WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fix Our Forests Act is awaiting a final vote in the Senate after passing the House of Representatives with strong Republican support and mixed backing from Western Democrats. The legislation aims to speed up forest management projects on public and tribal lands by reducing regulatory and legal hurdles.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill in the House, while roughly half of the Democrats from Western states supported it, compared to about a quarter of Democrats from elsewhere in the country. Congress has until Jan. 3, 2027, to pass the measure.

The Fix Our Forests Act would exempt projects from the full permitting process if they were located in areas with the most extreme fire risk. It would also expand existing exemptions for projects under 3,000 acres to cover projects up to 10,000 acres and limit the window during which environmental groups can sue over project approvals.

The bill originated from discussions between Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), a former forester, and Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) regarding the threat of worsening wildfires to giant sequoias. The two lawmakers initially introduced a bill called the Save Our Sequoias Act before expanding the effort into the Fix Our Forests Act.

Supporters argue that current regulatory processes are inefficient and have failed to address escalating wildfire risks. Research has found that high-severity fires are scorching 30 times more land area than in the 1980s, and California is losing, on average, more than 200,000 acres of forest every year.

"Wildfires today are very different than wildfires from a generation ago," said Sen. Alex Padilla, who co-introduced the Senate version of the bill. Oftentimes, they’re irreversibly devastating ecosystems and watersheds. So, the status quo is clearly not working.

Nonpartisan research found it takes the Forest Service more than five years on average to complete a full environmental review and begin work on forest thinning projects that use mechanical equipment. The same research found it takes more than seven years on average to begin work on prescribed burns. The U.S. Forest Service has reforested only about 1% of woodlands that are unlikely to recover on their own in recent years.

"That’s insane," said Rep. George Whitesides, regarding the time it takes to move on forest management projects. Rep. Tom McClintock added that the environmental left has made forest maintenance endlessly time-consuming and cost prohibitive. "Well, after 50 years, I think we’re entitled to ask, how’s the forest environment doing?" he said.

The Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity oppose the Fix Our Forests Act. Some Southern California environmental groups also oppose the bill because they worry it would allow land managers to approve projects that harm local shrublands, which have a different relationship with fire than forests.

"It’s really handing the keys to the Trump administration to be able to push forward a lot of their timber agenda," said Anna Medema, deputy legislative director for forests and public lands at the Sierra Club. The Nature Conservancy supports the legislation. "We do advocacy at a twofold level. We are doing defensive work to fight back against bad things, and we’re also trying to promote the good things that are happening on the ground," said Morgan Cashwell, North America director of legislative affairs for the Nature Conservancy.