Alan Simpson: “I would ask my colleagues just one thing. If you are a rancher and you have had one of these catastrophic wildfires come…”

“I would ask my colleagues just one thing. If you are a rancher and you have had one of these catastrophic wildfires come through--and they come through frequently, unfortunately--and they have wiped out your grazing allotment, what do you tell your cows? What do you tell your sheep? What do they eat for the next several months as you go through the NEPA process? This is giving some flexibility to the Forest Service and to the BLM. I know we can all say: Oh, gee, they can make arrangements and do it otherwise and so forth. This is just a commonsense provision, frankly, and we haven't had any problem with it with the time that it has been in existence. I think it should stay in existence, and that is why the chairman has included it in this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.”