[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H4985-H4986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RESILIENT FEDERAL FORESTS ACT OF 2015
General Leave
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent
that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and
extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill, H.R.
2647.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 347 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. 2647.
The Chair appoints the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding) to
preside over the Committee of the Whole.
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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. 2647) to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act and
improve forest management activities in units of the National Forest
System derived from the public domain, on public lands under the
jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and on tribal lands to
return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands, and for
other purposes, with Mr. Holding 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.
General debate shall not exceed 1 hour equally divided among and
controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on
Agriculture and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee
on Natural Resources.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop), and the
gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Tsongas) each will control 15
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time
as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support and as an original
cosponsor of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015.
Since the inception of the National Forest System in 1905, the
fundamental mission of the Forest Service has been to manage our
Federal forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future
generations. As a result, the Forest Service has played a critical role
in rural America, partnering to produce timber, natural resources, and
jobs, while sustaining the ecological health of the forests and
surrounding watersheds.
National forests have been extremely successful in creating
recreational and educational opportunities for millions of Americans.
However, our forests are facing declining health and simply are not
managed as well as they need to be due to numerous challenges that have
grown over the past few decades.
Often unnecessary and prolonged planning processes limit the Service
from effectively managing our forests. This also goes along with the
constant litigation, or even the threat of litigation in some cases.
Both of these situations keep boots in the office instead of in the
forests and spend money on doing paperwork instead of work in the
field.
The costs of suppressing and fighting wildfires has been a growing
challenge for the Forest Service, with their fire costs increasing from
13 percent of the Forest Service budget in 1995 to approximately half
of the annual budget today. This epidemic of declining health and
catastrophic wildfires are in direct correlation to policies that have
led to a dramatic decrease in managed acres. Timber harvests have
drastically plummeted from almost 13 billion board feet in the late
1980s to only 3 billion board feet of timber in recent years. At the
same time, the number of acres affected by the catastrophic wildfires
has doubled from around 3 million acres during the second record timber
harvest to 6 million acres now.
This bill reverses this cycle by ending the destructive fire
borrowing problem that robs Peter to pay Paul, and it does so in a
fiscally responsible manner, with the funds only made available for
wildfire suppression. In my view, this legislation is the next step to
build upon the groundwork laid by the 2014 farm bill and is an earnest
attempt to give the Forest Service more authority and much-needed
flexibility to deal with these challenges of process, funding,
litigation, necessary timber harvesting, and much-needed management.
H.R. 2647 incentivizes and rewards collaborations with the private
sector on management activities. It allows for State and third-party
funding of projects. The bill reauthorizes the resource advisory
committees, known as RACs, while returning county shares of forest
receipts for long-term stewardship projects.
Perhaps most importantly, the bill provides commonsense categorical
exclusions, or CEs, for certain Forest
[[Page H4986]]
Service projects. These CEs are routine and have known impacts and will
expedite the planning process to get projects up and running.
To conclude, this is a thoughtful piece of legislation that will do
much to help the Forest Service to better do its job. I urge my
colleagues to vote ``yes.''
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PETERSON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of
2015. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that will address some
of the burdensome regulations that have arisen from legal challenges
and help get our forests actively managed the way we need.
For some time now we have been concerned about efforts undertaken by
extreme environmental groups to twist laws to their liking. The so-
called sue and settle strategy has led to policy changes decided by
activists and bureaucrats. These policy changes often ignore
congressional intent and fail to take into account constituent input
and real facts on the ground. Additionally, this means a less
transparent and less accountable regulatory process. H.R. 2647 will
simplify forest management activities, thereby reducing some of this
bad behavior.
The bill also includes an important budgetary fix to help address the
rising cost of wildfires. Just this year, the wildfires have burned
hundreds of thousands of acres and caused millions of dollars of
damage.
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H.R. 2647 will allow access for our land management agencies to the
resources they need to fight wildfires without having to rob their
other accounts. The current practice of fire borrowing leads to taking
away resources from productively managing our forests to keep them
healthy and less prone to fire. This bill would end this practice and
ensure that agencies have access to the needed resources to fight
wildfire disasters all year.
