Mike Crapo: “I believe the relative lack of attack and concern that has been raised with regard to this amendment is indicative of…”

“I believe the relative lack of attack and concern that has been raised with regard to this amendment is indicative of the success which those Senators have achieved. There have been a few criticisms made though. I want to respond to some of them. First, with regard to the allocation of the resources, it has been argued that only 50 percent of the resources have been allocated to the wildland/urban interface. Remember, we have $760 million worth of resources allocated in this bill. The point, however, needs to be made that in addition to the fact that our wildland/urban interface needs to be addressed, much of the problem exists out in the forests away from that wildland/urban interface. In fact, when the forests get hot and get burning, when you get winds such as we are seeing in California right now, it is very important to have protection more than just 100 yards or a couple hundred yards away from the wildland/urban interface.”