Jeff Denham: “The air quality is worsened, the fertile range land near the fire may have been sterilized by the heat, our water…”

“The air quality is worsened, the fertile range land near the fire may have been sterilized by the heat, our water sources will experience degradation from runoff, and our beautiful forest land will remain blackened and sparse for years to come. I ask your assistance in passing this critical amendment to put people back to work and start cleaning up this catastrophic situation. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I'm prepared to close. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, in closing, I can't put it any plainer than this: without this amendment, 1 billion board feet of timber owned by the people of the United States will be lost forever. We do not have time for endless years of litigation. Within a year, this timber which can now be salvaged for productive use and can provide jobs for the people of our region and provide a stream of revenues for our ailing U.S. Treasury will be rendered utterly worthless. This is precisely the same approach that was used when Democrat Tom Daschle faced the same problem in his district over beetle-killed timber. We are applying exactly the same policy to salvage this timber. I would hope that the gentleman from Oregon, in the spirit of bipartisanship, will recognize that the same remedy used in a Democratic region ought now to be used for this district in California. With that, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, actually, this wouldn't apply just to the Rim fire, as I read it. The gentleman can correct me if I'm wrong.…”