As the 2026 wildfire season continues to break records across the Pacific Northwest, the policy framework supporting federal firefighting has undergone one of its most significant changes in years. The fiscal year 2026 federal appropriations bill, which cleared Congress in January, enshrined a permanent pay increase for wildland firefighters — a hard-fought policy victory that advocates say could not be more timely given the scale of the current crisis.

What the Funding Bill Does

The FY2026 wildfire funding package, analyzed by Taxpayers for Common Sense, delivered sustained increases for two key accounts: the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Wildland Fire Management (WFM) Salaries and Expenses account, and the Department of Interior (DOI) WFM Preparedness account. The funding levels reflect the permanent pay increase for wildland firefighters that was enacted in March 2025 and carried forward as a baseline into FY2026 appropriations.

The pay increase had been a central demand from firefighter advocacy groups and union representatives for years. Prior to 2025, federal wildland firefighters were frequently paid at rates that could not compete with state, local, and private sector employers — leading to persistent hiring shortfalls at the very agencies tasked with managing an increasingly extreme fire environment.

Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act

Separately, Congress has been advancing the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act, a bipartisan measure that would provide specialized premium pay for wildland firefighters who respond to prolonged fire incidents — defined as those not contained within 36 hours. The bill is designed to ensure that firefighters who spend extended periods away from home working dangerous assignments receive additional compensation reflecting the severity of those assignments.

Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the measure as part of a broader wildfire resilience package that also includes:

  • The Fire Suppression and Response Funding Assurance Act, which would bolster pre-deployment of essential firefighting assets before fire conditions peak
  • The Disaster Housing Reform for American Families Act, which would streamline disaster housing assistance for wildfire survivors

Why It Matters for the Pacific Northwest

The 2026 season has put an extraordinary strain on federal firefighting capacity. At the peak Preparedness Level 5 in August, every nationally available firefighting resource was committed to active incidents. Fire managers across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho reported that resource competition — deciding which fires received priority aircraft, crews, and equipment — was a daily challenge throughout the summer.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), passed in 2021, provided $480 million to the Forest Service and $120 million to the Department of Interior for wildland fire management improvements through fiscal year 2026. That funding — which expires with the current fiscal year — enabled investments in equipment, personnel, and pre-positioning that fire managers credit with helping to manage a historically unprecedented fire load.

Advocacy groups and union representatives are now pressing Congress to make the IIJA-funded improvements permanent and to pass a dedicated, off-budget wildfire suppression cost fund modeled on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund. Under the current system, suppression costs that exceed annual appropriations must be covered by transferring funds from other Forest Service programs — a practice known as "fire borrowing" that has historically gutted forest management and hazardous fuels reduction budgets.

Looking Ahead: The Cost of 2026

The full suppression cost of the 2026 season will not be known for months, but preliminary estimates from the Forest Service suggest it will rank among the most expensive in the agency's history. Oregon alone has burned more than 2.3 million acres — a figure that translates to enormous direct suppression expenditures, plus long-term post-fire rehabilitation and watershed protection costs that will extend for years.

Fire policy advocates argue that 2026 makes the case for a fundamental rethinking of how the federal government funds wildfire preparedness, suppression, and recovery — and that the current season's scale should serve as a powerful argument for the structural funding reforms that have long been discussed but only partially implemented.