Ron Wyden

We are just going to stay with this until it gets addressed.

I will tell you, all I see is foot-dragging, and it is not acceptable to me.

Why has it not been worked out? Why has it not been accomplished in the year that I have introduced this legislation?

I have had my legislation out there for a year, and you talk about how you are doing various things to work this out.

I am just trying to figure out what is behind your opposition to my legislation.

My bill would allow a local solution to go forward to protect the monument resources.

I feel very strongly that recreation is a special economic engine for Oregon, and I certainly want to see the opportunities that would come about through a larger monument boundary.

I am very pleased that today we are going to be looking at S. 1270, legislation that I have introduced to expand the boundary of the Oregon Caves National Monument.

I would urge the committee to be very cautious about adding additional requirements to this legislation.

So I'm really going to push hard to try to find out specifically what's going to be done now.

It all suggests from the experts that the number of acres that are being treated to actually reduce this problem of tremendous fuels buildup is unreliable.

So Ms. Dalton, we have gone round and round over the years on this question of what the agencies are doing to reduce fuels.

We need still, though, more resources to reduce hazardous fuels and suppress wildfires that do occur.

Senator Murkowski and I would do anything possible to get that aviation strategy completed.

I want to thank you in advance for stepping up to a higher standard here when it comes to working together.

I'm looking for some specifics because what we have heard in the past is largely just a recycling of the various approaches.

But that's what the agency has done over the last few years. That's what we continue to get testimony isn't getting the job done.

The more specifics you can give us, the better.

I look forward to working closely with you.

I thank my colleague. You're absolutely right in terms of your diagnosis and the opportunity to move ahead.

Almost every year the Forest Service has to go out and spend more money on wildfire suppression than it has budgeted.

Putting them out means spending more money on what is known as wildfire suppression.

The heart of the problem it seems to me is pretty straightforward. We are having more large wildfires.

Let's do this, Mr. Jensen.

Because we're clearly talking about millions of acres.