Again, this is much-needed, bipartisan legislation that addresses
many of the issues currently impacting forest management. I urge my
colleagues to support H.R. 2647, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Abraham).
Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from Arkansas
(Mr. Westerman) for introducing this bill and recognize the hard work
done by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committees to bring this
important bill to the floor.
For too long, failure to properly manage our national forests had led
to increased tree mortality from wildfires, droughts, insects, and
disease. The Resilient Federal Forests Act gives the Forest Service and
the Bureau of Land Management the tools needed to reverse this trend.
This bill will allow critical forest health projects to move forward
by streamlining regulations, will give parishes and counties greater
flexibility in how they use forestry revenues, and will ensure Federal
agencies have increased access to fund in order to fight and prevent
wildfires.
These reforms will put more Americans to work through increased
management activities and timber production. It will give money back to
our local community for infrastructure and education and will make our
forested communities safer by reducing their vulnerability to
wildfires.
In my home State of Louisiana, the Kisatchie National Forest covers
604,000 acres, with 382,500 of those acres in my district alone. In
all, forestry and the forest products industries accounts for well over
18,000 jobs and over $1 billion of income in my district.
The people of Louisiana know how valuable well-managed forests are to
the health of our State and our economy. I would imagine forested
communities throughout the country know this as well.
It is time we start being proactive instead of reactive when it comes
to managing our national forests. The Resilient Federal Forests Act
will put us back on track to realize the full potential of our forest
resources.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. PETERSON. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2
minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek), a member of the
Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee.
Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2647, the
Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015.
I represent northern Michigan, which has over 20 million acres of
Federal, State, and private forest land. Our forests are a vital part
of the economy in northern Michigan that generate over $16.3 billion
per year and creates more than 77,000 jobs. In addition to forestry,
the outdoor recreation industry also contributes $18 billion to
Michigan's economy and over 190,000 jobs to our State.
Healthy forests are vital to our way of life in northern Michigan.
Like most in my district, I grew up exploring these forests, hunting,
fishing, snowmobiling. It is a way of life for so many, not only for
those who live up north, but for the millions who visit the forests
every year from all around the country.
Sadly, many of our Federal forests are in a state of disrepair these
days; they are overgrown, and especially in the Western United States,
they are consumed by wildfire.
The Forest Service, which is entrusted with managing 10 percent of
the continental United States land base, has identified approximately
58 million acres as being at high risk for catastrophic fire. Even
worse, by conservative estimates, over 56 billion board feet of timber
have simply burned away in wildfires on Forest Service lands over the
last 10 years.
Over the past 10 years, over a billion dollars of timber rotted on
the stump instead of being sold. Those revenues aren't available to the
U.S. Treasury. The Forest Service couldn't use the funds to buy
seedlings to replant our devastated national forests. We are literally
allowing jobs for American families to burn away in our poorly managed
Federal lands. Nothing about the current process is working.
H.R. 2647 takes some very simple steps to allow our forests to become
healthier and better managed for the future. This bill would streamline
timber harvesting on Federal forests in existing land use plans, while
reducing the threat of frivolous lawsuits related to forest management.
The Acting CHAIR (Mr. Womack). The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I yield the gentleman an additional 1
minute.
Mr. BENISHEK. In addition, this legislation would allow States and
Federal forests to react faster to catastrophic wildfire events,
thereby reducing the future risk to public lands.
Finally, this legislation includes a number of collaborative
processes for tribal, State, and private contracting, which will lead
to healthier and better managed forests.
I understand that many of my friends here today may live in areas
with a few forests or low risk of wildfire. I ask all my colleagues
here today, especially those not in heavily forested areas, to listen
to your friends from forested districts.
Support this bipartisan, commonsense legislation and help improve the
health of our forests.
The Acting CHAIR. The Committee will rise informally.
The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Duncan of Tennessee) assumed the chair.
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