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

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

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

The more specifics you can give us, the better.

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

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

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.

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

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

I look forward to working closely with you.

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

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

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

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

Because we're clearly talking about millions of acres.

So you believe that as part of royalty reform there should be more openness and more transparency so that the public can actually see how these decisions are made.

I believe that the legislation which Senator Bingaman has introduced addresses that issue in part with the kinds of financial sureties that have to be provided for mining operations.

In my view, after decades of taxpayer rip-offs and environmental destruction, it is long past time to reform the 1872 Mining Law.

They ought to have to pay their fair share.

the Secretary's letter to Senator Wyden on July 13, 2009, highlights the need for the Administration to conduct formal Government to Government consultation

I just hope that this will be approached with a real sense of urgency because it has not been in the past.

If you were standing up in front of a town hall meeting in rural Oregon and you said that.

I couldn't really get your predecessors to look at speculators.

They need an answer, quickly. That's why we asked for a fast response from the administration.