Angie Craig: “I must tell you it is phenomenally frustrating to me that we have worked on this issue in a totally bipartisan mode…”

“I must tell you it is phenomenally frustrating to me that we have worked on this issue in a totally bipartisan mode since the day it came from the House and, yet, there is still objection from the other side on this issue. The bill brought to the floor today, chaired and lead-sponsored by the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Senator Cochran, has Senator Daschle, Senator Domenici, Senator Wyden, my colleague from Idaho, Senator Crapo, who chairs the Forestry Subcommittee on Agriculture, Senators Feinstein, Lincoln, Burns, Johnson, McCain, and Craig, who chairs the Forestry Subcommittee in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, together on this issue. Yet the other side is saying no. Is it because the fire season is over? Is it because of the rains starting to hit the forests of the Great Basin West, and the smoke clouds that filled the air of the West this summer are depleted? Is that why there is objection now to this legislation?”