Fix Our Forests Act passes House as California battles devastating wildfires

The House passed the Fix Our Forests Act along bipartisan lines Thursday as a response to the devastating wildfires in California that have destroyed thousands of homes.

The legislation, introduced by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR), passed 279-141, with the support of 64 Democrats.

The bill came as Democrats and Republicans have clashed over how to handle the Los Angeles wildfires, which are on track to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump floated putting conditions on disaster aid to California by tying it to forest management reforms or the debt ceiling — a situation Democrats have blasted as “completely inappropriate.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters last week that a “serious conversation” is needed regarding disaster aid, pointing to “water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems” as reasons for the wildfires.

The Fix Our Forests Act is just one of several forest management bills likely to arise in Congress in the wake of the wildfires. If signed into law, the bill seeks to ease permitting hurdles and limit litigation against forest thinning projects intended to prevent wildfires.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) was one of several California Democrats who opted not to vote in favor of the Fix Our Forests Act on Thursday. He told the Washington Examiner ahead of the vote that he didn’t think people should be “politicizing the disaster” in California and that aid should come before forest management policy.

“We need to focus on the recovery right now, having the aid be unconditional, and then we can have a discussion about the right policies going forward,” Khanna said. “But right now, we have to focus on getting the unconditional aid.”

He pushed for more opportunities to get additional experts’ opinions on reshaping forest management policy and integrating technology, “not just have one view.”

“This is a bill that I don’t think is going to be balanced in getting all the viewpoints across,” Khanna said.

Westerman told E&E News last week that he was not in favor of using disaster aid as a bargaining tool to pass his bill, but he believes the legislation could have helped address the level of vegetation in the Santa Monica Mountains that allowed the flames to spread rapidly.

“I would rather focus on policy that’s going to fix forest management and not make that some necessary part of disaster relief,” he said, adding that Congress should “take this lesson and go to other places and do everything we can to prevent these disasters from happening the next time.”

It remains to be seen how disaster aid could rope into reconciliation, a process that allows legislation to bypass the filibuster in the Senate. House Republicans are still engaging in conversations and “listening sessions” as the conference navigates conflicting approaches on how to implement Trump’s agenda.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that he thinks the California wildfires might give Republicans leverage when it comes to reconciliation talks in the event that the bill — be it one “big beautiful bill” or two — may need Democratic support to push it over the edge.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“I think we have a good situation,” Trump said. “Now, it’s been, in some ways, made simpler by Los Angeles because they’re going to need a lot of money. And, generally speaking, I think you find that a lot of Democrats are going to be asking for help. So I think maybe that makes it more one-sided.”

The president is headed to Southern California on Friday to tour the devastation after criticizing former President Joe Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their response to the wildfires leading up to and during his inauguration.

Related Content