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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the FIRE SMART Act. This legislation would expand eligibility for Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to allow for funding of certain water infrastructure needed for fighting wildfires in rural communities at high risk of wildfire.

There is a growing need for improving infrastructure to ensure adequate water storage and flow for fire suppression. Federal assistance is critical because many smaller rural communities in the wildland-urban interface that are at increased risk of wildfire lack the ratepayer bases to upgrade their firefighting infrastructure on their own.

The importance of water infrastructure investments to protect communities in the wildland-urban interface was demonstrated during the Caldor Fire in the Lake Tahoe area in 2021. Firefighters were able to successfully defend the Christmas Valley neighborhood in South Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire due to the combination of one, investments in modernized watermains sized for fire suppression flows and a sufficient network of fire hydrants, water tanks, and water sources, and two, thinning of forests and the creation of defensible space around homes. This combination of thinned forests to slow the fire and improves water infrastructure to prepare homes is particularly effective.

The FIRE SMART Act would expand eligibility for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to allow States to include water infrastructure projects with both drinking water and fire suppression benefits in rural areas to address gaps in Federal assistance programs. This eligibility expansion would help rural communities invest in projects to improve water system transmission, distribution capacity, and storage.

I would like to thank Senators Curtis, Kelly, Sheehy, Merkley, Boozman, Schiff, and Crapo for coleading this bill, and I urge my colleagues to work with us to pass it as swiftly as possible.

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