Washington, DC – This week U.S. Rep. Young Kim (CA-39), who serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, continued her push to address wildfires and keep Californians safe by joining California Reps. Mike Garcia (CA-25), Julia Brownley (CA-26) and Judy Chu (CA-27) to introduce the bipartisan Fire Information and Reaction Enhancement (FIRE) Act.
This bipartisan bill would improve wildfire detection and forecasting by focusing assets within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on wildfire forecasting and detection and improve the technology used to execute this mission, allowing NOAA to quickly disseminate critical information to land managers and firefighters to improve efforts to combat wildfires before they spread to catastrophic levels.
“Californians in my district and across our state know all too well the devastating impacts of wildfires. While federal, state and local entities coordinate wildfire prevention, detection and response efforts, we must do all we can to give those on the front lines the resources they need to do their jobs and protect the public health and safety of California communities,” said Rep. Kim. “That’s why I’m excited to join Reps. Garcia, Brownley and Chu in this commonsense, bipartisan effort to improve federal wildfire detection through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I urge my colleagues to support the FIRE Act and will do all I can on the Science, Space and Technology Committee to address wildfires.”
“The federal government’s science agencies have made great strides in improving our ability to forecast and detect tornadoes and hurricanes and similar efforts need to be made with detecting wildfires,” said Rep. Garcia. “The FIRE Act would enable NOAA to develop new tools to detect, predict, and react to wildfires. With better information, firefighters, land managers, and emergency managers can make better informed decisions to mitigate the loss of life and property. I am proud to join Congresswoman Kim, Congresswoman Brownley, and Congresswoman Chu in introducing this bipartisan bill that would help detect wildfires sooner and stop them before they spread to catastrophic levels.”
The FIRE Act builds on Rep. Kim’s efforts to address wildfires and ensure first responders on the front lines of wildfire mitigation have the resources they need:
- Supporting the Resilient Federal Forests Act (H.R. 4614), which would provide targeted, streamlined forest management reforms to protect the environment and allow land management agencies to increase the pace, scale, cost and efficiency of forest management projects;
- Helping introduce the Trillion Trees Act (H.R. 2639) to conserve, restore and grow 1 trillion trees worldwide globally to grow our forest resiliency and reduce emissions;
- Requesting federal funding for an additional heli-hydrant for the Yorba Linda Water District to fight wildfires; and,
- Fighting for federal funding for a city-wide fuel reduction project for the City of Chino Hills to remove fuel hazards that can accelerate the spread of wildfires.
