[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H3992-H3995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        FEDERAL LAND ASSISTANCE, MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 281 and rule 
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House 
on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 1404.

                              {time}  1531


                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill 
(H.R. 1404) to authorize a supplemental funding source for catastrophic 
emergency wildland fire suppression activities on Department of the 
Interior and National Forest System lands, to require the Secretary of 
the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a cohesive 
wildland fire management strategy, and for other purposes, with Mr. 
Lujan in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the 
first time.
  The gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall) and the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Hastings) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West Virginia.
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I am pleased to bring before this body proactive legislation which 
would establish a new arsenal to provide the necessary resources to 
combat catastrophic wildfires.
  We are all aware of the raging fires which annually sweep across 
parts of America. Over the last decade, wildfires have become 
increasingly dangerous and destructive, burning more acreage and more 
property more often. Yet, financially, the Federal Government continues 
to be ill-prepared to respond to these fires.
  Every year the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the 
other Federal agencies are forced to dramatically shift spending 
priorities, rapidly increasing funding for fire fighting at the expense 
of other vital programs.
  This ``Rob Peter to Pay Paul'' approach requires these agencies to 
borrow funds from other accounts, causing everything from basic 
maintenance to visitor services to suffer. In fact, as it stands, 
nearly half of the Forest Service's annual budget is spent putting out 
fires, causing some to point out that the agency is no longer the U.S. 
Forest Service, but rather, the U.S. Fire Service.
  The legislation before us, the Federal Land Assistance Management 
Enhancement Act, or FLAME Act, is a bipartisan effort to correct course 
by getting out in front of these tragic fire seasons. The legislation 
would address the funding problem by establishing a dedicated fund for 
catastrophic, emergency wildland fire suppression activities, separate 
from appropriated, fire-fighting funding. This pot of money would be 
available when appropriated funds run out, saving the agencies from 
having to cut into nonfire programs.
  The Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior would be authorized to 
use money from the FLAME fund only after making a specific declaration 
that a fire was large enough and dangerous enough to warrant such 
action.
  The bill would also require the Forest Service and the Department of 
the Interior to present to Congress a long-overdue, comprehensive 
strategy for combating wildland fire, a strategy that would address the 
troubling shortcomings in the agencies' response to fires identified by 
the Government Accountability Office and the Agriculture Department's 
Inspector General.
  I would note that this legislation complements proposals in President 
Obama's proposed budget to establish a dedicated fund for catastrophic 
wildfires.
  This legislation also enjoys the support of the five former chiefs of 
the Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, the 
National Association of Counties, the National Federation of Federal 
Employees, the Western Governors' Association, and nearly 40 other 
organizations.
  I am honored to be joined by our subcommittee chairman, the gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva); our Interior Appropriations chairman Norm 
Dicks; Interior Appropriations ranking member Simpson; and Congressman 
Greg Walden as original cosponsors of H.R. 1404. Agriculture chairman 
Collin Peterson is also a cosponsor of the bill.
  Each of these Members understands that fire, and the cost of fighting 
it, is among the most serious issues facing our Federal land management 
agencies. If not addressed, this issue will continue to cost homes, 
businesses, communities, public lands, and lives.
  The FLAME Act will allow the Forest Service and the Department of the 
Interior to respond to these dangerous fires while also accomplishing 
other important aspects of their missions, including those that will 
prevent fires from devastating our communities in the future.
  I ask my colleagues to support passage of the FLAME Act.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time 
as I may consume.
  Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the distinguished chairman of the 
Natural Resources Committee, Mr. Rahall, for sponsoring this 
legislation, and I urge my Republican colleagues to support it.
  This bill makes budgeting and accounting for fighting fires easier 
for Federal agencies and for Congress, but Mr. Chairman, as written, it 
does nothing to prevent forest fires. This is an accounting bill but 
not a wildfire prevention bill.
  It is regrettable that, since taking control of the House, Democrats 
have not moved a single piece of legislation that gives our land 
managers new authority or tools to manage the disastrous situation on 
our Nation's forests. Funding is important, but it will not solve the 
problem if our land management agencies are handcuffed to wrong-headed 
policies backed up by special interest lawsuits.
  Jobs are also at stake with the management of our Federal lands. 
Since 2006, Mr. Chairman, the logging, wood, paper, and cabinetry 
industries have lost 242,000 jobs. Two weeks ago, a Sierra Pacific 
timber mill in Quincy, California, closed, which means that close to 10 
percent of the town's economy will be closed down. This is an

