Political Quotes

“I would like to recognize the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa). Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, every year, rural America, especially the western States and areas like mine in northern California, are in the news. It's not for something good, but for something like we see going on with so many of the wildfires around the country. There's no reason for this. That's why I support this bill here today that would actually make our forests perform for us, instead of being a detriment to us and our health in California and the western States. We can have either the type of air quality problems that are happening--like in the central valley of California, for example, one of my colleagues was talking about, although we've had challenges there in recent years, they've actually improved things. The air quality right now is much worse because of these fires than anything going on by people or after the improvements that have gone on with other air quality issues. In my own part of the State back in 2008, the whole summer and into the fall, brown, dirty--including the areas close to the fire--kids couldn't go outside because the quality was 10 times above health levels for them to be safe. We see our small communities that are devastated by an economy that has shifted away due to forest management and Forest Service policies that don't work for them.…”