[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 159 (Wednesday, September 26, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9083-H9086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            COMBATING WILDFIRES IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Higgins of Louisiana). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from 
Montana (Mr. Gianforte) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of 
the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and to include extraneous material on the topic of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Montana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Garrett).


                      Honoring Barbara Rose Johns

  Mr. GARRETT. Somewhere, Mr. Speaker, someone is watching what is 
going on in this Chamber. Even now, probably in a Nation of 320-plus 
million, many someones are watching, and most of them don't have a clue 
who I am, and that is okay. But the fact that most of them don't have a 
clue who the lady pictured to my left, your right, is, is not okay.
  On April 23, 1951, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, at the R.R. 
Moton High School, a 16-year-old student named Barbara Rose Johns 
strode onto a stage and implored her peers at this all-African American 
high school to assert their God-given rights of equality.
  I am honored today by the presence of Ms. Johns' sister, Joan Johns, 
in the gallery. She is tickled when she speaks to me, which tickles me, 
because I am tickled when I speak to her. I told her earlier today, Mr. 
Speaker, that I was in love with her sister. It is interesting, because 
she is sitting with my wife.

                              {time}  2000

  The reason that I say that is that I love America, and as a member of 
the State house, I had the honor of carrying legislation that made 
April 23 Barbara Johns Day in Virginia. The reason is that Barbara 
Johns' story is a story that every American should know.
  Someone had the temerity to tell me, as I worked towards creating 
Barbara Johns Day, ``That is Black history.'' Mr. Speaker, it is not 
Black history or White history. It is American history. And America is 
not Black or White or brown. America is an idea.
  So when the Founders drafted the preamble to the Constitution and 
called for us to form a more perfect Union, the presence of the word 
``more'' implied a perpetual duty. And the revolution that cast off an 
oppressive government from across an ocean against Great Britain is one 
that I would argue was perpetual, and that another hero of mine named 
Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner, certainly an imperfect man, who 
articulated near perfect ideas.
  Fast-forward to April 23, 1951. Barbara Johns, with a clean and clear 
and bright mind, influenced by her teachers and her Uncle Vernon Johns, 
understood that rights are not given by government but by something 
bigger, and understood that the duty of a citizen and a free nation was 
to assert their God-given rights. So the idea of something as 
draconianly oppressive as separate but equal was intolerable.
  That day, she implored her students to walk out of Moton High School 
and the tar paper shacks and the leaking roofs and to demand equality 
not of outcomes, but of opportunity, because that is what America is 
supposed to be--without regard to gender, without regard to race, 
without regard to faith.
  Now, what that manifested itself in was a court case, Davis v. Prince 
Edward County. That court case was amalgamated into another case of 
which I hope that people have heard, Brown v. Board of Education. The 
difference between that case and every other case was that those were 
initiated by lawyers, and this case was initiated by a 16-year-old girl 
who understood that the promise of liberty was not just to one group or 
another, that the American Revolution was perpetual, and that God had 
given her rights just like everyone else to be asserted as a citizen in 
a free society.
  The fact that people watching don't know who I am is fine by me, but 
the fact that our students don't understand that America is supposed to 
be not Black or White or brown, but an idea wherein all people are 
created equal with an opportunity to succeed based on their work and 
their merit, that is not okay.
  As a result, Mr. Speaker, we filed H.R. 5561, the Barbara Johns 
Congressional Gold Medal Act. Her efforts, without lauding herself, 
without patting herself on the back--indeed, going forth from this date 
and living a humble life as a wife and a librarian, as she aspired to--
are the embodiment of the nameless faces of millions who sacrificed so 
that we can live in a country that seeks to employ an idea that is the 
greatest idea known to the history of free people.
  The civil rights movement is not a Black history story. It is not a 
White history story. It is an American history story. We are not a 
Black nation or a White nation. We are a nation built on an idea, and 
our students and our posterity need to understand that what makes us 
great is that this right fought for by people like this lady isn't 
universal.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I hope that if the President is watching, he will 
file a Presidential Medal of Freedom; I hope that if Members or staff 
are watching, they will sign on to the Barbara Johns Congressional Gold 
Medal Act; and I hope that if students are watching, they will go to 
school tomorrow and tell their peers this is a country where people 
stood up so that we all have a chance to be that which we dream to be, 
because that is who Barbara Rose Johns was, and it is an American 
history story worth telling.


