[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H5758-H5760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RESILIENT FEDERAL FORESTS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr.
Westerman) for 30 minutes.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about something
that is positive that this body has done recently, something that is
good for America and something that is good for our environment and
good for our citizens. What I am talking about is the passage of the
Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015.
Mr. Speaker, this bill is good for trees. When we have healthy trees
and when we have a healthy forest, then we also have better air
quality; we have better water quality; we have better wildlife habitat;
we have less fire danger; we protect private property and public
property, and it is a win-win-win situation for our treasured natural
resource of our Federal forest. It is a winning situation for America,
as we are good stewards and we conserve this valuable resource that we
have.
Now, what this bill does is it allows us to actively manage our
forests. We have qualified personnel in our Forest Service, people who
are trained as foresters, people who have the expertise and the
experience to manage these forests in a sustainable way; yet our forest
managers' hands have been tied in previous years.
They have been working hard with local constituents, local
stakeholders in these collaborative efforts to come up with forest
plans, forest management plans, so that they can manage the forests in
a way that is good for the local economy, in a way that is good for the
wildlife in the forest, in a way that is good for the health of the
forest; yet these forest management plans have been held up through
frivolous lawsuits from outside groups, sometimes as far as a thousand
miles away that file a suit against these plans.
They hold them up in court, and at the end of the day, the forest is
not managed properly. Because of this, we have seen an increasing
amount of forest fires over the past several decades.
Because of these increased forest fires, we are destroying our
valuable natural resource. Not only are we destroying our resource, we
are destroying our budget for the Forest Service. Currently, the single
greatest cost to the Forest Service is fire suppression, and the next
cost is litigation, and where the cost should be, in the management and
health of the forest, comes in third.
What the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015 would do, it would
take the focus off of fire suppression and put that focus on fire
prevention. These are forestry practices that I have seen carried out
in my home State of Arkansas.
In my district, the Fourth District, I have approximately 2.5 million
acres of Federal forest inside my district, on the Ouachita National
Forest, on the Ozark National Forest, and also in four different U.S.
Fish and Wildlife service areas.
Fortunately, in Arkansas, we have been able to manage these forests
in a way that is good for the forest. A lot of this was done in an
effort to protect an endangered species, the red-cockaded woodpecker.
What our Forest Service employees have done is they have gone into the
forests, they have assessed it, and they determined what would create
the best habitat for this endangered species. They found that a habitat
with an open understory, one which has large nesting trees for the
woodpecker, is great habitat for the woodpecker.
They implemented a plan to go in and thin the forest--not clear-cut
it, but thin it--and then develop a fire regime to keep the underbrush
out. You might think that thinning the forest and burning the forest
would cause a decrease in biodiversity, but our foresters saw something
quite the opposite. Our forests in Arkansas were much like the ones
across the country, many forests out West. They had been cut as much as
a century ago and allowed just to grow back with the only management
being putting the fires out when they start.
What happens in a situation like this is forests are dynamic; they
continue to grow until they fill up all the growing space, and then
they start competing with one another. When they compete with one
another, they get weak; they are subject to insect and disease attack.
You get more fuel that falls on to the forest floor, creating a fuel
load; you get dead and weakened timber, and you get a lightning strike,
and it burns the whole forest down.
When you manage the forest, when you thin it and you use controlled
burns, you open up the canopy; you open up the forest floor, and you
see a flush of fauna, and you see biodiversity increase tremendously.
At the same time as the biodiversity and plant life increases, you
get a flush in wildlife. On these plots in Arkansas, not only did we
see an increase in numbers in red-cockaded woodpecker, we saw an
increase in the bobwhite quail, in wild turkeys, in deer, in several
other songbird species.
This management scheme is good for the forest; it is good for the
wildlife; it creates cleaner air; it creates cleaner water. Again, it
is a win-win situation. By applying these management practices--and
they will be different as you go across the country in different
regions.
As we let the local professionals and the local stakeholders manage
the forests the way it was intended to be managed, we will create a
healthy forest, which is good for all the local communities where these
forests are located.
Another thing that we have done in this bill is we strengthened the
secure rural schools provisions. We stipulate that 25 percent of
funding has to go into local counties to provide emergency services to
fund schools. This is critical for these local communities where forest
activities around the national forests have greatly decreased over the
past several decades.
We used to cut nearly 12 billion board feet of timber off of the
forests. Now, we are down to less than 3 billion board feet per year.
Many of these local economies depended on those forests. As we quit
cutting timber and the infrastructure to process the timber left, these
communities suffered all across our country where these natural forests
are located.
