Stop Abandoning the Northwest: Release Wildfire Aid to Washington and Oregon Now

Release wildfire response and recovery funds to Washington and Oregon I am asking you to act immediately to: 1. Demand that FEMA reconsider and approve Oregon’s denied Fire Management Assistance Grant requests for the Rowe Creek Complex and East Evans Creek Fire. 2. Ensure Washington and Oregon receive all approved and legally available federal wildfire response, disaster-recovery, and mitigation funds without delay. 3. Block cuts, layoffs, closures, and reorganizations that reduce federal wildfire-prevention, firefighting, research, and recovery capacity. 4. Require congressional oversight of FEMA wildfire-aid decisions, including transparent, consistent, and nonpolitical eligibility standards. Oregon has already experienced the consequences of federal inaction. FEMA denied Fire Management Assistance Grant requests for the Rowe Creek Complex and East Evans Creek Fire while communities faced major wildfire threats and evacuation orders. These grants can cover 75% of eligible firefighting costs, including mobilization, equipment, supplies, and field operations. Oregon should not have to absorb these costs alone. These denials come as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have weakened the federal systems that communities depend on before, during, and after wildfires. Federal staffing reductions have diminished Forest Service capacity for prevention, planning, science, land management, and emergency response. Hazardous-fuels treatments and prescribed burns have also fallen, even though these are among the most important tools for reducing future fire intensity. The administration has proposed eliminating Forest Service research and development funding and is pursuing a major restructuring of federal wildland-fire programs. Cutting research, closing or consolidating offices, and disrupting experienced teams during wildfire season threatens the expertise, coordination, and local partnerships needed to protect communities. Republicans’ budget agenda has also targeted investments in forest resilience, state and private forestry, community protection, and climate-related mitigation. These are not optional programs. They protect homes, firefighters, public health, watersheds, tribal lands, rural businesses, and local economies. Washington and Oregon cannot manage a regional wildfire crisis while the federal government weakens prevention and response capacity, then delays or denies disaster support. Wildfire response and recovery are federal responsibilities—especially when federal funding, staffing, research, and public-land management directly affect states’ ability to prepare for and survive these disasters. Washington and Oregon taxpayers deserve a federal government that protects communities in an emergency, not one that dismantles capacity and abandons states when they need help most.