Crow Introduces Legislation to Help Stop Wildfires
WASHINGTON — Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO) introduced the Wildfire Response Modernization Act to expand tools to detect, track, and combat wildfires. The legislation allows the FireGuard program—a National Guard-operated program that detects and monitors wildfires—to access commercial and non-profit wildfire satellite data and disseminate it to federal and state agencies. Crow’s proposed update would expand its early detection and continuous monitoring capabilities to help fight fires as they break out in Colorado and across the country.
Congressman Crow introduced this bill alongside Congressmen George Whitesides (D-CA), Lance Gooden (R-TX), John Garamendi (D-CA), and Salud Carbajal (D-CA).
“Colorado is facing a high risk of wildfires after one of the warmest and driest winters in history. By allowing local communities to have fast and accurate data about wildfires, including from space-based satellites, we can better equip local communities to respond to emergencies. We have to do everything we can to keep Coloradans safe this fire season,” said Congressman Crow.
“FireGuard is one of the most important ways the federal government can utilize technology to fight fires quicker and more effectively, and the program should have access to every piece of data available,” said Congressman Whitesides. “Particularly in Southern California, where wildfires have destroyed thousands of lives and livelihoods, the government must meet this challenge head on, using every tool at our disposal. We can make FireGuard, an already successful program, even stronger, by strengthening its partnership with non-profit and commercial sources to improve around-the-clock monitoring, and the potential for even earlier detection.”
“As states like California face increasingly frequent and intense wildfires, tools like FireGuard help us meet that threat. Using space-based commercial data will only make this program more effective. This is one of the many ways that space benefits Americans every day,” said Congressman Carbajal. “We’ve seen how capable this program has been in early detection and this legislation builds on that success. Protecting our communities from wildfires is not a partisan issue — it’s an urgent one, and I’m proud to be co-leading this effort.”
Congressman Crow has a long track record of helping Colorado respond to wildfires and other extreme weather events. Congressman Crow helped enshrine Colorado as part of the FireGuard program, and, along with Senator Michael Bennet, pushed for the declassification of certain satellite imagery so it could be used by FireGuard. He previously introduced the Protect the West Act with Senator Bennet to make critical investments that would mitigate intensifying wildfires, and he is leading the bipartisan Championing Local Efforts to Advance Resilience (CLEAR) Act to empower states nationwide to establish and maintain resiliency offices to combat the worst effects of climate change.
Crow is also standing up to the Trump Administration’s attacks on federal wildland firefighting. He has demanded the Trump Administration reinstate thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees who keep Coloradans safe but were fired last year, and he joined Senator Bennet to press the Administration for answers on its proposed reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service during fire season.
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