[[Page H3993]]

area that has had double-digit unemployment since the early 1990s. One 
of the main reasons the company cited for the mill closing is the 
lawsuits by environmental groups on every single timber sale.
  On the issue of climate change and the President's proposal of a new 
cap-and-trade energy tax, we know that forests provide large and 
beneficial inventory of stored carbon and that forest fires contribute 
huge amounts of carbon dioxide emissions.
  We lose millions of acres of our national forests to wildfire every 
year, and these fires and their aftermath produce billions of tons of 
pollutants. A medium-sized fire can release 200,000 tons of 
CO2, but if the burned trees are left to decompose, several 
times that amount will be emitted.
  At a time when the Democrat majority in Congress are working to make 
carbon emissions the number one issue on their legislative agenda, it 
is troubling that action is not being taken to prevent wildfires that 
emit so much carbon into the atmosphere.
  Instead, Congress is working overtime on imposing a cap-and-trade tax 
scheme that the Obama administration says may cost our economy over $2 
trillion. A new report from Moody's Investor Service predicts that cap-
and-trade would cause electricity prices to jump between 15 and 30 
percent. This could cost American families up to $3,100 a year.
  These are prices that are too high for Americans to pay, especially 
when the impact of wildfires is not even being considered. A better way 
of budgeting for fire fighting is needed, and the bill that we will be 
considering does precisely that, and I support that. But there is far 
more to this problem than bookkeeping.
  The simple fact is that our national forests now have four to five 
times the amount of trees per acre compared to when Lewis and Clark 
ventured West. Today, these lands are a tinderbox waiting for a match 
strike.
  I hope this bill is improved through the limited number of amendments 
that were made in order by the Rules Committee, but it is clear that 
after enactment of this bill there is still far, far more that needs to 
be done to prevent wildfires across this country.
  With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Chairman, I'm very happy to yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps), a very valued member of our 
Committee on Natural Resources that was so instrumental in bringing 
this legislation, as well as many other pieces of legislation out of 
our committee, to the floor.
  Mrs. CAPPS. I thank Chairman Rahall for giving me time.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise in very strong support of this FLAME Act. This 
much-needed legislation comes at an important time. Our Nation will be 
facing longer and more intense fire seasons due to global warming and 
drought. The cost of fighting fires has grown enormously in recent 
years, and projections indicate that this trend will only increase, 
especially in populated wildland-urban interface areas.
  The Forest Service has spent over $1 billion per year in 5 of the 
last 7 years to extinguish fires. And as the chairman just said, 
wildland fire management activities are estimated to consume close to 
half of the Forest Service's budget this year.
  These escalating costs are having a significant impact on the Forest 
Service. For example, the Forest Service is forced to pull funds from 
other programs, leaving fewer funds available for campground 
maintenance and forest restoration.
  The emergency fund created by the FLAME Act will reduce the need to 
deplete important Forest Service programs and will provide more 
reliable funding than uncertain year-to-year supplementals.
  Even more important, the FLAME Act will ensure the Forest Service has 
regular funding available for day-to-day fire management. This includes 
important prevention steps, like FIREWISE Communities, hazardous fuels 
treatment, and restoration work.
  It's absolutely essential that our efforts to fight today's fires 
don't hurt our efforts to prevent tomorrow's fires. This bill will 
ensure this is the case.
  Mr. Chairman, the Zaca fire that burned 240,000 acres in my 
congressional district 2 years ago burned for 3 months, from July 
through September, and it cost the Forest Service $120 million. One 
fire. With close to 3,000 fires in California last year alone, and the 
fire season expected to start earlier than usual, it's very clear that 
we have a real need to create----
  The CHAIR. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
  Mr. RAHALL. I yield the gentlelady another 30 seconds.
  Mrs. CAPPS. It's very clear that we need to create an emergency 
Federal fund dedicated solely to fighting devastating wildland fires, a 
rainy day fund for forest fires. This idea is long overdue.
  This legislation deserves to be approved by the House, and I urge all 
of my colleagues to address the long-term wildfire suppression fund 
situation by supporting this FLAME Act.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased to yield 5 
minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), a member of 
the Natural Resources Committee.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Chairman, I certainly support H.R. 1404. It is going to add some 
flexibility in managing firefighting costs on our Federal lands, but my 
friend, the gentleman from Washington, is absolutely correct. Our 
firefighting costs would be much lower and our revenues would be much 
higher if we'd restore the sound forest management practices that this 
Congress long ago abandoned. Instead, we've embraced a radical and 
retrograde ideology that we should abandon our public lands to 
overpopulation, overgrowth, and benign neglect. Bills like this one are 
made necessary precisely because of this public falling.
  A generation ago we recognized the importance of proper wildlands 
management. We recognized that nothing is more devastating to the 
ecology of a forest than a forest fire, and we recognized that in any 
living community, including forests, dense overpopulation is unhealthy.
  And so we carefully groomed our public lands. We removed excessive 
vegetation, and we gave timber the room it needs to go. Surplus timber 
and overgrowth were sold for the benefit of our communities. Our 
forests prospered, our economy prospered, and forest fires were far 
less numerous and far less severe than we suffer today.
  Today, we're seeing the damage done to our forests and to our economy 
by this Luddite ideology that human beings shouldn't touch our natural 
resources.
  My region in northeastern California has been tormented by 
devastating fires in the last few years, and the reason is quite 
simple. As one forester explained it at a hearing we conducted in 
Sacramento, the excess timber is going to come out of the forests one 
way or the other. It's either going to be carried out or it's going to 
be burned out.

