Senator John Barrasso, R-WY, on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the FY 2010 Interior and Environment appropriations bill, (H.R. 2996) which would prohibit the use of wildland fire mitigation funds to be used in the District of Columbia.
This is a response to the announcement by the Department of Agriculture that $2.8 million in “wildland fire mitigation” funds were going to Washington Parks and People, a District of Columbia organization. The group which sponsors park festivals and refurbishes urban parks in the D.C. area said the grant was a surprise to them. “We do not know anything beyond the information that we saw on the [Agriculture Department] web site”, the group’s executive director, Stephen W. Coleman said.
