Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I am not sure how familiar everyone is with the committee proceedings on this legislation, but just in case, I want to offer a little refresher. This is not the first time that I have spoken out on the majority's either inability or outright refusal to do what is right by our Nation's firefighters. In August 2023, my friend and colleague, Representative Joe Neguse, who is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands, introduced the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2023. This bipartisan legislation would permanently fix the pay cliff that our firefighters, our hometown heroes who are actually out there fixing our forests, are facing at the end of this week. We have known about this pay cliff for well over a year, but here we are, nearing the end of 2024, and the majority has still failed to enact a permanent fix. There is certainly not one in this bill, the Fix Our Forests Act. Right now, the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2023 has over two dozen champions on both sides of the aisle, evenly divided by Democrats and Republicans, myself included. Yet, all we have to show for this is yet another temporary fix in this week's CR, with Republican leadership once again stringing along these men and women in uniform for another few months without a permanent solution. As appropriators on both sides of the aisle have emphasized, these temporary patches end up costing taxpayers more than simply locking in a permanent pay fix.…”