Members of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports S. 1462, the Fix Our Forests Act of 2025, sponsored by Sens. Curtis, Hickenlooper, Padilla, and Sheehy. We urge the Committee to quickly mark-up and report this bill for consideration by the full Senate.
The devastating, ongoing wildfires across several Western states (e.g., Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oregan) highlight the need to prepare for the threat of wildfires while enhancing the ability of communities to withstand and recover from such events. The Fix Our Forests Act will help restore forest health and increase resilience to catastrophic wildfires by:
- Streamlining environmental reviews to reduce project delays;
- Encouraging prescribed fire practices and livestock grazing as wildfire mitigation tools;
- Promoting technology partnerships for wildfire detection and prevention;
- Supporting research into wildfire-resistant building designs and community layouts, aiming to improve structural resilience; and,
- Fostering interagency cooperation to avoid duplication.
In addition, we appreciate that S. 1462 as introduced links important transparency and project consultation language with crucial litigation reform. We urge the Committee to consider further strengthening the legislation by adding reasonable timebound limits on such judicial review to ensure that practical forest management solutions can be implemented in a timely fashion.
Investing in resilience works. The Chamber’s report — The Preparedness Payoff — conducted in partnership with Allstate and the U.S. Chamber Foundation, found that every $1 invested in resilience and preparedness saves communities $13 in damages, cleanup costs, and economic impact. For more information, the wildfire specific research is here.
We urge you to advance S. 1462, the Fix Our Forests Act as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Marty Durbin
President, Global Energy Institute
Senior Vice President, Policy
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
