Political Quotes

“Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have left a path of destruction along the Texas gulf coast, Florida, and Puerto Rico. The damage caused by these storms will be felt for many years to come. This emergency supplemental is another step forward to recovery for the millions of Americans who call these places home. But I want to remind my colleagues that there is still an ongoing natural disaster in the West that is leaving families displaced, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, destroying structures, and taking human lives. As of today, 5,000 firefighters are still battling more than a quarter of a million acres of wildfires burning across the West. In my home State of Montana, despite an early snowfall, families this last weekend in Musselshell County were forced to evacuate after a fire ripped through a dry landscape and put their homes and livelihoods at risk. In California, more than 8,000 structures have been lost to wildfires this year alone, and with temperatures expected to be in the 90s all week, there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. Across the country, in total, fires have burned nearly 9 million acres--significantly more than the yearly average--and 1.2 million of those acres are in Montana. These fires have cost the taxpayers nearly $3 billion to date. Quite frankly, these wildfires have been devastating in Montana and in States across the West.…”