This bill will allow funding to go to these communities, so that they
continue to provide emergency services, so they can continue to provide
funds for education and help to grow the communities.
Another provision in this bill is it allows the salvaging of timber
after a catastrophic event. Now, a clear cut actually mimics a wildfire
in the forest; so when you have a wildfire that is a stand-replacing
fire, it causes the damage when the fire occurs.
In forestry terms, the land is essentially being clear-cut when the
fire happens, but you will still have dead standing trees. These trees
need to be salvaged. They have value, value that can be extracted and
used to reforest the land, value that not only creates value in
reforestation, it also cleans up the land, so you can reforest it and
prevent future fire dangers.
What has happened in the past is the salvage cuts have been held up
in court again, and you get standing dead timber that, the next time a
fire comes through, it makes it dangerous for our firefighters to go in
and fight the fire.
What this bill does is it still requires an environmental assessment
of the area, but it speeds the process in that, and it prevents
injunctions from allowing these salvage cuts so that this timber can be
salvaged, and the revenue is used to go back into the Forest Service to
reforest these lands and, again, provide the management practices to
have healthy forests.
What happens now is we see, after a catastrophic event, we get only 3
percent of regeneration or reforestation of the land. This bill
requires that, after the catastrophic event, we have to have 75 percent
reforestation after a period of 5 years.
The 5-year timeframe gives foresters time to come in and assess the
efforts that they put forth and to correct any problems that they have
had in restoring these forests.
This bill, again, is very critical and very much needed. It has the
support of, I believe, 117 different organizations, from wildlife
groups, from environmental groups, many tribes across the country, many
county governments. People recognize the benefits of this bill and the
benefits that can come to our country if we enact this legislation.
[[Page H5759]]
Unfortunately, the bill is held up in the Senate right now, and as
the fire season increases out West and we see more and more of our
natural treasure and our Federal forests going up in flames, it should
become more imperative for the Senate to take up this bill and pass it
and for the President to sign it into law.
As I have stated in committee hearings when we were pushing this bill
through, the forests don't really pay attention to what we legislate
here in Washington, D.C.
{time} 2000
They are dynamic, living organisms. They continue to grow. They
continue to fill up the growing space. They are more reactive to what
happens in nature.
We need to be proactive in managing these forests--managing them to
be healthy, managing them to be more resistant to wildfire and inspects
and diseases. I call on the Senate and the President to take up this
legislation, to pass it, and to move America forward with healthy
forests.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse).
Recognizing Makenna Schwab
Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I have got something I think is very
important and something I think you are going to enjoy.
Sometimes we learn about some very remarkable people, individuals
who, when we hear about them, make us pause, stop, and think about how
much they inspire and really make a difference.
Today, I want to recognize one such person, a young lady of 12 years
old by the name of Makenna Schwab. She lives in the community of East
Wenatchee, Washington, which happens to be in my legislative district
in the State of Washington.
Makenna was born with something called Larsen syndrome, which is a
rare connective tissue disorder that causes bone dislocations. This
affects her airway, spine, and joints. This remarkable young lady has
already undergone 14 surgeries in her short life.
Four years ago, Makenna and her mother, Melissa, wanted to give
something back to Seattle Children's Hospital, which over the course of
her life has been their home away from home. She said she wanted to
give something back because Seattle Children's has made it so that she
can walk and live independently. So she decided to sell lemonade and
cookies, a perfectly natural thing for a 12-year-old to decide. This
young lady raised more than $6,700 that year for Children's Hospital.
The family knew they could do more. They wanted to do more. So the
next year, she and her family collected over 650 new toys for the kids
at the hospital. But even that wasn't enough. The following year, she
wanted to do even more. So she sold 530 dozen donuts, raising more than
$7,500 to go towards Seattle Children's Hospital.
This year, Mr. Speaker, she set her sights even higher. According to
Seattle Children's Hospital's Kathryn Bluher, Makenna's goal was to
give the kids at the hospital something that was very important, near
and dear to her heart. She wanted to give them red Radio Flyer wagons.
I know you are smiling, Mr. Speaker, but that was an important thing
because, in between her appointments throughout her young life,
traveling between her room to the operating room to the playroom, the
red Radio Flyer wagon was her ride. And she rode in style. She said
that those wagons are a really good memory. They were less scary than a
wheelchair.
