Political Quotes

“I want to thank the members of the committee on both sides, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, for their great work on this legislation. This is really, really important. My colleague from Oregon (Mr. Schrader) spoke eloquently about what our State faces and our rural communities face, and that is why this Resilient Federal Forests Act is so important to beginning to be a game changer, to getting us back into active management of our Federal forestlands, to reducing the threat of wildfire, the cost of wildfire, the destruction of wildfire, and the incredible pollution from wildfire. As we speak here today on the House floor, brave firefighters are still trying to contain the Corner Creek fire, which has already burned nearly 29,000 acres of forestland near Dayville, Oregon, in my district--29,000 acres already burned. And unfortunately, this fire season in the West has only just begun. Among the many strong provisions in this bill are streamlining planning, reducing frivolous lawsuits, and speeding up the pace of forest management. Several in particular are helpful to our great State of Oregon. For national forests in eastern Oregon, this legislation repeals the prohibition on harvesting trees over 21 inches in diameter. Now, there is no real ecological reason for this. It was a temporary measure put in place 20-some years ago, nearly. It remains today. It didn't make sense then, it doesn't make sense now, and it will be repealed.…”