[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 159 (Friday, September 30, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H8322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    POLICY FAILURES CAUSE WILDFIRES

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, residents in forested areas shouldn't 
have to be worried about catastrophic wildfires every single year.
  Wildfires are part of California's landscape and have been for 
centuries, but they occur less frequently and are better mitigated with 
healthy forests. They are less bad.
  Denouncing wildfires as solely a consequence of climate change is 
flat-out false. We are seeing more and more of these giant wildfires 
due to decades of policy failures that have allowed our forests to 
become built up with overgrown brush and dried-out, decaying wood, aka 
fire fuel.
  On top of that, environmental regulations make it near impossible to 
clear that overgrowth, thin trees, or create bulldozer lines for fire 
breaks near towns or create large buffers around power lines and roads 
as needed.
  So, instead, what do we get? The Los Angeles Times comes up to my 
district and basically says we shouldn't be there. People should not 
live in these rural forests because of climate change.
  Well, I want to know who is going to do the work to bring you your 
wood products, your paper products; if nobody lives up there to do the 
work to thin the forest, to put the fire out, to make it where you can 
do tourism there?
  Who is going to do that if you kick us out of rural areas and make us 
live in places like L.A. with all the trash and other things like that? 
Yeah, I wonder.

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