Patty Murray: “last week, we passed an amended version of H.R. 1904, the Healthy Forests Act. While this bill is not everything I hoped…”

“last week, we passed an amended version of H.R. 1904, the Healthy Forests Act. While this bill is not everything I hoped it would be, it is an improvement over what was proposed by the President and passed by the House. The devastating fires in California and throughout the West over the past few years have added great urgency to the need to remove dangerous fuel loads from many of our forests. We need to treat those hazards now, and this bill is really the only relevant legislation that can pass Congress and be signed into law by the President this year. That is why I voted for the bill on final passage. During the floor debate, I offered an amendment to strengthen the underlying bill's old-growth protections and I also voted for a number of other amendments. It is unfortunate that these amendments were not accepted because they would have reassured a greater portion of our citizens of the real intent of the legislation and would have made it more effective. We don't have the funding we need to remove all the dangerous fuel loads in our forests. We should have made more funding available and ensured more resources were focused on the wildland urban interface that presents the greatest risk to property and to the lives of our firefighters and citizens. While the underlying bill will increase authorization levels for fuel reduction activities, it does not guarantee this money will be made available.”