                               Wildfires

  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring the Chamber's 
attention to the wildfires that have devastated our country this year, 
consuming nearly 7.7 million acres across 12 States. This figure, 
however, doesn't account for the lives tragically lost, the homes 
destroyed, or the livelihoods that went up in flames. This doesn't 
account for the smoke from these wildfires that swept from many of our 
Western States into the Midwest, creating poor air quality.
  The House has passed measures to reduce the severity of our wildfires 
and improve the health of our forests. Last November, the House passed 
the Resilient Federal Forest Act, written by my friend from Arkansas 
(Mr. Westerman). The legislation provides commonsense reforms that will 
benefit our forests, economy, and the environment.
  Conservationists, organizations, foresters, stakeholders, and local 
leaders throughout Montana recognize the need for reforms to get us 
managing our forests again. Unfortunately, the other Chamber, mired in 
obstruction, has not taken up the bill. The House, however, has not 
lost our focus, including critical forest management reforms into other 
legislation.
  Looking across the West and seeing the devastation of the wildfires 
this year, I know we can't afford to wait. I am honored that many of my 
colleagues are joining me here tonight who recognize the threat of 
catastrophic wildfires and want to do something about them. I look 
forward to hearing from them.
  At this time, I yield to the gentleman from Utah,  John Curtis.
  Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as thousands of Utahans in my 
district are returning to their homes after being evacuated due to 
wildfires that came within blocks of their homes.
  The Pole Creek fire and the Bald Mountain fire have engulfed over 
100,000 acres of land and are still burning strong. It is a testament 
to our brave firefighters and our incredible

[[Page H9084]]

community of volunteers that not a single life has been lost and 
property has been protected.
  Although this fire season has been one of the worst our State has 
ever seen, it has brought out the best in Utah. During the height of 
the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain fires, the Red Cross was overwhelmed.

