Forest Service Exhausts Firefighting Funds (Repugs just cut funds) [View All]

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Forest Service has exhausted its firefighting budget at a time that more than two dozen large wildfires are raging in the West. ---

Monday's announcement comes less than a week after Congress rejected President Bush's request for $289 million in emergency spending to fight wildfires. Bush had requested the money — which would supplement $578 million already allocated for firefighting by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites) — as part of an emergency spending bill for natural disasters.

Pressured by record federal deficits and eager to leave town, the House Republican leadership cut out the wildfire money before leaving on summer recess July 25.

The Senate had initially approved the firefighting money in its version of the emergency bill. But senators removed the funding last week to align their bill with the House and send it to Bush for his signature.

The omission of the firefighting money left many Western senators seething. "I have as conservative a voting record as anybody, but I don't try to be crazy about it," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah. "If there's something that's a legitimate role of government, even conservatives understand you fund it."

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