Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse introduced a sweeping wildfire response measure this week, saying budget cuts have left federal fire crews stretched thin just as the country endures one of its most destructive fire seasons on record. Neguse said the cuts have also resulted in nearly 40% less fuel mitigation work nationwide, leaving forests more vulnerable to fast-moving blazes.
The measure, known as the Wildfire Response and Readiness Act, was introduced as H.R. 10061 on August 6 by Neguse alongside House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman and other House Democratic leaders, according to the Office of Representative Joe Neguse. The 25-bill package targets wildfire mitigation, community defense, and reform of the federal wildland firefighting workforce, and Neguse serves as Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands. As reported by CBS News Colorado, Neguse pointed directly to cuts that have stretched federal fire crews thin as a driving force behind the legislation.
Tim's Act Honors a Fallen Smokejumper
Folded into the package is what's known as Tim's Act, named for Wyoming smokejumper Tim Hart, who died in May 2021 while battling New Mexico's Eicks Fire. Per CBS News, the provision mandates paid rest and recuperation, mental health leave, housing stipends, hazard pay increases, and annual raises for federal wildland firefighters. Hart's death has fueled years of congressional efforts to overhaul pay and working conditions for the wildland firefighting workforce, and its inclusion in H.R. 10061 folds that long-running push into the broader package.
The bill also sets hard statutory targets, according to PoliScore. It requires a 10% annual increase in prescribed fire usage, mandates a 10-year national wildfire plan, and offers grants for home hardening and fuel removal in fire-prone communities. It also explicitly bars layoffs at federal land management agencies through 2030 without congressional approval, a direct response to staffing pressures the sponsors say have already hollowed out fire response capacity.
A Historic Fire Season Strains Federal Resources
The legislation arrives as wildfires have burned more than 7.9 million acres nationwide as of late August, reaching 165% of the 10-year national average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That level of activity has pushed federal authorities to elevate readiness to Preparedness Level 5, the agency's highest alert status.
Internal memos issued in August by the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Center warned fire managers that firefighting resources had reached critically low levels, with the agency unable to fulfill all incident resource requests and no immediate relief anticipated, according to the Center for Western Priorities. All 38 of the nation's standby incident management teams were committed simultaneously during peak summer fire activity, the group noted. Recent federal workforce reductions cut the U.S. Forest Service budget by 20% and eliminated roughly 3,400 staff positions, disproportionately hitting the experienced incident management teams that coordinate fire suppression, even as frontline firefighters themselves were spared from layoffs.
Colorado's Own Toll Shapes the Push
The stakes are personal for Neguse's home state. Colorado wildfires have burned more than 200,000 acres in 2026, driven largely by the Aspen Acres Fire in Pueblo and Custer counties, which torched over 100,000 acres, destroyed more than 775 structures, and forced the evacuation of roughly 3,800 homes, per The Colorado Sun. Five line-of-duty deaths have been recorded in the state this year, including four firefighters and one helicopter pilot.
Neguse co-founded and co-chairs the Congressional Bipartisan Wildfire Caucus, launched in January 2021 with Rep. John Curtis of Utah to advance federal wildfire mitigation and recovery legislation across party lines. Even so, H.R. 10061 was introduced primarily with House Democratic leaders, leaving its path forward in a divided Congress uncertain despite the urgent resource warnings from federal fire managers.
Building on State and Regional Efforts
The federal push follows state-level action already underway in Colorado. Hoodline previously reported that Governor Jared Polis launched a 20-member Front Range task force in December, with Neguse's support, to combat pine beetle outbreaks that have killed timber and elevated wildfire hazards across the state's ponderosa pine forests. Insect infestations weaken tree health and leave behind dry fuel that can accelerate fast-moving fires.
In January, federal authorities established the U.S. Wildland Fire Service to unify fire management and suppression duties that had previously been fragmented across the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other agencies within the Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture, according to Colorado Politics. H.R. 10061 would build on that restructuring by locking in workforce protections and mitigation targets that supporters argue the current system cannot guarantee on its own.