  Now, Mr. Speaker, you might assume that that being overwhelmed came 
because of the 6,000 evacuees who needed a home. But, in reality, the 
Red Cross was overwhelmed because the list of people coming into the 
shelter offering homes was longer than the list of people needing 
homes. The Red Cross had to close shop.
  As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, I visited the Red Cross shelter and 
found a sign on the door that said, ``Please, no more donations.'' They 
had too many donations from Utahans.
  This is not the first time the Red Cross has had to close shop early. 
The people of Utah go out of their way to help others. As usual, Utah 
stepped up in the face of tragedy, and I plan to work to prevent future 
catastrophic events like this.
  Before I came to Congress, I was mayor for 8 years. I understand how 
overwhelming it can be to coordinate disaster response, recovery, and 
manage the daily operations of a community.
  In my district, many small towns and cities are overcome with 
challenges as they work out confusing jurisdictional responsibilities 
of the State and Federal Government, on top of actively rebuilding and 
preparing for the aftermath of the wildfires.
  To help in this effort, last week, I convened a group of mayors, 
county commissioners, State representatives, and emergency personnel so 
that local leaders could have direct access to the Federal Government, 
share resources, and prepare for what comes next. I stand committed to 
helping our communities obtain the resources they need to rebuild their 
homes, businesses, and prevent further damage.
  We can all agree that managing our forest is critical. While we won't 
prevent every fire, we need forest management reforms to reduce the 
risk of fires. I have already started this discussion with my 
colleagues in Washington.
  Last week, I spoke with the interim Chief of the Forest Service, and 
today I met with Secretary Perdue, who oversees the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, which includes the Forest Service. Both of these 
conversations focused on how to best manage our forests and prevent 
similar fires from happening in the future.
  As a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I look 
forward to advancing policies that protect lives and protect property 
throughout Utah.
  As we look ahead to preventing these catastrophic wildfires, let's 
not forget the value of our local officials and their roles in forest 
management decisions. They know better than anyone the challenges they 
face in their own backyards.
  Should another fire strike, I am confident that Utahans will once 
again step up to the challenge and take care of our great State and the 
wonderful people in it.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for his 
comments, and especially for his leadership on this important issue, 
bringing the knowledge of local government here to this House to help 
us deal with this devastating situation out west.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. 
Paul Gosar, for his comments on wildfires.
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Montana for 
organizing this tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring this Chamber's attention to the 
multitude of wildfires that have devastated the Western United States.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, the West is on fire and has been on fire since 
April of this year. This has undoubtedly been one of the worst wildfire 
seasons in recent memory.
  Last month, more than 100 active fires scorched nearly 2 million 
acres, killed at least 12 people, and caused hundreds of millions of 
dollars in property damage. As of today, more than 75 wildfires 
continue to burn throughout the United States.
  Wildfires are getting worse, in fact, in the United States just as 
they are getting better in more similarly advanced nations. A study 
published in Science last year found that the amount of acreage burning 
globally has declined by 25 percent over the past 18 years, 
irrespective of climate and temperature variability. The study's 
findings point to day-to-day human factors, especially land management, 
as the most consequential determinants of wildfire acreage burned.
  Substantial research and common sense continue to suggest that an 
imprudent combination of prematurely extinguished spontaneous small 
burns preventing controlled burns and limiting brush, hazardous fuel, 
and timber thinning to near-negligible amounts is producing tinderbox-
like conditions in our forests, conditions that overdetermine the 
eventual outcome of catastrophic wildfire.
  Our misguided land management assumptions, practices, and policies 
have ended up as a highly significant factor in ensuring our country's 
experience with wildfires is worse than that of similarly situated 
peers. The sad truth is that mismanagement has left our forests 
vulnerable to insects and disease ripe for catastrophic wildfires.
  That is why the Western Caucus led efforts to pass a strong forestry 
title in the farm bill. The House base bill includes 10 categorical 
exclusions that allow for active management of our Nation's forests and 
critical response.
  On September 13, a letter spearheaded by the Western Caucus from 40 
bipartisan Members of the House was sent to the farm bill conferrees 
urging conferrees and leadership to include active forest management 
provisions in the final version of the farm bill. The base bill also 
reauthorizes the Landscape Scale Restoration Program.
  The first meaningful step that can be made to ensure that we can 
mitigate the frequency and intensity of wildfires next year is for the 
farm bill conference committee to include these forestry provisions 
within the final conference report. Otherwise, next year's wildfires, 
sadly, may be larger than this year's and will be the result of this 
Congress.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for 
his principled approach to getting reform so we can start managing our 
forests again.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Thompson), for his comments on wildfires.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
his leadership. I congratulate him on some great legislation that was 
passed out of the Natural Resources Committee earlier today, which I 
know will be extremely important to the citizens who are lucky to have 
him as their Representative.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here this evening. As vice chair of the 
Agriculture Committee and as a former chair of the House Forestry 
Subcommittee and a proud member of the Western Caucus--I always say I 
am on the eastern frontier of the Western Caucus, being from 
Pennsylvania, but we have the same issues. We really do.
  I have a national forest, one of the more profitable national forests 
in the country, but facing a lot of the issues: rural communities, 
school districts that are dependent on secure rural schools, and just 
so many issues--energy production, development--and so I am proud to be 
here this evening on an issue that is incredibly important, an issue 
that impacts the lives of so many and heavily impacts our Western 
States.
  I am honored to represent Pennsylvania, obviously, and as some have 
described our forest, Mr. Speaker, as asbestos forest in Pennsylvania, 
probably because of the 90-some-thousand miles of streams that we have. 
We have plenty of moisture. I wish we could put a bunch of that water 
in a pipeline and sell it to you. We would send it your direction.
  But as it is, while the devastating impact on our forests is invasive 
species--that is a subject for another evening--I can tell you, when 
the wildfires occur in States such as Utah, Montana, Colorado, and 
throughout the West, California, these devastating wildfires, there is 
a large sucking sound, as I like to describe it, out of my national 
forest, and it comes in the form of resources, money that is taken away 
because of the necessity that I support of having to fight those fires.

