Sheila Jackson Lee: “My amendment is prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to eliminate the Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership, or…”

“My amendment is prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to eliminate the Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership, or programs, that are for the reforestation of urban areas. In fact, I celebrate and support the increase in funding. This amendment is particularly helpful, I hope, to create the legislative history of the importance of the urban reforestation program. Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member as well as the chairman of this committee for recognizing the importance of urban reforestation. This amendment emphasizes the importance of the Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership in urban forests and preserves our ability to return urban areas to healthy and safe living environments for our children. I have offered similar amendments because I want an ongoing creation of legislative history to ensure that this program is kept. In the past 30 years alone, we have lost 30 percent of all of our urban trees, a loss of over 600 million trees. Eighty percent of the American population lives in dense quarters of the city. Reforestation programs return a tool of nature to concrete areas that can help remove air pollution, filter out chemicals and agricultural waste in water, and save communities millions of dollars in stormwater management costs. I have certainly seen the devastation of droughts right in large cities. In particular, Houston, a couple years ago, lost many, many trees in a severe drought that we experienced over the summer.…”