Our Committee, in the hearings that we have had, has often been shown aerial photographs of forests throughout the western United States.

What message can I take back to Congress, in your name? They said two words: treatment matters.

Well, in fact, there was one estimate that just a single fire in California recently released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than had been saved by all the Draconian California laws over a period of 3 years.

Congressman, I can't even get to this fire on the ground. We used to have good timber roads. I could get equipment there. All I can do now is drop stuff from the air and pray to God the wind shifts.

At these hearings, I have often been reminded of Eric Hoffer's line that every great cause becomes a movement that becomes a business that becomes a racket. And that might be making the environmental attorneys rich, but it is killing our…

I believe Pinchot's maxim was the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the long run.

My opinion, as a former SEAL commander, is that our front line, that is people that are out there with our parks and wildlife refuges, we are too short in the front line and we are too heavy in middle and upper management.

I just want to acknowledge that and tell you how much it was appreciated from the rank and file and the general public.

Employee surveys rank it at the bottom.

What can we do about that?

My point is that the projects were actually approved, for the most part, prior to the Obama administration.