[[Page H9085]]

  


                              {time}  2015

  We also have personnel that are deployed out of my national forest. 
So that means that our timber, the money for our timber marketing, and 
harvesting, and the multi-use comes almost to a screeching halt.
  So I am pleased with the leadership that we have done, in both the 
Natural Resources Committee and the Agriculture Committee, to address 
this issue. As vice chair of the Agriculture Committee, I am proud of 
the Forestry Title of the House farm bill. It contains a number of 
reforms intended to provide the Forest Service and our private 
foresters with more authorities and flexibilities to help better 
manage; that is both in increasing timber production, but it is also in 
managing a forest that is healthy and, therefore, managing the 
understory, the fuel load that has built up over decades of 
mismanagement.
  By providing new authorities and encouraging new timber markets, we 
do that in a number of ways, Mr. Speaker. The bill encourages active 
forest management. We reauthorize the Landscape Scale Restoration 
Program, and that allows for more partnerships to tackle critical 
challenges such as forest health, and wildfires, as well as drinking 
water protection.
  The bill supports, in many ways, these types of initiatives but, 
specifically, on the wildfires, Mr. Speaker. Over the past 2 decades, 
wildfires have been an increasing challenge for the Forest Service as 
costs have skyrocketed to fight them.
  Since 1995, the Forest Service's annual wildfire budget has increased 
from 13 percent of the budget to nearly 60 percent of the budget, Mr. 
Speaker. Last year was the costliest fire year on record, with the 
Forest Service spending $2.4 billion in 2017 alone.
  Year after year, the agency runs out of fire funding, forcing it to 
draw additional funds from non-fire accounts and other forests, 
national forests, including to cover basic operational and forest 
management funds that pay for timbering, and research activities, and 
even proactive fire prevention.
  Unfortunately, this occurs because the Forest Service has been unable 
to access additional funding when the fire funds runs out due to a 
budget cap.
  Now, finally, the 2018 omnibus included a ``fire borrowing fix'' by 
creating a wildfire cap adjustment, which will treat wildfires like any 
other natural disasters; just like we saw down in the Carolinas with 
Hurricane Florence.
  Now this change will free up the Forest Service to fight wildfires 
and do so without transferring funds from non-fire accounts. These are 
accounts that help to prevent fires with restorative cuts, and managing 
the understory, dealing with the fuel load, the standing dead timber 
because of, perhaps, disease.
  For forests around the Nation, especially in the East, this will mean 
more funding for other essential activities such as management, 
timbering, and even recreation and research activities.
  Now, along with fixing the budget cap, the omnibus currently provides 
the Forest Service with new management authorities, and these reforms 
are specifically intended to help the Forest Service better manage and 
proactively prevent forest fires from breaking out.
  Specifically, these new authorities will streamline the environmental 
analysis, reduce litigation, and provide timber harvest contract 
certainty. Some of these reforms include, within our proposed farm 
bill--which we are in conference in right now, and we need the Senate 
to realize these improvements were based on the successes we had in the 
last farm bill, which has really helped our forest products industry, 
our timber industry, helped make our forests more healthy; and when 
they are healthy, they are more resilient to wildfires.
  So it includes: Categorical Exclusions for Wildfire Resilience 
Projects; Healthy Forest Restoration Act inclusion of Fire and Fuel 
Breaks; 20-year Stewardship Contracts; Cottonwood Reform; Fire Hazard 
Mapping Initiative; Fuels Management for Protection of Electric 
Transmission Lines; and Good Neighbor Authority Road Amendment.
  Forest fires do not recognize or respect boundaries. If they start in 
a national forest, they are going to wind up in State forests, they are 
going to wind up on private property land.
  So we are doing all the right things. I am very pleased, and we need 
to do this.
  When I look at the communities, such as the ones that the gentleman 
from Montana represent, as a result of wildfires, we see a loss of 
life; we see a loss of homes; a loss of the economy; a loss of the 
taxpayer-owned assets, whether it is national forests or State forests; 
and certainly a loss of assets for those private property owners that 
have forests.
  So I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this topic and issue, 
and I really appreciate his managing this Special Order this evening on 
a very important topic of wildfires.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, especially that he is a member of the Western Caucus 
joining us there, and pointing out the national implications of the 
massive wildfires we have out west on resources back east; on the 
forests that you have in Pennsylvania and the resources there.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Nationwide impact.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. The gentleman mentioned many of the things that--the 
livelihoods, the lives. You know, the other thing that we often neglect 
is the amount of smoke that is discharged into the air and the effect 
on people with asthma and other lung issues. I am sure many, many have 
died as a result in our communities, so it is a public safety issue as 
well.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. It really is.
  Mr. Speaker, our watersheds, most of our water sources start--many of 
them start in national forests. They are certainly in forests, but a 
lot of national forests. And with wildfires, you create a situation 
where there is no stability in the soils. And so where these wonderful 
trout streams, streams that support life, support communities, support 
families with clean water, these wildfires, they basically caramelize 
that soil so that, essentially, the flash flooding, the runoffs, it 
puts all these solids within those streams, it creates turbidity, the 
solids, the nutrients that go in there.

