Harry Reid: “I listened closely, as I try to do every day, to the Chaplain's prayer. He mentioned the terrible fires in the West…”

“I listened closely, as I try to do every day, to the Chaplain's prayer. He mentioned the terrible fires in the West, which brings to my attention the fact that when there is trouble in the country, the place one has to look is to the Government. After one has completed their prayers and the spiritual things they do, the Government is next in line. If we think about the wildfires that sweep the West every summer, it is the Federal Government that steps in to help. Tens of thousands of Federal employees fight those fires. They are professional firefighters. They come in every summer. They do very dangerous work. They place themselves in harm's way to protect property and people's lives. We have these firefighters who jump out of airplanes and parachute, heavily loaded with all kinds of equipment, to fight these fires. We have firefighters who rappel off the back of helicopters to fight these fires. So for all the bad that people hear about Government, I think we should stop and think about the people who fight these fires that are consuming--there is one fire now in Arizona that is raging in an area about 10 times that of the District of Columbia. The fire line is 50 miles long. Again, we have there professional firefighters who are trained every summer. The Federal Government has programs for feeding them.…”