On the recordFebruary 25, 2021
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa). Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Arkansas. I appreciate the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 803. In my Northern California district, we are devastated year after year after year, as we are all over the West by wildfire and unmanaged forests. Adding 1.5 million more acres of untouchable lands because of wilderness designation does not help. It will merely make the problem worse. What is the purpose of a new wilderness designation? What does it achieve? It isn't needed to prevent a new highway or a new mine, oil and gas operations, or a new dam. Those are already difficult things to get permitted, taking years and years. So why do we have to have this designation? We are already so far behind on forest management that I don't know when we will ever get out of it, because every year--every year--we have devastating fires affecting our public lands, the access to those lands, the private lands that are near them, and the towns of the people that live nearby them as well. The economy has already been devastated in those areas because of regulatory ideas that come out of Washington, D.C., and California to stop the type of work that needs to be done for those logging communities. Mr. Speaker, this is wrongheaded legislation and is unnecessary.