  So the impact of wildfires, as the gentleman said, it is the land, it 
is the air and, quite frankly, it is the water, and that is why we have 
to do a better job of preventing these wildfires to start with.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
for his comments.
  This past summer, nearly 7.7 million acres have burned across 
America. Wildfires consumed thousands of acres in Glacier National 
Park.
  The Howe Ridge Fire in Glacier National Park consumed over 14,000 
acres. I was there. I saw the devastation. It destroyed homes on the 
shores of Lake McDonald. These are historic national buildings, lost to 
fire.
  Last year in Glacier National Park as well we lost Sperry Chalet, 
which also had historic value and had created memories for thousands of 
tourists who had visited that facility.
  Our courageous firefighting efforts did save the main Wheeler cabin, 
with great effort. It even threatened the Going-to-the-Sun Road. I met 
with the incident commanders there and the brave firefighters at the 
Howe Ridge Fire.
  Last summer, we saw similar behavior. Nearly 8.5 million acres burned 
in our country last year. In Montana alone, last summer, Mr. Speaker, 
we lost 1.25 million acres.
  Just to put that in perspective, 1.2 million acres is the equivalent 
of the entire State of Delaware, burned in Montana last summer. And I 
saw the destruction firsthand. I was on five of these fires, visiting 
with the incident commanders, and seeing devastation.
  In one county alone, we burned 270,000 acres, and we had over 60,000 
cattle with no grass. Fortunately, we were able to work with the 
Department of the Interior to get retired grazing allotments in the 
C.M. Russell opened up to fill that need for those ranchers, but those 
livelihoods were suspended.
  The habitats were destroyed. Smoke hangs in the air. My own driveway 
in Bozeman, Montana, on mornings when the fires are burning the worst, 
we come out to cars covered with ash that we have to brush off before 
we can drive them. The air quality is dangerous and unhealthy.

[[Page H9086]]

  And even where there weren't fires, we saw smoke from the tragic, 
destructive California fires that filled our skies in Montana.
  As bad as the wildfires have been, I have seen the impact of properly 
managed forests. This year, when I was at the Glacier National Park 
fire, it was interesting to me, as the incident commanders explained 
what they were doing there. It turns out there were four fires being 
managed, all started by the same lightning storm, through lightning 
strikes.
  Three of those fires started in national forests where there had been 
hazardous fuel reductions. The forest had been managed. One started in 
a national park, and it was such a stark example to me to see that the 
three fires that had been started by the same storm in the national 
forests where there had been hazardous fuel reduction, on the day I was 
there, had been constrained to two to 300 acres each. And yet, the one 
that started in a national park was burning over 10,000 acres.
  Now I am not advocating to go log our national parks, just to be very 
clear. But it is a stark example of the impact.
  I have been in eastern Montana, southeast of Miles City, and I have 
seen where the BLM has done forest management. I saw a situation where 
a fire had burned through a landscape and, in an area where there had 
been no forest management, no fuels reduction, no thinning of the 
forest, the fire burned so hot that, even years later, it still looked 
like a moonscape. Nothing was growing.
  And yet, when it hit the managed forest, where the forest had been 
thinned, the fire quickly dropped into the underbrush, burned the grass 
and twigs, but not a single tree was lost. A year later, that forest 
was healthier than it was, and yet, the forest that had burned 
completely will not recover in our generation. This is a stark example.
  In other areas, where forest management has been done, where trees 
have been thinned, the water comes back into the streams again, the 
surface water. These are healthier habitats.
  So there are many benefits of a properly managed forest. We get more 
wildlife. There is more habitat. There is more opportunity for 
sportsmen and women. We have more recreational opportunities. You can 
gain access to the forests again. We have good-paying timber jobs. 
Wildfires are less severe, and the health of our communities are not 
threatened.
  One of the biggest problems is litigation. We need more collaborative 
projects, but litigation is one of the greatest obstacles to managing 
our forests. A good example is the Stonewall Vegetation Project in 
Lincoln, Montana. I toured that site.

