Statement on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Markup
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) commends Chairman Manchin, Ranking Member Barrasso, and the entire Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for clearing a historic 75 pieces of legislation, including multiple crucial bills to confront the wildfire crisis.
FAS urges the Senate to consider and support the following legislation, which is critical to confronting and addressing the wildfire crisis:
- S. 1764, a bill to improve Federal activities relating to wildfires, and for other purposes (Sen. Cortez Masto).
- S. 2132, a bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a pilot program for the establishment and use of a pre-fire-suppression stand density index, and for other purposes (Sen. Lee).
- S. 2169, a bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to carry out watershed pilots, and for other purposes (Sen. Wyden).
- S. 2867, a bill to address the forest health crisis on the National Forest System and public lands, and for other purposes (Ranking Member Barrasso).
- S. 2991, a bill to improve revegetation and carbon sequestration activities in the United States, and for other purposes (Chairman Manchin).
- S. 4424, a bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes (Sen. Wyden).
“FAS is looking forward to working with Members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to continue advancing this bipartisan package of bills as it moves through the legislative process,” said James Campbell, a wildfire policy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists. “We appreciate the thorough consideration of this legislation and urge leadership to pass these bipartisan bills before the end of the year.”
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed revoking its 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a substantial threat to the public. The Federation of American Scientists stands in strong opposition.
The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 4420, the Cool Corridors Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the Healthy Streets program through 2030 and seeks to increase green and other shade infrastructure in high-heat areas.
The federal government can support more proactive, efficient, and cost-effective resiliency planning by certifying predictive models to validate and publicly indicate their quality.
The cost of inaction is not merely economic; it is measured in preventable illness, deaths and diminished livelihoods.