Political Quotes

“Last session, I came to the floor to speak about the significant wildfire provisions we included in the Omnibus appropriations bill, why Congress could not accept a flawed proposal supported by this administration and a handful of Senators, and to outline a path forward on this important issue in 2016. As we begin consideration of the energy bill, I have come to the floor to add further definition to that path forward. As many of you know, wildfire budgeting and forest management overlap jurisdictionally with several other Committees so I want to thank my colleagues, Senators Enzi and Roberts, for joining me here. In my view, the time has come to find real solutions to the challenges we face in each of these areas. This crisis has gone on for long enough. It has grown worse and worse. Our lands are burning. Communities are being devastated. And it is time for Congress to act. I want to start first with wildfire budgeting. For some time now, Members of this Chamber have been talking past each other. Before we can come up with a solution, we have to at least agree on the problem we are trying to solve. We have all been saying that we want to solve the problem of ``fire borrowing''--the unsustainable practice of borrowing from non-fire government programs so that fire response activities can continue when wildfire suppression accounts are depleted.…”