                              {time}  1545

  A generation ago, we carried it out, and it fueled prosperity 
throughout our region and produced a cornucopia of revenues to the 
Federal Government. But today, it's being burned out, fueling 
devastating fires that are destroying vast tracts of land and 
destroying the abundance and prosperity that we once enjoyed.
  The first victim of this wrongheaded policy is the environment 
itself. Our recent forest fires have made a mockery of all our clean 
air regulations. As the gentleman from Washington pointed out, those 
concerned about carbon dioxide might be interested in a report by 
scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the 
University of Colorado at Boulder. They estimated that a single forest 
fire in California in 2007 produced about 25 percent of the average 
monthly emissions from all fossil fuel burning throughout all of 
California. Anyone who's seen a forest after one of these fires knows 
that the environmental devastation could not possibly be more complete.
  But the cost of these policies doesn't end there. Timber is a 
renewable resource. If properly managed, it's literally an 
inexhaustible source of prosperity. And yet my region, blessed with one 
of the most bountiful renewable resources in the Nation, has been 
rendered economically prostrate. A region that once prospered from its 
surplus

[[Page H3994]]

timber is now ravaged by fires that are fueled by that surplus timber.
  The gentleman from Washington mentioned the little town of Quincy, 
California, that happens to be in my district--population 2,000. About 
500 families. As of May 4, 150 of those families are going to be out of 
work because the sawmill had to shut down. Environmental litigation has 
tied up about two-thirds of their timber harvest.
  The company that owns that sawmill, Sierra Pacific, also just 
announced today that it's shutting down its sawmills in Sonora and 
Camino for the same reason. That's another 310 families out of work.
  This is not environmentalism. A true environmentalist recognizes the 
damage done by overgrowth and overpopulation and they recognize the 
role of sound forest management practices in maintaining healthy 
forests.
  So, Mr. Chairman, while I support this legislation, we wouldn't need 
to be spending so much putting out fires and we'd have a lot more 
revenue to do it with if we would spend a little more effort on 
restoring sound forest management practices to our national forests.
  Mr. RAHALL. I yield myself such time as I may consume, Mr. Chairman.
  The Congress, under the previous majority, in 2003 enacted the 
Healthy Forests Restoration Act under the guise that it was the 
solution to preventing wildland fires on Federal lands. Today, nearly 6 
years later, fires are still raging across the country and the Federal 
land managers are breaking the bank trying to pay for them. Clearly, 
it's time to try something new--and that's what we are attempting to do 
in this legislation.
  I would certainly note that in passing the Healthy Forests 
Restoration Act, Congress authorized $760 million annually for 
hazardous fuels treatments on Federal lands. Sadly, the Bush 
administration continuously underfunded hazardous fuels treatments at 
only 65 percent of the level authorized by Congress.
  The skyrocketing cost of fighting fires forced drastic reductions in 
other Forest Service accounts under the Bush administration. This 
included cuts to fire preparedness, State fire assistance, cooperative 
fire assistance, and hazardous fuels treatments.
  The lack of investment in fire prevention under the Bush 
administration led to a situation where communities around the country 
have NEPA-approved hazardous fuels projects waiting for Federal 
funding.
  In western States last year, there were over 1 million acres of NEPA-
approved hazardous fuels projects that were awaiting funding from the 
Bush administration.
  The FLAME Act will relieve the drain on the Forest Service and the 
Department of the Interior budgets to ensure that funding is not swept 
away from vital fire prevention activities. This is why the FLAME Act 
has received support from those organizations I mentioned in my opening 
statement--a rather broad-based list of organizations, well over 40, 
that are in support of the pending legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Chairman.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 5 
minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).
  Mr. GOODLATTE. I thank the ranking member for yielding to me.
  I want to commend him and Chairman Rahall for addressing this 
important issue over the last 2 years. The wildfire funding problems 
for the Forest Service are some of the most challenging issues the 
agency faces today.
  Wildfire funding costs have skyrocketed over the last decade and are 
