Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2936, the Resilient Federal Forests Act. My district is home to three national forests, Ottawa, Hiawatha, and Huron-Manistee. So when we use the term ``in our neck of the woods,'' we mean it. We understand how vitally important proper management of forests is for our environment, our economy, and our special way of life in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. I live right in the middle of the Ottawa National Forest, so this issue really does hit close to home for me. Now as we have seen the devastation from forest fires in the West, it is more important than ever to have this debate. But it is impossible to talk about the need for wildfire suppression without talking about proper forest management. These two go hand in hand--or at least they should go hand in hand. {time} 1530 All too often, we hear rhetoric that managing our forests and removing dead or dying trees is a bad thing. This can't be further from the truth. When we leave these dried, rotting trees laying on the forest floor, they become an incendiary breeding ground for fires. Those fires cost the Forest Service billions of dollars and countless hours of manpower to extinguish. Last year alone, we spent $2.9 billion on suppression efforts. This leaves barely any financial resources to allocate towards actually managing our forests. H.R. 2936 seeks to end this cycle. Let's get at the problem now so it doesn't become a disaster later. This is not a partisan issue.…”