Political Quotes

“I am advised this amendment would really be a recipe for gridlock in that it mandates new requirements for the Forest Service as well as the Bureau of Land Management--processes they have to carry out and go through before they can engage in any fuel treatment processes. It would require the Forest Service, for example, to prepare a plan for treatment of slash that contains all of the information and data specified in the amendment of the Senator from New Mexico. It opens up the Forest Service to legal challenges if someone has the opinion that the plan is inadequate for some reason. It forces the Forest Service to set up a new system for tracking the implementation of fuels treatment projects, and any followup treatments to them. The amendment would add new reporting processes to hazardous fuel work. The amendment calls for the development of a plan which is already required but requires the agencies to develop multiyear treatment plans and report on those plans on an annual basis. The whole purpose of this legislation is to try to help simplify and get the work done that needs to be done to reduce the chances of devastating fires like we have seen in California, to manage the forests in a more effective way, a safer way, for those who live in those areas, and to get more done in terms of enhancing survivability from insect infestation and generally improve the overall health of our national forest resources.”