Angie Craig: “for the life of me, I must tell the majority leader, I cannot understand what you speak of. There has been no filibuster…”

“for the life of me, I must tell the majority leader, I cannot understand what you speak of. There has been no filibuster on this bill, and a second-degree amendment is not extraordinary nor does it require 60 votes. You know the rules as well as I do. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee just came to the floor and made the right speech, talking about the urgency of his amendment and firefighting money. I support it totally. If we don't deal with his amendment and deal with my amendment in concept as a new public policy for this country, he as chairman, or another chairman, will be coming to the floor every year and asking for $1.5 billion to $2 billion of taxpayer money to fight the wildfires of the West, across the Alleghenies, and down to the Blue Ridge. That is the reality of a misguided public policy that has put our national treasures at risk, the U.S. forestlands. This year, we burned over 6.5 million acres; the chairman spoke to that. We lost 2,100 homes; the chairman spoke to that. We lost 21 lives; the chairman spoke to that, too. This is a tactic to stall? Not at all. No, the majority leader, in my opinion, misspoke. There has been no filibuster. I have kept him and the assistant leader in full consultation as we have tried to resolve and bring, in a bipartisan way, a clear new adjustment in public policy. We cannot arrive at that. It is my amendment that is now up as a second degree, and appropriately so.”