As the 2026 wildfire season sets grim records across the West, a bipartisan wildfire reform bill is gaining renewed momentum on Capitol Hill. The Fix Our Forests Act — which would expand forest management, accelerate prescribed burn programs, and streamline wildfire mitigation projects — is drawing broad support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, backed by a White House that has called the nation's fire crisis a top land management priority.

What the Fix Our Forests Act Would Do

The legislation aims to address the root causes of the escalating wildfire crisis by reducing the buildup of hazardous fuels in national forests and adjacent lands. Key provisions include:

  • Expedited environmental review for forest thinning and prescribed fire projects
  • Expansion of the Good Neighbor Authority, allowing states to partner with the Forest Service on hazardous fuel reduction
  • Increased use of prescribed fire as a land management tool, including provisions to help land managers manage smoke from controlled burns
  • Streamlined timber harvest in areas with high wildfire risk, including overstocked forests
  • New tools to accelerate post-fire recovery and reforestation

2026 Budget: Emergency Supplemental Funding

The urgency of the current season has also prompted significant emergency spending. Congress has included $2.65 billion in emergency Interior-Environment funding as part of FY 2026 supplemental appropriations, much of it directed toward wildfire suppression, burned area emergency response, and community recovery.

Under the wildfire suppression funding fix established in 2018, the Forest Service and Interior Department have access to a dedicated wildfire suppression cap adjustment — providing approximately $2.85 billion for FY 2026 — separate from their base discretionary budgets. This mechanism, designed to prevent fire borrowing from other agency programs, has proven critical as suppression costs have soared.

The Scale of the Problem

Fire management experts say the 2026 season — which has already burned more than 8.2 million acres nationally — is a direct result of decades of fire exclusion and drought-driven fuel accumulation. Decades of aggressive fire suppression have allowed combustible material to build up across millions of acres of federal and state forest land, creating conditions in which fires burn hotter, spread faster, and are harder to contain.

The Pacific Northwest's situation illustrates the stakes: 36 large active fires across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — fires that are threatening communities, consuming resources, and blanketing the region in smoke.

Local Voices on the Legislation

Land managers and county officials across the Pacific Northwest have long argued that proactive forest management — including more prescribed burning and mechanical treatment — is essential to reducing catastrophic fire risk. The Fix Our Forests Act represents one of the most significant bipartisan opportunities in years to enact landscape-scale change.

As lawmakers return from the August recess and navigate a busy fall legislative calendar, wildfire advocates are pressing for quick action before the next fire season begins in earnest. With 2026's toll still mounting, the political will may be there to act.