  It took 8 years to get a permit to thin the forest, and then the 
lawyers swooped in, arguing the project would disrupt lynx habitat. A 
judge overturned the permit, and that summer, that entire forest 
burned.
  And, Mr. Speaker, there is no lynx habitat anymore. There is no 
habitat for any animal there because that forest is gone.
  The House did take action this past year. We passed the Resilient 
Federal Forests Act that Congressman Westerman of Arkansas authored and 
I cosponsored. It would get us back into our forests, managing them 
again. Unfortunately, the Senate, tied up with obstruction, didn't act 
on it.
  But we have made progress. Back earlier this spring, we overturned 
the Cottonwood decision, which has been used as a tool to invalidate 
existing forest management permits. We have been cutting red tape to 
accelerate the removal of hazardous fuels.
  The Forest Service estimates that 6.3 billion dead and dying trees 
are across 11 States. I know in my own home State, in our State 
capital, Helena, Montana, if you drive west into the Lewis and Clark 
Forest, you can look at a hillside and, in some cases, because the 
forests have not been managed and they have overgrown, nearly 90 
percent of the trees are standing. It is a tinderbox waiting to go up 
in flames.
  We have also reformed how we pay for catastrophic fires. This was 
fixed also earlier this year, through legislation in this House, and it 
was signed into law, that will allow us to treat large fires just like 
we do large hurricanes when they exceed budgets, because the cost of 
these fires has expanded so much, it is consuming the majority of the 
U.S. Forest Service budget.
  Mr. Speaker, last year, forest firefighting costs consumed 55 percent 
of the Forest Service budget.

                              {time}  2030

  That takes away money for trail maintenance and recreational 
programs. It is consumed in fighting these fires.
  We have also added some provisions to the farm bill which is now in 
conference, adding Good Neighbor Authorities, extending that capability 
for categorical exclusions down to county commissioners and local 
government so that they can be involved in making our forests 
healthier.
  We have also provided for expedited salvage operations so we can cut 
dead and dying trees at landscape size without the frivolous litigation 
shutting down these projects.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to act. We can't control the weather, but we 
can control how we manage our forests. It is time to reform how we 
manage our forests by passing commonsense forest management reform. We 
need to reduce the severity of the wildfires. We need to get our 
forests healthy again.
  This is good for wildlife. It is good for recreationists. It is good 
for hunting. It creates good-paying jobs in our mills. Montana can't 
afford for Congress to continue kicking the can down the road and let 
important projects be tied up in unnecessary, frivolous litigation. 
This is an urgent issue, and we need to address it quickly.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleagues bringing to the attention of 
this Chamber the wildfires and the need for forest management reform. 
The House has offered commonsense solutions to get us back to managing 
our forests. The evidence shows that a properly managed forest is a 
healthier forest. We have less severe wildfires. I have seen this 
firsthand in the field.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the efforts of Mr. Westerman, who has been 
a leader on the issue and a forester by training, and my colleagues who 
know the destruction of a catastrophic wildfire brings us to know how 
critical it is to deliver meaningful reforms.
  Like my colleagues, I urge the Senate to act on commonsense measures 
this Chamber has sent so that Montanans can spend the summer in their 
forests enjoying them, not having to breathe them at home.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________