Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support for the inclusion of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act, in the House amendment to S. 2012. The House passed H.R. 2647 with 262 bipartisan votes last July, and it has been waiting for Senate action since then. When we passed the bill nearly a year ago, we knew we were facing a severe wildfire season. We were correct. More than 10.1 million acres of forest land burned across the country, the largest number of acres ever recorded. Over 4,500 homes and other structures were destroyed. Mr. Speaker, these fires destroyed valuable resources, and emitted in the order of magnitude of 100 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere while burning up the equivalent renewable energy stored in our forests of 20 to 30 billion gallons of gasoline. Tragically, these fires also claimed the lives of seven firefighters who worked courageously to stop the spread of these wildfires into communities. When the House passed H.R. 2647 last summer, we hoped that the passage would spur action from the Senate. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. We have waited patiently for the Senate to offer its own legislation so we could sit down and negotiate a compromise. However, that has not been the case, so we should again ask the Senate to act on forestry reform. H.R.…”