consuming the Forest Service's budget, which means that there's much 
less funding for other Forest Service needs. We will continue to see 
high costs and more damage to our forests and communities unless we 
take steps to reduce fire risk in our national forests. We must provide 
the Forest Service with additional tools to get our Federal forests in 
a healthy, more fire-resistant condition.
  This is a bill of great importance to States and communities across 
the country. The problems of forest management affect not just western 
States, but those along the eastern seaboard as well. Virginia is one 
such example. Last year, Virginia had more acres burn than any year 
since 1963, which shows how the problem of forest management has 
progressively worsened.
  This version of the FLAME Act is an improvement from the one passed 
by the House in the last Congress. However, the bill does not do enough 
to address the problem causing the increasing costs of fighting fires--
that is, the unhealthy conditions of our forests.
  My amendment to the FLAME Act, which I will offer tomorrow, will 
provide the Forest Service with an additional tool to address these 
problems that will ultimately be a cost-saving measure.
  My amendment creates a new contracting tool for the Forest Service to 
partner with States. This will give the Forest Service permanent 
authority to contract with States to reduce wildfire risks across 
boundary lines.
  This practice is commonly known as ``good neighbor authority'' and 
has been tested in States like Colorado and Utah, where it has proven 
to be effective.
  Currently, H.R. 1404 contains no such tool for the Forest Service. 
The significance of this measure is that it will encourage both Federal 
and State agencies to work together to address unhealthy conditions in 
Federal forests.
  Fires know no boundaries. They can start on Federal land and easily 
spread to State and private forest land and vice versa. My amendment 
provides a more comprehensive approach to preventing dangerous fires 
and fighting them when they happen.
  I'm pleased that my amendment has the support of the Society of 
American Foresters, the Western Council of State Foresters, the Forest 
Foundation, and other forestry groups.
  I have also spoken with the Forest Service and they have told me they 
have no objections to this amendment. I might also add that we have 
cleared this amendment in the Ag Committee, which shares jurisdiction 
with the Resources Committee for forestry issues, and they also have no 
objection to this amendment.
  This is something that the professionals who fight forest fires 
around our country--the professional fighters--and the societies that 
are comprised of American foresters want and need in this legislation. 
So I hope that there will be bipartisan support. I know in the Rules 
Committee there was bipartisan support for bringing this amendment 
forward. I certainly hope that that will continue as we try to maintain 
the type of bipartisan cooperation that has led to the point that we 
have reached thus far in bringing this legislation forward in a way to 
significantly enhance it.
  Mr. RAHALL. I yield 2 minutes to someone who knows well the problems 
this legislation seeks to address, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. 
Heinrich).
  Mr. HEINRICH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
  I rise in support of the FLAME Act, an absolutely critical strategy 
for fighting the catastrophic forest fires that face communities across 
the western United States, particularly in communities in New Mexico 
that I have seen impacted directly by these fires in recent years.
  In New Mexico's First Congressional District, both the Sandia and 
Mountainair Ranger Districts of the Cibola National Forest tower over 
the valley where most of my residents live. Both are afflicted with 
severe drought conditions that have contributed to a dangerous 
tinderbox effect in these forests. As a result of climate change, the 
Mountainair Ranger District has gone into fire restrictions earlier 
than ever before.
  Still, much of the funding to fight these fires has been 
reappropriated on an ad hoc basis from Federal land agency budgets. For 
those agencies, that has often meant cutting funding for employees, for 
scientific research, and education--the very kinds of things that help 
prevent forest fires in the first place.
  The FLAME Act will create a critical Federal fund specifically to 
fight catastrophic wildfires, keep our communities safe, and ensure the 
safety of our firefighters who risk their lives to protect us every 
fire season.
  I would urge all my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance 
of my time.
  As I stated in my opening remarks, this is a good bill and I commend 
the

