Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake today filed an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that would require Congress to fully fund the U.S. Forest Service’s cash-strapped wildfire management account as catastrophic wildfires grow in frequency and intensity. This year, the cost of the Forest Service’s wildfire suppression operations has exceeded $2 billion, making 2017 the most expensive wildfire year on record. …“Year after year, Congress wrestles over how to fully fund Forest Service wildfire operations,” said Senator McCain. “The hard truth is that the Forest Service has become the Fire Service, and we have yet to effectively address fire-borrowing or reduce hazardous fuels in order to lower the cost of fighting wildfires. This amendment would incentivize appropriators and the authorizing committees to compromise on a long-overdue solution to prevent and fight wildfires, which continue to devastate communities in Arizona, California, and across the arid West.”