Patrick Leahy: “I will oppose the conference report on H.R. 1904, the so-called Healthy Forests Act. While I have several substantive…”

“I will oppose the conference report on H.R. 1904, the so-called Healthy Forests Act. While I have several substantive concerns about this legislation, let me first speak about the process by which this legislation has come before the Senate. As my colleagues know, there has been a significant and growing concern about the way the other side is operating conference committees. In fact this conference was delayed several weeks because the minority has continually been excluded from conferences. However, in good faith, I, along with interested Members and their staffs, worked out an agreement on the first six titles of the bill. Coincidentally, there were only six titles in the House version of the bill. An agreement was reached on those first six titles, and while I still had serious concerns about the substance of the agreement, I did not object to the process moving forward. I did so because I was given commitments that we would work out an agreement between the House and Senate on the remaining three titles that were passed by the Senate. But what happened next is absolutely astounding. One half hour before the conference committee was scheduled to meet, I was informed that the conference would only consider the first six titles of the bill, and that the remaining titles that were passed by the Senate were 'off the table.' Yet another backroom deal was cut by the other side to exclude the minority from any real conference proceedings.”