The White House says the efforts are aimed at reducing wasteful spending in Washington and making the federal government more efficient. Public lands advocates and Colorado lawmakers at the state and federal level worry, however, that the cuts will imperil critical wildfire management, among other devastating outcomes. 

Neguse has introduced legislation alongside other Colorado Democrats in Congress to restore the cut Forest Service jobs. 

“We have to fund our land management agencies, and we also have to continue to enact reforms that we believe will advance the ball forward in terms of supporting wildfire resilience, mitigation and preparedness,” Neguse said in an interview on Thursday. “Both of them are important; it’s not mutually exclusive.” 

The wildfire mitigation package being led by Neguse consists of three bills: 

• The Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act, which would mandate a study to identify gaps in federal programs and rules that inhibit wildfire mitigation across federal and non-federal jurisdictions, while recommending ways to improve current practices 

• The Wildfire Coordination Act, ​​which would establish an advisory board with members from various federal, state, local, tribal and non-federal groups that would be responsible for coordinating federal wildfire research and translating it into practical applications 

• The Wildfire Risk Evaluation Act, which would require a comprehensive review of the wildfire landscape in the U.S. every four years, outlining changes in environments, assessing wildfire management challenges and evaluating the intersection of wildfires and public health

“The long-term strategies that these bills contemplate are five to 10 years out, and we have to take every opportunity we can to do that work,” Neguse said. “We just don’t have the time to ignore some of the structural improvements that must be made.”

Reports show that wildfires in the U.S. are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change.

Since Neguse first took office in 2018, Colorado has seen four of the five largest wildfires in the state’s history. Those include three fires in 2020 — the Cameron Peak, East Troublesome and Pine Gulch fires — which burned a collective 541,732 acres across parts of western Colorado and the foothills. 

The state’s most destructive wildfire to date in terms of homes destroyed was the 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder County, which burned more than 1,000 homes. Neguse represents Boulder and other Front Range communities, as well as the central and northern mountains. 

His wildfire prevention package has garnered broad support from local and national public safety and environmental groups, including several based in Colorado’s mountain communities.

Those include the Grand Fire Protection District No. 1; Summit Fire and EMS; the Red, White, and Blue Fire Protection District in Breckenridge; Summit County and the county’s wildfire council; Grand County Wildfire Council; Routt County Wildfire Council; and the Eagle County Wildfire Collaborative.

“Additional coordination across agencies is critical in completing wildfire mitigation and fuels work at a faster pace than we can currently achieve,” said Grand County Wildfire Council Executive Director Jessica Rahn in a statement. 

Matt Benedict, division chief of wildfire and community preparedness for the Red, White, and Blue Fire Protection District, said he hopes the bills will streamline mitigation efforts and build more support across agencies. 

“Here in Summit County, we are oftentimes doing this on foot, trying to identify key units to prioritize treatments in but then don’t have enough fuels planners to implement the projects,” Benedict said. 

Neguse’s bills are being co-led in the House by Rep. Josh Harder, a California Democrat. Additionally, the Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act is being supported by Reps. Young Kim and Jay Obernolte, both Republicans from California. 

Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, is supporting the package in Congress’ upper chamber. Neguse said he’s confident Gallego will also secure a Republican sponsor in the Senate. 

“Which will make, we believe, it more likely that we can get these bills across the finish line here,” he said. 

As Democrats and Republicans continue to engage in a broader fight over public lands policies, much of it centering around proposed sales of public lands, Neguse hopes lawmakers will see his wildfire prevention package as “nonpartisan, good government reforms.” 

Republicans hold a 220-212 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate.