HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Two Senators from California and Montana say they plan to introduce bipartisan legislation to protect communities from devastating wildfires like the one that killed 85 people and destroyed much of the Northern California town of Paradise last year.
Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Steve Daines of Montana told The Associated Press Thursday that they are working with U.S. Forest Service officials on finalizing the bill's text. They plan to introduce it after the Senate's August recess.
They say the bill will expedite logging and other preventive forest fire projects near roads, trails and transmission lines where wildfires are more likely to ignite.
The bill is also aimed at slowing or stopping lawsuits that block logging projects on federal land.
(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
