Congress continues to face questions about forestry practices, funding levels, and the federal role
in wildfire protection. Recent fire seasons have been, by most standards, among the worst in the
past half century. National attention began to focus on wildfires when a prescribed burn in May
2000 escaped control and burned 239 homes in Los Alamos, NM. President Clinton responded by
requesting a doubling of wildfire management funds, and Congress enacted much of this proposal
in the FY2001 Interior appropriations act (P.L. 106-291). President Bush responded to the severe
2002 fires by proposing a Healthy Forests Initiative to reduce fuel loads by expediting review
processes