[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 26 (Friday, February 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING LEGISLATION
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I wish to speak about an urgent
challenge facing my constituents and my colleagues in the Pacific
Northwest that unfortunately was ignored in this massive legislative
mishmash we were asked to vote up or down on in the middle of the
night: wildfires.
Communities across the West, including my home State of Washington,
are being torn apart by these disasters. Last year, the Diamond Creek
fire burned 128,000 acres in my State. In 2016, the Okanogan Complex
burned 305,000 acres. Just those two fires alone burned an area around
two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, and both devastating events spewed
ash and toxic smoke across a vast region and destroyed billions of
dollars' worth of forest products.
I am very concerned that these are not freak or rare, once-in-a-
generation events. According to our best scientists, the killer
combination of climate change and decades of inadequate forest
management has made these monster infernos the new normal.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Ten thousand, that is the number of houses that have been burned down
in wildfires last year.
Eighteen billion, that is the initial estimate of how much damage
wildfires caused just in California last year.
Sadly, 54 Americans were killed by these wildfires in 2017.
That is why I have spent years collaborating with other Senators from
affected States to hammer out commonsense, bipartisan solutions to this
increasingly urgent challenge.
First and foremost is the inadequate funding for fire prevention and
suppression programs.
How much longer are we going to shortchange fire programs? The fire
budget Congress allocated for this last year was short by over $1.4
billion.
Under current law, when there is a funding shortfall like this, the
Forest Service has to rob its own programs to make it up. What
programs? The ones dedicated to fire prevention and forest restoration
that could help prevent future fires. That is crazy and very short-
sighted.
Also, we need a better management strategy for our national forests--
an innovative strategy to manage our forests in smarter, more
efficient, and more sustainable ways. There are many case studies of
how we can reduce fire risk and increase local forestry jobs, all while
restoring forest ecosystems.
For example, the Colville National Forest has been using innovative
management tools to reduce the risk of wildfire in northeast
Washington. The forward-thinking restoration work being performed by
Vaagen Brothers Lumber in Colville has enabled this small National
Forest to be ranked in the top three forest products-producing national
forests in the country. Their holistic approach to forest restoration
has also earned them the proud spot as the No. 1 national forest for
number of culverts replaced to improve fish passage and water quality.
The success of local projects cannot help but inspire me and my
colleagues. I am pleased to report that all of the Senators from the
Northwest--both Democrat and Republican--have agreed on what is needed
to enable the Forest Service to be proactive rather than simply
reactive when it comes to wildfires.
Senators Risch, Wyden, Crapo, Murray, Merkley, and I agree that the
Forest Service's fire-borrowing problem needs to be fixed. All of us
cosponsored legislation to do that.
Senators Risch, Wyden, Crapo, Murray, Merkley, and I also all agree
that we should treat the most at-risk parts of the national forests
before they burn up and do so in a way that is supported by science.
All of us cosponsored legislation to also do that.
These bills have been endorsed by environmental groups, timber
industry, firefighter organizations, and local governments. All of
these local and national stakeholders are in agreement, that we need to
supply the Forest Service and impacted communities with funding,
provide jobs in rural communities, and reduce the fire risk in our most
at-risk forests.
Unfortunately, despite the urgency of the problem, despite the strong
consensus on both sides of the aisle and amongst a diverse range of
stakeholders, despite the fact that we have hammered out legislative
text, it appears the inclusion of our bipartisan measure is being
blocked from being included in the pending bill.
It is hard to overemphasize my frustration at the current situation.
It took weeks, months, and in some cases years to develop these
proposals and vet with affected stakeholders this suite of bipartisan
bills.
The bipartisan consensus legislation we offered last week included a
permanent fix to the Forest Service's fire-borrowing problem. That was
legislation cosponsored by 15 Senators. Our proposal also included
funding for Secure Rural Schools. That bipartisan legislation was
cosponsored by 32 Senators.
It turns out there were actors set on blocking our attempts to enact
reasonable wildfire legislation. We received a counteroffer at the
eleventh hour, and it contained only a short-term funding solution,
with eight new radical land management policies that they knew we could
not accept.
The new provisions ranged from repealing protections for old-growth
trees on the Tongass National Forest to giving away Federal land. Other
objectionable provisions included allowing exemptions for large
clearcuts from environmental review and removing people's ability to
file lawsuits on Forest Service projects in Montana, Wyoming, and
Colorado. That is ridiculous.
Instead of working to forward bipartisan ideas, Republican leadership
decided to inject ``poison pill'' environmental riders into the process
in a ``take it or leave it'' midnight offer.
This leaves many of us with a lot of doubt as to whether Republican
leadership has ever been serious about fixing wildland fire budgeting.
History tonight shows that they see it only as a vehicle to sideline
long-established environmental laws that protect people, wildlife, and
our public lands.
Well, I want to tell everyone here that we are not giving up. There
are so many bipartisan, noncontroversial improvements to Forest Service
management that can be enacted.
Members, like my colleagues from the Northwest, want to get something
done. Our constituents are demanding it, and we need to do it before
the next fire season starts in just a few months.
I want the record to reflect that, while there were many provisions I
supported in the underlying legislation, I could not in good conscience
vote for a bill that purposely left urgently needed wildland
firefighting legislation on the cutting room floor. We can and must do
better next time, and I am going to keep working at it until we get
this problem addressed.
____________________