Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, all we have to do is look at the last few weeks in my great State of California and see record wildfires, 3.6 million acres and counting. And we have seen this all throughout the Western United States, truly unprecedented. And we also have seen smoke. All I had to do a few weeks ago is just open the window, even though I am miles away from the center of any of the wildfires, and we could see the thick, dark smoke, gray and orange. We saw the pictures in the city of San Francisco. It is truly unprecedented in our great State of California. The amendment that we are offering will hopefully uncover the true cost of this smoke. We must figure out exactly what type of health impacts wildfire smoke is having, not just in California, but everywhere where this has impacted our communities throughout the Western United States. So we are also going to need to develop better smoke forecasts. This amendment would do that. And it directs the EPA to collect data and coordinate research on the impacts of acute air pollution exposure from wildfires. It is $100 million that I think is well spent. An article published just a few days ago, September 19, in the Los Angeles Times, is titled, ``How Bad Is All That Wildfire Smoke to Our Long-Term Health? `Frankly, We Don't Really Know.' '' We don't really know, and that is why we need this research, this funding.…”