The support that she got to reach her goal in this year's fundraising
I think was nothing short of amazing. Makenna collected enough to
purchase 33 wagons for the hospital. Friends, family, the mayor of the
city, Wenatchee High School, a group of local dentists, even assisted
living homes helped in the effort. The whole community pitched in.
Actually, the hospital had to tell her that that was enough wagons.
She moved on to other things that were on the wish list. By the end
of the drive, she had those 33 wagons, but she also had 36 DVD players,
12 headphones, five baby swings, 280 gift cards, 300 new toys, and many
other things.
Makenna and her family have started a tradition that will live on,
that has and will continue to make kids' stay at the Seattle Children's
Hospital just a little less scary. As Makenna said, ``I want to give
kids hope.''
Well, in May, and very deservedly so, Makenna received a national
Make a Difference Day award for her volunteer project on behalf of the
hospital.
As I told you before, sometimes you hear of remarkable people, and I
am very proud to be able to share McKenna's story with you. I am proud
to say that she is a fine citizen of my congressional district and my
State of Washington.
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have
remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 14 minutes remaining.
Increasing VA Accountability and Expanding Opportunity for Veterans
Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to talk about some
other positive things that this body has done here, as we approach the
August break. This has to do with the VA.
Since the wait list manipulation scandal was brought to the public's
attention last year, Americans have become all too familiar with
incompetence and misconduct at the Federal agency charged with helping
our veterans.
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee has held dozens of hearings;
the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs resigned under
congressional pressure; and Congress has enacted major reform
legislation.
The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and
Transparency Act created a 3-year program to allow veterans to seek
care from private providers if they live too far from a VA facility or
cannot otherwise get an appointment within 14 days. It also gave the VA
Secretary the authority to fire senior executives for poor performance
and required a top-to-bottom study of the entire Department to be
completed within 1 year of enactment.
However, even with this oversight, the Obama administration has
failed to correct the problems. We continue to hear about unacceptable
patient wait times, unanswered benefit inquiries, patient safety
concerns, medical malpractice, flagrant mismanagement, infighting,
corruption, and years of construction delays that total millions of
dollars.
When government failure is exposed and legislation aimed at restoring
accountability is enacted, it makes sense that action would be swift
and immediate: people would be fired; wrongs would begin to be made
right. Unfortunately, that has not been the case at the Department of
Veterans Affairs. While there are as many as 1,000 employees that could
potentially face disciplinary actions, the VA has only fired three
people for involvement in the scandal.
Our veterans have earned our respect, and they shouldn't have to wait
in line for months or years just to see a doctor. New documents show
that one out of every three waiting for care at the VA has already
died, and recent reports reveal there are now 50 percent more veterans
on wait lists for a month or longer than last summer.
When our brave servicemembers come home, we have to keep our word to
them by modernizing our VA system to deliver the best care in the
world. In the 114th Congress, House Republicans have passed numerous
pieces of legislation designed to help veterans and increase
accountability at the VA.
In February, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans
Act was signed into law and provides veterans with access to the mental
healthcare resources they need.
Last week, the House passed the Veterans Information Modernization
Act, which would give Congress and the public access to key data
regarding the delivery of health care, medical services, and nursing
home care by the VA healthcare system.
Many veterans have contacted us expressing their frustration at
having to carry official Department of Defense discharge papers to
prove their military service, and last week, legislation was signed
into law to create an official identification card for veterans.
Just this week, we have passed the VA Accountability Act, which would
provide the VA Secretary with increased flexibility in removing
employees who fail our veterans; the Hire More Heroes Act, which would
make it
[[Page H5760]]
easier to hire veterans by exempting those who already have health
insurance from being counted as full-time employees under ObamaCare;
the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, which would
provide an annual cost-of-living adjustment for veterans receiving
disability compensation; and the Ruth Moore Act, which would update
regulations for veterans seeking financial compensation for mental
health conditions linked to sexual assault while they were serving in
the military.
The House also had to pass legislation that included provisions to
allow the VA to transfer funds within its budget to cover an unexpected
$2.5 billion shortfall in hospital and medical care accounts. Without
this fix, the agency said it would start shutting down hospital
operations in August.
It is critically important that we take care of those who have
sacrificed so much in service to our country. This week, Congress has
continued its efforts to meet our responsibility to America's veterans.
However, we cannot transform the VA alone. It is the President's
responsibility to ensure changes are made within the agency and
employees are held accountable for their actions.
America's veterans deserve a meaningful, decisive plan to right the
many wrongs that have been committed. It is past time for the Obama
administration to change the culture at the VA and end this agencywide
pattern of misconduct and neglect.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________