Maria Cantwell

I definitely, when it comes to Federal dollars, would rather put things on the table to get people to work together than spend money defending lawsuits.

California is experiencing the worst drought in 500 years.

Drought will likely continue for the coming years, and short-term solutions that divide communities... only make the challenge harder.

There are no more tenacious Members in the U.S. Senate than the two women sitting next to you.

I have always been perplexed by our dear colleagues who had to pay so much on home heating oil.

I certainly believe we need to make the investment here to modernize and to keep the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is our most important, Federal, energy security asset.

We need it just as much today as we did then.

Do you believe that oil volatility is an issue that needs to be addressed?

I hope the Forest Service will use this to help the YMCA get the permits.

I think we need to make sure that whatever these prices are, you are taking that into consideration about what is a reasonable price.

I support the extension of the authority for Federal recreation fees so long as fees are kept at reasonable levels.

No community should have to wait for that declaration to get the emergency communication system deployed.

It seems to me that this is probably not unique necessarily to firefighting in the context of natural disasters.

I do not know if anybody else or Commissioner Goldmark has a comment on that, but one thing we did hear as we were going around the state is we should have a number, just like on I-90, that you can call.

That gives you the latest information.

I think that any legislation really needs to deal with those two pieces.

We want to see them protected.

To me, that's a national priority, to protect those forests.

I just want to ask the witnesses. Obviously this is a big priority for the State of Washington.

To me, a more robust communication system that helps both in the communication about the fire, and in the response is something that we need to look at.

When other capacity is down.

All of the witnesses mentioned these community preparedness plans. In some cases, I think, we are talking about everything from building codes to boundaries to communications about best practices.

So you are saying both stop the fire borrowing so that we have more money in advance to actually do fuel reduction preparedness, but then, in addition, be ready for more rapid response with a different kind of network.

Clearly you have put on the table some new ideas and points of direction that we should go in.