[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 8, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4065-S4066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. CANTWELL:
  S. 2471. A bill to provide for the independent investigation of 
Federal wildland firefighter fatalities; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.

[[Page S4066]]

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that would direct the Inspectors General of the Departments of Interior 
and Agriculture to conduct independent investigations any time there is 
a fatality within the ranks of our Federal wildland firefighters. I 
believe this is a modest, but critical important, proposal that begins 
to address the fundamental issue of accountability within our federal 
wildland firefighting agencies.
  This morning the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on which I 
serve, held a hearing on the Department of Interior's and Forest 
Service's preparations for the 2002 fire season. I am glad we held this 
hearing, because the importance of fire preparedness was driven home 
for many of my constituents last year, when Washington State suffered a 
particularly devastating fire season.
  On July 10 near a town called Winthrop, in the midst of the worst 
drought on record in our State, the Thirtymile fire burned out of 
control. Four courageous young firefighters were killed. Their names 
were: Tom Craven, 30 years old; Karen FitzPatrick, 18; Jessica Johnson, 
19; and Devin Weaver, 21.
  I believe we all must recognize the courage and commitment of the men 
and women who fight wildland fires, and the important work the Forest 
Service and Department of Interior do on our behalf. We know that 
firefighting is a dangerous profession, or in the case of these young 
people, summer jobs that they had taken to help pay for college. But 
despite the inherent danger, I believe we owe it to the firefighters 
who lost their lives, and to their families--to ensure that, when 
planning for this year's fire season, our federal agencies have taken 
meaningful actions to avoid a reoccurance of the Thirtymile tragedy.
  Because in the words of the Forest Service's own report on the 
Thirtymile incident, this tragedy ``could have been prevented.''
  I want to again thank Chairman Bingaman, as well as Senator Wyden who 
chairs the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, for holding an 
oversight hearing last November on the Thirtymile tragedy, which 
cemented in my mind the three areas in which the Forest Service needs 
to improve its commitment to the safety of its employees: 
accountability, from the firefighter on the line all the way up to the 
Chief; training our firefighters to put safety first; and independent 
and consistent review of incidents in which safety rules have been 
broken, whether or not they result in fatalities.
  I believe these observations were further reinforced by an OSHA 
investigation released in February that found the Forest Service had 
committed two serious and three willful violations of employee safety 
policy during the Thirtymile Fire, even stronger citations than those 
handed down after 1994's Storm King fire, in which 14 Federal 
firefighters died.
  One of the issues that came to our attention in our oversight of the 
Thirtymile fire is that no one, not the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee, not the families of the victims, not the public, is at all 
satisfied with how firefighter fatalities are investigated. After the 
Thirtymile Fire, the Forest Service basically investigated the incident 
itself. When concerns were raised that the investigation's conclusions 
were simply not fair to the victims, who, afterall, are no longer here 
to tell their side of the story, the Forest Service saw fit to reopen 
the investigation and modify some of its conclusions.
  While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, did 
conduct a subsequent investigation, OSHA simply doesn't have binding 
authority over the Forest Service.
  I believe this entire investigatory process is flawed. To inject 
accountability into federal agencies' approach to firefighter safety, I 
firmly believe these agencies and their chiefs must know that, if 
employees under their command are injured or killed in the line of 
duty, there is no question that there will be a thorough, independent 
and balanced investigation of the incident. This investigation will 
happen regardless of politics and regardless of whether a member of 
Congress takes a particular interest in the incident.
  I understand that after-the-fact investigations do not soothe the 
pain of the families and communities involved in such incidents. 
However, my hope is that a proactive system of accountability, which 
includes a rational investigatory process, will help prevent these 
tragedies from occurring time and time again.
  As some of my colleagues may be aware, I added a provision to the 
Forestry Title of the Senate's farm bill, with the help of Senator 
Harkin and support of Senators on the Energy Committee, that was very 
similar to this bill. It would have directed the Inspector General of 
the Department of Agriculture to conduct an independent investigation 
any time a Forest Service firefighter death occurs as a result of 
entrapment or burnover.
  Unfortunately, despite the fact a modified version of the forestry 
title did survive the Farm Bill conference, this small yet crucial 
provision was deleted. While my office worked very closely with Senate 
conferees, this provision encountered a great deal of resistance from 
House conferees, who tied it to the unrelated issue of stewardship 
contracting authority.
  On February 17, 2002, the Yakima Herald-Republic editorialized that 
this measure would be ``a good start to change one of the biggest flaws 
in last summer's investigations into the needless deaths of the four 
local firefighters.'' On May 1, 2002, after it was killed in 
conference, the paper wrote: ``In another disgusting display of 
politics over principle, a move to stop federal agencies from 
investigating themselves when people are killed fighting fires has been 
scuttled. Incredibly, there was little disagreement about the value of 
more oversight of the U.S. Forest service after its bungled handling of 
both a fire and follow-up investigation of the deaths of four local 
firefighters.''
  On May 2, 2002 a Seattle Times editorial called the fight for 
independent investigations ``. . . a cause worth fighting for.'' It 
went on to say, ``The changes championed by Cantwell and Representative 
Hastings are all about accountability and the difficulty of getting the 
Forest Service to correct known training deficiencies and leadership 
problems.''
  During negotiations on the farm bill, the Department of Agriculture 
did not oppose this language and it is my sincere hope that the 
relevant agencies will support the legislation that I am introducing 
today. I believe it is good policy, and it is ultimately in the best 
interest of both the management of these agencies and their employees 
who are out on the lines fighting fires.
  Moreover, congressionally mandated IG investigations are not 
unprecedented. Already, the Department of Agriculture's IG must conduct 
automatic investigations for the proper disclosure of costs associated 
with pesticide registration. The Department of Defense's IG must 
conduct investigations for the effectiveness of voting assistance 
programs. HUD, and the Department of Commerce's IGs have also been 
directed to conduct investigations of this sort. And the list goes on. 
I hope we will soon add to this list the investigations proposed in 
this legislation.
  There must be an automatic, independent investigation of any fire-
related fatality. The families who have lost loved ones are asking for 
these independent investigations. The impacted communities are asking 
for this. And editorials from major dailies across my home State of 
Washington have cited the lack of investigatory independence as a 
critical problem during the Thirtymile tragedy's aftermath.
  I believe we can go a long way to begin addressing these concerns if 
we were to enact the legislation I have introduced today.
                                 ______