[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7536-H7537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WILDFIRE SEASON IN THE WEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, last night, in the town of Weed, 
California, which is in my own First Congressional District, over 100 
of my constituents' homes were destroyed or damaged by fire, along with 
an elementary school and a timber mill, one of the area's largest 
employers. Thousands of my constituents are under evacuation orders, 
and the fire is not yet contained.
  Aside from this tragedy, hundreds of thousands of acres of northern 
California forests have burned so far this year. In fact, the combined 
impact of the fires is already larger than last year's Rim Fire near 
Yosemite.
  Unfortunately, while the Rim Fire received nonstop coverage, most of 
America is probably unaware of this year's calamities. The unfortunate 
truth is that rural California and much of the West experience massive 
wildfires like these every year. Over the past decade, wildfires have 
only grown in size and severity.
  Madam Speaker, it doesn't have to be this way. We know why our 
forests are burning. It is because of decades of mismanagement caused 
by Federal bureaucracies and excessive regulations and red tape. They 
have an attitude at the Forest Service in many cases of just let it 
burn.
  We suffer from road closures, inaccessibility to our forests, poor 
management, and, certainly, the ability to stop fires once they are 
started because of these policies.
  The simple fact is our forests are not just mismanaged or even poorly 
managed. They are entirely unmanaged. As a result, they are overgrown, 
unhealthy, and ready to burst into flames at any time. I am supporting 
several measures to address the crisis in our forests, and last night's 
events create even more urgency for Congress and this administration to 
act.
  Chairman Hastings' bill, H.R. 1526, which was passed in this House 
and I am a cosponsor of, would restore common sense to forest 
management, requiring the Forest Service to actively manage public 
forests to reduce fuel loads and improve forest health.
  It is high time that the Senate act on this measure or, at the very 
least, produce its own forestry measure in the Senate so we can 
negotiate a final product. This would be part of the now 384 House 
bills that are languishing over in the Senate that need action.
  Chairman Simpson's bill, H.R. 3992, another measure I am supporting 
and cosponsoring, will end the diversion of forest management funding 
to firefighting by treating fires like other disasters, allowing 
flexible wildfire disaster funding.
  The Forest Service's increasing use of forest management funds for 
wildfire suppression means that we are no longer in the business of 
managing forests and, instead, just putting them out--or trying to--
when they burn. This measure deserves a hearing in

[[Page H7537]]

committee and action on the floor before this session ends.
  Madam Speaker, without action on these bills, our forests will 
continue to burn. Our constituents will continue to see their homes and 
livelihoods destroyed, and rural communities across the West will 
continue to suffer.
  In the House this year, we hear about this being a do-nothing 
Congress and how it has been the least productive. The House of 
Representatives has been doing its job.
  When we have 384-plus bills sitting over in the Senate languishing, 
waiting for action, then it is a misnomer that action is not going on 
in this House; indeed, it is a do-nothing Senate.
  The people of the West in the line of these fires are suffering and 
demand action of their government. When they are not getting it, they 
are the victims.
  Madam Speaker, before the end of this year, we need to take serious 
action on the management of our forests by allowing timber to be cut 
and processed in order to achieve forest health. We have an overload. 
We have an inventory in our forests.
  There is much more that can be sustainable, on the number of trees 
per acre, on what is safe and healthy for the trees as they compete for 
limited water supply underground, therefore, stressing the trees, 
causing them to be susceptible and more in danger of insects that 
weaken and kill the trees; it is, thereby, a self-perpetuating prophesy 
of forests that are weak and then burn.
  Madam Speaker, my constituents in Siskiyou County and last night in 
Weed, California, have suffered from this mismanagement--the 
nonmanagement--the incompetence and even what some people feel is 
criminal treatment they are getting from their Federal Government 
because of inactivity.
  Madam Speaker, it is high time we pass these measures and do what we 
need to do to make our forests healthy and safe, as well as help the 
economy for those people. Certainly, in Congress and our government, we 
use a lot of wood and paper products. Why should they not come from 
California or from our Western States?

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