The path to common-sense solutions, while narrow, remains open in Congress.

It’s not always easy, it takes time, and sometimes it seems rational thought takes a holiday. But there’s fresh evidence that the right mix of pulling, pushing and prodding can succeed.

Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House have long agreed on the need to stop the shortsighted practice of “borrowing” money from vital wildfire prevention work to battle infernos that increasingly devastate communities in Oregon and the West. After years of falling short on this seemingly rational task, last week Democrats and Republicans finally passed legislation to do just that.

The journey to this solution formally began in 2013 when I became chairman of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. I’d known of this “fire borrowing” madness before, but 2013 was when Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho and I introduced a bill to stop it.

Working with Senator Crapo, I crafted the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act that eventually earned support from 250-plus groups nationally representing timber interests, conservationists, and sportsmen and women. In the House, Representatives Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, and Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Oregon, championed the bill.

As our multiyear journey continued, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell — who succeeded me as the senior Democrat on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee — and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, played leadership roles. And as always, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, was our voice on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In addition, new Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was enormously helpful over the past year.

Our bill lets federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, plan better for wildland fires and devote the resources necessary to fight them.

As often happens, the bill and companion House legislation ran into committee turf battles and opposition — one side worried the bill somehow would increase spending, the other that it somehow would weaken environmental laws.

But Senator Crapo and I persisted, confident common sense would prevail when it came to this problem, worsened by fire seasons getting longer and the blazes themselves burning hotter.

Last year’s record-breaking fire season spotlighted the urgency of the fire prevention that can save lives, homes and businesses.

At my town hall last summer in Warm Springs, I could taste the smoke from the Nena Springs Fire as I visited relief workers and families in an emergency shelter.

And when I visited the front lines last September of the Columbia Gorge Fire that leaped the Columbia River, and the Chetco Bar Fire that consumed nearly 200,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, it was clearer than ever our natural disasters in the West are often wildfires.

As with many natural disasters, no guarantees exist. At my recent town hall in Klamath Falls, I heard the dire drought forecast for this year.

Our Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, of course, won’t somehow abolish fires.

The legislation will help the agencies’ management emphasis shift properly back to prevention, with millions of dollars liberated annually for that essential purpose. You can’t eliminate fires. But you can work smarter and more cooperatively to lessen the catastrophic effects on Oregonians.

Yes, it did take pushing, pulling and prodding. The end result is a common-sense, bipartisan solution that helps the federal government be a better partner for Oregon and the West.

— Sen. Ron Wyden is a Democrat representing Oregon.