Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to wildfires and forest management. Recent headlines show that our forests are in terrible shape: 8.8 million acres have burned this year; $250 million was recently transferred from forest management accounts to fight fires, announced last week. Emergency fire spending has already topped $700 million this year and is still growing. We have a problem that is greatly decreasing and impairing the value of our forest for the next generation. I worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act, back in July. This bill was supported from Maine to Alaska by Democrats and Republicans. The bill ends the destructive practice of fire borrowing in a fiscally responsible manner. It creates a subaccount under the Stafford Act for wildfire. This ensures that resources to put out major fires are available when necessary. This week, the Obama administration publicly called on the Congress to fix fire borrowing. While I appreciate the President's interest, I agree with him that we need to fix fire borrowing. I applaud the 19 Democrats who voted for H.R. 2647 that fixes fire borrowing. Fixing fire borrowing alone won't solve the problem. Fixing fire borrowing alone simply is treating a symptom instead of a disease. It is like putting on a bandaid without cleaning out the wound. Again, the House passed this bipartisan legislation back in July.…”