Kim Schrier: “We have all talked about thinning forests, making them more resilient. We talked about the risk of catastrophic…”

“We have all talked about thinning forests, making them more resilient. We talked about the risk of catastrophic wildfire. We passed a big infrastructure bill a couple years ago, and part of that was not just protecting roads and bridges. It was also protecting our natural infrastructure because of its connection with our urban areas and the wildland-urban interface and more. That involved more management of our forests, more thinning of our forests. It required more hiring up of Forest Service staff, which really emphasizes the point my colleagues have made about how this is doing the exact opposite. I wanted to connect a couple other dots for you, just to really bring home this point. President Trump promised all along the campaign trail that he was going to bring down costs for the American people. These are costs at the grocery store, costs everywhere really. We could talk about tariffs, but what I really want to focus on, which is a big issue in my district and my State, is the cost of housing. Young people today cannot afford to buy a house. That means they are going to struggle to build their nest egg for retirement. One of the ways to bring down the cost of housing is to use that 8- inch diameter or smaller timber that the Forest Service brings out of those national forests, mill those, turn it into cross-laminated timber, mass produce walls, roofs, and the building materials you need to build houses quickly and cheaply.…”