The federal government is responsible for responding to wildfires that begin on federal lands. The Department of the Interior (DOI) manages the wildfire response for more than 400 million acres of national parks, wildlife refuges and preserves, Indian reservations, and other public lands. The federal government—primarily through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—may provide disaster relief to state and local governments. In general, when the balance of the DRF becomes low, Congress provides additional funding through both annual and supplemental appropriations to replenish the account. Wildfire Management Appropriations

As stated earlier, funding for federal wildfire management is provided to both FS and DOI. Each agency has two accounts for wildfire: a Wildland Fire Management (WFM) account and a Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Act (FLAME) account. From FY1994 to FY2000, annual appropriations averaged $1.6 billion; since FY2001, annual appropriations have averaged $3.7 billion. Suppression Appropriations

Suppression appropriations are used to fund the control of wildland fires that originate on federal land, as well as wildland fires that originate on nonfederal lands and are under fire protection agreements. Within the overall appropriations for wildfire, suppression operations are appropriated through two accounts for both FS and DOI: the suppression activity within the respective WFM accounts, and the respective FLAME reserve accounts. If these suppression resources are exhausted during any given fiscal year, FS and DOI are authorized to transfer funds from their other accounts to pay for suppression activities. Thus, for any given year, appropriations to FS or DOI for suppression activities may be a combination of three sources: the WFM suppression account, the FLAME account, and supplemental appropriations (see Table 2 ); the agencies also have access to additional funds through the transfer authority. The funds may be provided in an emergency appropriations bill (such as P.L. Suppression costs are difficult to predict and can fluctuate widely. The agencies have borrowed funds from other accounts in 6 of those 10 years, and Congress has also appropriated supplemental suppression appropriations in 5 of those years (and in FY2016 to repay funds borrowed in FY2015). A significant portion of that increase is related to rising suppression costs, even during years of relatively mild wildfire activity. In FY2016, in addition to providing $700 million in supplemental appropriations to FS to repay funds borrowed in FY2015, Congress also appropriated significantly more to each agency's WFM suppression and FLAME accounts. Congress may consider whether or how to address the rising costs of wildfire management and suppression operations. Budgetary Constraints

Discretionary spending—including wildfire appropriations—currently is subject to certain procedural and budgetary controls. In the past, Congress has effectively waived some of these controls for certain wildfire spending, but it has not done so in more recent years. This has prompted some to explore ways to effectively provide certain wildfire spending outside of these constraints. Enacted discretionary spending may not exceed these limits. Emergency spending usually has been provided to supplement disaster-designated spending, as well as spending that is subject to the discretionary spending limits, in response to events that have already occurred, including wildfires. These proposals may be of interest to the 115 th Congress. 167 , and S. 508 —effectively would have allowed some funds provided for wildfire suppression activities that meet certain criteria to not be subject to the limits on discretionary spending. Under these proposals, varying levels of wildfire funding would not have needed to compete with other programs and activities that were subject to the limits. 2647 would have broadened the purposes for major disasters under the Stafford Act to include "wildfires on federal lands" (§901), and it would have created a related budgetary mechanism that potentially could have been used to fund the response to each wildfire on federal land that had been declared to be a major disaster (§902).
Congress has directed that the federal government is responsible for managing wildfires that begin on federal lands, such as national forests or national parks. The states are responsible for managing wildfires that originate on all other lands. Although a greater number of wildfires occur annually on nonfederal lands, wildfires on federal lands tend to be much larger, particularly in the western United States. The federal government's wildfire management responsibilities—fulfilled primarily by the Forest Service (FS) and the Department of the Interior (DOI)—include prevention, detection, response, and recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also may provide disaster relief for certain nonfederal wildfires.
Congress provides appropriations for wildfire management to both FS and DOI. Within these appropriations, suppression operations are largely funded through two accounts for each agency: Wildland Fire Management (WFM) accounts and Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Act (FLAME) reserve accounts. If the suppression funding in both of these accounts is exhausted during any given fiscal year, FS and DOI are authorized to transfer funds from their other accounts to pay for suppression activities. Congress also may provide additional funds for suppression activities through emergency or supplemental appropriations. Thus, for any given year, total suppression appropriations to FS or DOI may be a combination of several sources: the WFM account, the FLAME account, additional funding as needed through transfers, and/or supplemental appropriations.
Overall appropriations to FS and DOI for wildland fire management have quadrupled since the 1990s, going from $1.2 billion in FY1994 to $4.9 billion in FY2016 in constant dollars. A significant portion of that increase is related to rising suppression costs, even during years of relatively mild wildfire activity, although the costs vary annually and are difficult to predict in advance. Since FY2001, FS and DOI have required more suppression funds than have been appropriated to them in all but three years. This discrepancy often leads the agencies to transfer funds from other accounts, prompting concerns that increasing suppression spending may be detrimental to other agency programs. In response, Congress has enacted supplemental appropriations to repay the transferred funds or to replenish the agency's wildfire accounts 12 times, including $700 million provided as emergency spending in FY2016 to repay suppression costs from FY2015. Furthermore, wildfire spending—like all discretionary spending—is currently subject to procedural and budgetary controls. In the past, Congress has effectively waived some of these controls for certain wildfire spending, but it has not done so in more recent years. This situation has prompted some to explore providing wildfire spending outside of those constraints.
The 115th Congress may consider legislation to address these issues. The 114th Congress considered—but did not enact—several wildfire spending bills that may be of interest. All of these bills, directly or indirectly, would have allowed for some wildfire suppression funds—subject to certain criteria—to be provided outside the statutory limits on discretionary spending, either through the annual appropriations process or through supplemental appropriations. Under those proposals, varying levels of wildfire funding would not have needed to compete with other programs and activities that are subject to the statutory limits. However, the amounts that could have been provided for wildfire suppression operations under these proposals—both within and outside of the spending limits—would have been subject to future appropriations decisions by Congress. These proposals also could have affected certain funding mechanisms that have been used to provide additional spending for major disaster recovery (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes).