Senate Republicans propose rescinding ‘roadless rule’ — by tacking it onto federal wildfire bill

A brief moment of bipartisanship in the U.S. Senate turned political on Wednesday, when Republican lawmakers introduced a new provision to a wildfire bill.

That bill, called the Wildfire Prevention Act, would mandate increasing prescribed fires and forest thinning in federal forests.

It had support of both Democrats and Republicans when it was first introduced before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year. That common ground evaporated after Senate Republicans attached a repeal of what’s known as the “the roadless rule” to the bill.