[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1457-S1458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Eric D. Miller

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to a nomination we 
are going to be vote on very soon--the confirmation of Eric Miller to 
serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
  As a U.S. Senator, I take my obligation to advise and consent on 
judicial nominations very seriously, and I believe Mr. Miller's 
confirmation process has gone against longstanding Senate tradition and 
norms and limited our role to advise and consent on his nomination.
  This nomination has proceeded over the objection of both myself and 
my colleague from Washington, Senator Murray. For more than 100 years, 
conferring with Senators and allowing them to advise and consent on 
judicial nominees in their home State has been our process.
  Since 1936, only eight judges have been confirmed when one home State 
Senator objected. In every case, confirmed nominees have been supported 
by at least one Senator from the nominee's State, and to this day no 
circuit court judge has ever been confirmed despite opposition from 
their home State Senators. All that would change if Mr. Miller is 
confirmed.
  His confirmation hearing was held during a recess last Congress, when 
the vast majority of Senators were back in their States. In fact, only 
two Members of the U.S. Senate were present at the hearing, and neither 
one of them were Democrats. Mr. Miller was questioned for less than 5 
minutes--5 minutes--and when the Judiciary Committee Democrats 
requested another hearing, that request was rejected.
  Confirming Mr. Miller without a full vetting by both Democrats and 
Republicans is the wrong way to proceed on a lifetime appointment. 
Moreover, confirming Mr. Miller without approval from Senator Murray 
and I would set a damaging precedent.
  I do have concerns about Eric Miller's record. He has spent much of 
his career fighting against the interests of Tribal governments and 
Tribal sovereignty. He has argued cases opposing Tribal fishing rights, 
challenging Tribal sovereignty, and fighting against the protection of 
Native American religious and traditional practices, so it is no 
surprise that organizations representing all 573 Tribal nations around 
the United States, including the National Congress of American Indians, 
oppose Mr. Miller's confirmation.
  I urge my colleagues to stop this process and oppose Mr. Miller's 
confirmation to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.


                                 S. 47

  Mr. President, I also want to comment on upcoming action in the 
House, where they are scheduled to take up S. 47, the Murkowski-
Cantwell lands package later this afternoon, which received 92 votes in 
the Senate earlier this month.
  It is my hope that the House will approve this bill with the same 
overwhelming that it received in the Senate, and send this legislation 
quickly to President Trump's desk.
  I want to take a moment to emphasize four important provisions of 
this legislation as we prepare for this year's upcoming fire season.
  This legislation includes four provisions that will help firefighters 
improve their safety and effectiveness and bring state-of-the-art 
technology to combating wildfires. These provisions will help 
firefighters and communities, and we need to do everything we can as we 
face longer fire seasons having more catastrophic events. We need to 
give communities and firefighters every tool possible.
  First, this legislation allows for the use of drones to create real-
time fire mapping, as well as GPS to track firefighter crews. These 
advances will help enable real-time tracking and location of both the 
fire and the firefighters.
  Why is this so important? It is because our firefighters need real-
time data to do their job more safely and effectively. The combination 
of real-time mapping and GPS locaters has been referred to by the 
industry as the ``Holy Grail of Wildland Firefighter Safety.''
  Last month's report on the devastating Mendocino Complex fire shows 
why this is the case. According to this report, one of the challenges 
frontline firefighters had to face was the fact that they weren't sure 
exactly where the fire was. The safety officers didn't always know 
where the firefighters are. In one case, no one knew where six 
entrapped firefighters were. The result was that all six suffered 
injuries because it took quite a while to locate and rescue them.
  Under this legislation that will be voted on by the House today, we 
will have more drones orbiting high over the fires, constantly updating 
fire maps and doing it more than just once a day, which has been the 
standard until now. These drones employ infrared cameras that can 
penetrate through thick smoke and better identify hotspots. Air tankers 
will be able to more accurately drop their fuel retardants, and we can 
tell firefighters on the frontlines how to steer away from areas that 
are just too dangerous to tackle.
  When I heard the stories of brave firefighters who battled fire that 
raged in many parts of my State, I knew we needed to do more to protect 
these unbelievable heroes. Whether it is in Eastern Washington or 
Central Washington--in the Okanagon and Wenatchee forests or around 
Spokane--we have to do more to help those communities and firefighters 
who are putting themselves on the line for us.
  This legislation also allows the Forest Service to access NASA's 
mapping technology to help prevent mudslides that are all too common 
after these horrific fires. We all know erosion can happen shortly 
after the devastation of vegetation, and that creates more damage in 
the community. The fact that we will be getting NASA access, we will 
then be able to come up with strategies to prevent erosion, cutting the 
time significantly from where it is today.
  The fourth provision is improving smoke forecasting by assigning 
meteorologists to every large fire. I know some people are thinking 
this probably has already been done. Believe me, we haven't given the 
Forest Service every tool it needs.
  Over the last few years, summers in the Puget Sound region have 
suffered as fires have blanketed our normally pristine air with smoke 
and unhealthy air. We know this is becoming a new normal. As the 
Western United States continues to become hotter and drier, fires 
become more and more likely, and as the fuels get drier, the number of 
fires increase and get even bigger.
  This isn't just an Eastern Washington problem. Our Washington State 
Department of Natural Resources responded to 1,800 fires last year, and 
40

[[Page S1458]]

percent of those were in Western Washington. According to researchers 
at the University of Washington, just 20 years from now, we will see 
the median annual burned area in the Northwest double from what we have 
seen in the last 50 years.
  We know we need more tools to combat these challenges, and the 
legislation we have already passed in the Senate and that is before the 
House today will provide these new technology and training tools to 
empower the Forest Service to help our communities and our 
firefighters: real-time fire mapping, more drone technology to give us 
real-time information about the fires, using NASA data to help us plan 
post-fires, and giving us more smoke forecasting information to better 
help our communities and to deal with those who are impacted by heavy 
smoke.
  I hope our colleagues will act expeditiously on this legislation. We 
know that wildland fire funding, as we increased it in an agreement 
last year, was so important, but we need to keep working on this 
problem.
  I thank my colleague from Colorado for helping to sponsor the 
inclusion of this legislation and hope that the President will sign 
this legislation very quickly so that tools can be put in place for 
this upcoming fire season.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LANKFORD. I yield the floor.

                          ____________________