What you need to know about the Protect the West Act of 2023
by Grace Edinger, Senior Manager of the Restoration Economy Center
On February 28, 2023, Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Protect the West Act of 2023, which aims to establish a $60 billion fund to bolster forest and watershed resilience, mitigating wildfire risk throughout the western United States.
This bill, a tweaked version of the Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act of 2021, which died in committee, includes important changes from the original version. This version includes increased flexibility for the fund as compared to its 2021 counterpart, which we highlight below.
We end this post with a side-by-side comparison of the 2021 and 2023 bill versions, with key differences highlighted. We welcome these changes and applaud Senator Bennet for the updates made.
At a high level, there are two main innovations included in the current version of this bill that are specifically worth calling out:
Contracting Flexibility including Pay for Success (Section 3(g))
Eligible Match Contributions (Section 3(f))
Contracting Flexibility
This bill explicitly calls out flexibility in terms of procurement. The Fund would be able to issue contracts, grant agreements, and fixed amount awards. This allows the purchase of outcomes at a fixed per-unit price.
“The dire and worsening conditions impacting our forests and watersheds require large-scale, rapid, coordinated action. This challenge calls for a massive investment, but also funding and contracting flexibilities, consolidation of currently fragmented efforts, and clear outcomes-based priorities. By packaging all these pieces together, the Protect the West Act gives us a chance to get the right work done a lot faster at a scale that matters. We hope others will join us in supporting this bill,” said EPIC partner Tim Wigington, VP Finance & Policy at The Freshwater Trust who supported the development of this bill.
We’ve written at length about the benefits of contract flexibility and the need for innovation in ecological procurement. New to this idea? The following few resources will help you get started.
Eligible Match Contributions
Match requirements have been a hot topic of conversation lately. Equity considerations and efforts to increase access have led to waived or reduced match requirements, often for specific eligible entities like historically marginalized communities and tribal nations.
Generally speaking, federal dollars require non-federal match funding, which means that a recipient needs to have already secured funding from non-federal sources. This bill allows other federal programs to be counted as non-federal match, presumably to help unlock these dollars for recipients who need it most.
For additional information on match, see this LinkedIn post from EPIC’s Executive Director Tim Male.
Detailed Comparison:
We’ll be tracking this bill closely and will provide regular updates. Please reach out to Grace Edinger with questions.