Political Quotes

“I would like to thank the gentleman from Arizona, who I consider a friend and one of the great leaders in the Congress, for leading this Special Order and for bringing this important matter before the Chamber. 2017 will go down as the worst wildfire season in history. My home State of Utah has definitely felt the effects. In June, the Brian Head fire burned more than 71,000 acres in my State. It burned for nearly a month, creating more than $36 million in damage. And that doesn't count the millions--indeed tens of millions of dollars it took to fight the fire. While the fire was burning through my district, I was able to meet with local, State, and Federal leaders to take a tour of the fire and to survey the damage and to try to find a solution. The images I saw as I toured this fire were truly heartbreaking. Dozens of evacuated homes, burned homes, ruined forests, firefighters and volunteers who were working day and night to try to contain the fire, ash-filled lakes. I took more than an hour in a helicopter to fly around the circumference of this fire. As I was flying around looking down, thinking about, among other things, the wildlife that had been devastated by this fire, I wondered: How long will it take for us to recover from this, for this beautiful landscape to recover? And I can promise you this, it will not happen in my lifetime. My family owns a ranch, and almost 70 years ago, we had a similar fire.…”