[[Page H3995]]

chairman for introducing it. This bill passed on the suspension 
calendar in the last Congress. Nobody even asked for a recorded vote. 
So it has broad bipartisan support, yet the underlying issue is--and 
it's something this Congress should take up in the future--and that is 
to try to go to the core of preventing forest fires, and that is proper 
maintenance.
  There is one amendment that addresses that tomorrow. I think that 
amendment offered by Mr. Goodlatte will make this bill that much 
better. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will 
support that.
  But this is a good bill. It's a start in the right direction. I hear 
this all the time when we have forest fires in my district--and they 
happen virtually every year. People want to know: Are there sufficient 
funds in order to pay for those forest fires?
  Now we can say that there's a mechanism put in place that will take 
care of that, and I commend the chairman for his sponsorship of that.
  With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. RAHALL. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I certainly understand what the gentleman from Washington is 
referencing. I said last year during debate on this floor to the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that I certainly understand the 
need to develop comprehensive preventive legislation that is aimed at 
truly getting at the root causes of these forest fires. I would repeat 
to the gentleman from Washington, my respected ranking member, that if 
he introduces such legislation--any member introduces such 
legislation--we will certainly bring it forth before our committee and 
give it due consideration and certainly try to work on it as well as we 
have on this legislation to bring it to the floor of the House.
  Mr. Chairman, I'm going to recap very quickly since we are closing 
general debate at this point. For much of the last decade, the 
wildlands fire season has been expanding due to factors such as climate 
change and drought. Unfortunately, future trends appear to indicate 
that this increase will only continue.
  Within the Forest Service, wildlands fire activity now accounts for 
nearly half of their budget. The Forest Service spent over $1 billion 
fighting wildland fires last year. The skyrocketing cost of fighting 
fires has led to the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior 
to rob Peter to pay Paul and borrow funds from other agency accounts.

                              {time}  1600

  There were cuts to fire preparedness, State fire assistance, 
cooperative fire assistance, and hazardous fuel treatments in Forest 
Service budgets.
  The FLAME Act will allow the Forest Service and the Department of the 
Interior to respond to dangerous fires while also accomplishing other 
important parts of their mission. The act will relieve the drain on the 
Forest Service and the Department of the Interior budgets to ensure 
that funding is not swept away from vital fire prevention activities. I 
conclude by urging adoption of the pending measure.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Chair. I rise today in opposition to the rule for 
H.R. 1404, the Federal Land Assistance, Enhancement, and Management Act 
of 2009.
  While this legislation is important to address the very serious issue 
of funding shortfalls faced by the Federal wildland firefighting 
agencies each year, I believe that it does not do enough to address the 
cause of these soaring wildfire suppression costs.
  We need to drastically increase management on our Federal forests to 
reduce these fuels and the risk of catastrophic wildfire in the first 
place.
  For this reason, I introduced an amendment to make some of these 
funds available for hazardous fuel reduction projects.
  While unfortunately it was not made in order, I am pleased to see 
that we will be allowed the opportunity to debate Mr. Goodlatte's 
amendment to expand the ``Good Neighbor'' authority to assist in 
getting some work done on the ground.
  I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and others that bring 
additional focus to the real root of the problem.
  Mr. RAHALL. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The CHAIR. All time for general debate has expired.
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.
  The motion was agreed to.
  Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. 
Driehaus) having assumed the chair, Mr. Lujan, Chair of the Committee 
of the Whole House on the State of the Union, reported that that 
Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1404) to 
authorize a supplemental funding source for catastrophic emergency 
wildland fire suppression activities on Department of the Interior and 
National Forest System lands, to require the Secretary of the Interior 
and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a cohesive wildland fire 
management strategy, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution 
thereon.

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