Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 4866, the Fire Weather Development Act. I thank my colleagues, Congressman Mike Garcia and Congresswoman Kim, for working with me to run this bipartisan piece of legislation. Thank you also to Ranking Member Lofgren and Chairman Lucas for their steadfast leadership. Sadly, Coloradans are no strangers to wildfires, and we know that wildfires are no longer seasonal but can happen year-round. The impacts of these fires are felt long after the flames are extinguished and have lasting effects on our environment, economy, infrastructure, and more. With that, we are also seeing wildfires begin to encroach on communities that are not used to experiencing fires. The Marshall fire in Colorado was the most expensive wildfire in our State's history and was primarily driven by an extreme windstorm that blew the fire into suburban parts of Colorado right next door to my district. With the total monetary cost of the Marshall fire estimated at $2 billion, it is critical that we continue to invest in new ways to understand fire weather. This is where our bill, the Fire Weather Development Act, comes in. This bill will give NOAA the tools it needs to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to fire weather technology by allowing the agency to do things like access airborne and space-based data to enhance fire weather and fire environment monitoring.…”