Niki Tsongas: “Our national forests are a public good that are tasked to provide multiple benefits to the American people. These…”

“Our national forests are a public good that are tasked to provide multiple benefits to the American people. These include clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, open space, as well as robust recreation and timber economies that provide jobs and partner with Federal land managers to improve forest health. Everyone agrees that we must increase the pace of restoration work to limit the impacts of catastrophic wildfires and to improve the long- term health of our forests. H.R. 2647 does contain some new thinking and potentially useful concepts that, if done right, could help the Forest Service achieve its long-term goal of healthy, sustainable forests. For example, the bill provides incentives for collaboration, which has been identified as a priority by witnesses from both sides of the aisle. It also proposes some creative ways to finance forest restoration projects developed through collaboration. H.R. 2647 also offers a potential solution to the devastating impact of fire borrowing, the practice of transferring funds away from forest restoration projects for use in fighting wildfires. Throughout the debate over forest policy and this particular bill, Democrats, including myself, have urged the majority to deal with how we pay for the largest and most catastrophic wildfires, which represent only 1 percent of wildfires, but consume 30 percent of the entire agency's firefighting budget.…”