Angie Craig: “I will be brief. The Senator from New Mexico makes eminently good sense. There is no question that we have a funding…”

“I will be brief. The Senator from New Mexico makes eminently good sense. There is no question that we have a funding problem. I have spoken with the Assistant Secretary and the Chief. I chair the Forestry Subcommittee and the committee on which the Senator is the ranking member. What I am suggesting we do--because the motion that has just been made in this budget point of order is an appropriate one--is to reexamine the whole funding mechanism of the Forest Service. Your figures are accurate. The kinds of programs that go unfunded now, that would help to begin to correct our forest health problem that is in part driving these fires, is a very real question. As you know, the Forest Service used to have a cash cow. We called it logging. Those revenues flowed in, and money moved around from different accounts. You could borrow, as we did during fire seasons, and they got replenished. So you raise a very important point. But it is a point that we need to totally reexamine. To actually allow the Forest Service to borrow from the Treasury without going through the appropriating process, in my opinion, doesn't really give us the kind of fiscal control and responsibility we all ought to have. Certainly as ranking member of the authorizing committee and as a member of the authorizing committee myself, you and I, on an annual basis, ought to aggressively look at this budget, knowing that we have fallen far short, and deal with it in an appropriate way.”