A group of U.S. senators is expressing their concerns over the U.S. Departments of the Interior’s and Agriculture’s ability to respond to the 2026 fire season.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, joined U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) to write a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins asking about the agencies’ preparedness, funding and plans for responding to wildfires for the remainder of the fire season.
“Record-breaking high temperatures and historic drought have led to catastrophic fires across the West, destroying thousands of homes, wreaking havoc on the economies of rural communities, stressing the budgets of local governments, and leading to the loss of four wildland firefighters and two pilots,” the senators wrote.
The senators noted that the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Wildland Fire Service have spent more than $6 billion to fight wildfires, nearly the entire fire suppression budget, as of Sept. 2, 2026. The law makers said between July 18 and Sept. 4, the national firefighting force was at preparedness level 5 with federal resources fully committed to combating wildland fires across the country. However, the West is expected to remain in peak fire season for at least the next two months, the senators said, which raises concerns that the agencies could run out of funds.
“In light of these concerns, the capacity of the federal government to sustain operations is critical. We are concerned that the agencies simply do not have enough highly qualified personnel, Incident Management Teams, and supervisory staff to sustain operations,” the senators wrote. “Our offices have received reports that teams have worked more fires than is safe, using temporary supervisory structures because fully qualified personnel are not available. We have also heard that locally led initial attack was affected by national mobilization, and that personnel have worked repeated or extended assignments. This is exceptionally concerning given that the worst of the fire season is likely yet to come and the high wildland firefighter fatality rate this season.”
The senators also asked what the agencies were doing to reduce firefighter fatalities. So far, the agencies have reported 9 fatalities. Lastly, the senators asked if personnel cuts to the agencies was impacting their ability to adequately staff crews.
The letter gave Bergum and Rollins 10 days to respond.