[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 31, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      USE OF AERIAL FIRE RETARDANT

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, there was a crazy lawsuit brought by an 
environmental group here recently in the West to stop the usage of fire 
retardant that is used to fight forest fires, that red stuff that comes 
out of the aircraft that they drop on fires to keep them from getting 
worse.
  Thankfully, that lawsuit was overruled. A district judge ruled that 
the U.S. Forest Service can keep using the aerial fire retardant for at 
least another couple of years, so we have that going for us.
  Now, they do have to keep checking back every 6 months to make sure 
that they are working on a permit process to keep the ability to use 
that fire retardant to put out forest fires.
  As you know, every year millions of acres of forest go up, sending 
even the smoke plume all the way back here to the East Coast sometimes 
and causing health days to not be able to go outside.
  Here in Congress, we have legislation ready. I have introduced H.R. 
1586, the Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 
2023, so we will be ready in case there is a court ruling that comes in 
and says they can't use that stuff anymore. Congress needs to act.

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