[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H4435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0930
                         RECOGNIZING TOM SEAVER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of the 
greatest baseball players to ever play the game, ``Tom Terrific'' 
Seaver, a member of the Miracle Memorable Mets championship season in 
1969 that won the World Series. He passed away peacefully earlier this 
month.
  A native of my hometown, Fresno, California, that has had a lot of 
terrific baseball players, no one ever played the game any better than 
Tom Terrific. He was a graduate of Fresno High and Fresno City College. 
During that time, he became a first-round draft pick in 1966. But in 
between that time, he served in the United States Marine Corps.
  Of the many seasons that he played in baseball, he had 12 All-Star 
appearances, won multiple Cy Young Awards, and was voted into the 
Baseball Hall of Fame when he first became available on a near-
unanimous decision--a gifted and once-in-a-lifetime player.
  As I said, he served honorably in the Marine Corps.
  Last year, he retired from public life after being diagnosed with 
dementia. His passing has been a terrible loss for the community of 
Fresno and all baseball fans across the country.
  Please join me in celebrating the life and career of one good person, 
Tom Seaver.


                    Devastating California Wildfires

  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to draw attention to the 
devastating wildfires burning in the West, throughout Washington, 
Oregon, and California, and other Western States, and, more precisely, 
this fire, the Creek fire, that is burning near my district in the 
central Sierra Nevada.
  Let me first salute the incredible men and women, the firefighters, 
the first responders, all of those volunteers who are doing their best, 
over 14,000 of them throughout California, and many more throughout 
Western States. They are putting their lives on the line trying to 
protect us and trying to protect our forests.
  Last Friday, I toured the devastation firsthand and spent 6 hours in 
the southern perimeter of the Creek fire in the Shaver and Huntington 
Lake areas. I witnessed the devastating damage that has been done, not 
only in this picture that is illustrated here, but the many homes that 
have been lost, as you see here, 1400-degree tornado firestorms that 
literally melted homes, such as this one here, and many, many other 
structures.
  This summer alone, clearly, has indicated that the numbers of fires 
that we see, not only in California, but throughout the West, are 
growing both in quantity and the scope of the devastation. This summer 
alone, with record heat and extreme conditions made worse by climate 
change, California has experienced 6 of the largest 20 wildfires in its 
history--and, sadly, most of those wildfires are still burning.
  In the foothills in the high Sierra Nevada outside my home in Fresno, 
California, the Creek fire continues to grow, and we only have, as of 
today, about 15 percent containment. But that is similar not only in 
California but Oregon and Washington and other States, and it is making 
the air quality something that you have to see to understand and 
believe. When I left Monday, the air index was 304.
  So, what must we do?
  We must learn the lessons from these devastating fires, these 
wildfires. And I think, first of all, it requires much better forest 
management. We have tried to make changes within the U.S. Forest 
Service, but much more needs to be done in terms of resources to 
better manage our forest.

  We also must do better land management planning. We have hundreds and 
thousands of people in the last 30 years living where they didn't live 
before, and it requires better land use planning.
  And, finally, we must address the issues of climate change. When we 
have extended draught periods and dry conditions, the beetle bark and 
other factors play into a situation which, in California, from Lassen 
down to Lake Isabella, we have over 100 million dead trees, and that 
creates the fuel that adds to the problem.
  These are among the lessons that we must learn to better manage our 
forests for future generations to come.

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