In just their first week back from the holiday recess, three freshman members brough attention to legislation aimed at the fire service.
Electric and hybrid vehicles
Rep. George Latimer (D-N.Y.) introduced the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Battery Safety Act of 2026, which mandates federal battery safety requirements for mechanical door releases, the sharing of best practices for fighting runaway blazes, and a study by HHS on related health risks to firefighters.
“These new standards will help assure Americans that they are not taking unnecessary risks every time they get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle and ensure our firefighters have the most current knowledge and protection to handle the latest in automotive technology,” Latimer said in a statement on the House floor.
Read more: Lithium-ion battery fires
Firefighter health during WUI fires
Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.) was one of many California Democrats to mark the first anniversary of last year’s Palisades and Eaton fires. But he took the matter a step further, underscoring the importance of firefighter health during wildfire events. That’s where freshman Western state senators — John Curtis (R-Utah) and Adam Schiff (D- Calif.) — get involved.
Their bipartisan Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act would direct federal land agencies to develop and require respiratory protection when smoke exposure becomes dangerous.
“Firefighters’ life expectancy is now nearly 10 years shorter than the average American,” Whitesides said in floor remarks. “That’s unacceptable.”
Drone use during fires
Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.)’s bipartisan Wildfire Aerial Response Safety Act — cosponsored also by Western state members — would require the Federal Aviation Administration to study drone incursions into suppression operations.
Bynum’s press release on the Act notes that when drones enter restricted airspace around a wildfire that agencies are sometimes required to ground their own aircraft to avoid a midair crash. Drones have proliferated in recent years, including over incidents of all kinds as news bureaus, hobbyists and public safety seeking surveillance. A California man was charged during the Palisades fire with flying his drone over the area.
The National Interagency Fire Center has reported at least 34 drone incursions this year as of last September; aerial operations were suspended in at least seven of those cases.
What’s next: Funding
As the federal government enters the second year under the second Trump Administration, the Senate is poised to follow the House in considering another trio of the regular annual funding bills in hopes of meeting a Jan. 30 shutdown deadline established following the longest-ever shutdown of October and November 2025.
Notably, the package involves the Department of the Interior, which includes the U.S. Forest Service. Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) said in debate that the package, “fully funds [wildland firefighter] pay to support wildland firefighters and prevent catastrophic wildfires.” But how? There wasn’t much time to explain on the floor.
The legislative combination also leaves the current agency structure intact. President Trump wanted a consolidation of wildland fire agencies last year, but Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-Ore.) pushed back in a related press release: “The bill does not endorse the consolidation of federal wildland firefighting into one agency as proposed in President Trump’s budget request. Instead, it specifically provides funding to continue wildland firefighting using the longstanding practice of funding both the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to allow Congress to consider legislative proposals for such a major change.”
Former Orange County (California) Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy left that agency in December to head the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. Weeks later and without congressionally approved funding under the appropriations process — just as the Senate considers the package and another is soon to follow from the House — the DOI announced it’s taking the next step to create the Service anyway.
The next fiscal year technically began four months ago, so Congress will soon be onto hearings in preparation for fiscal year 2027.
