[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 94 (Monday, June 3, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H3572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                U.S. IS THE NUMBER ONE IMPORTER OF WOOD

  (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, if you have observed the West during the 
summer and fall months the last few years, maybe longer than that, you 
would see that fire season is soon upon us and has had devastating 
effects.
  One example would be a 1 million-acre fire, one fire of a million 
acres in my district just 3 short years ago.
  What are we doing as the Federal Government to combat that? They are 
moving pretty slowly.
  The U.S. Forest Service has allowed, due to lack of ability to get 
access to the forest and get the type of board feet out that needs to 
happen, in the last 15 months, 50 individual sawmill closures up until 
March. Over 1,500 sawmills have closed since the year 2000.
  Where is the capacity going to be to process these logs and turn them 
into something useful if the private sector isn't allowed to take 
enough harvest. Because of the U.S. Forest Service's lack of action, 
the U.S. is now number one in imported wood when we have all this wood 
standing out there. It makes no sense. We have got to move much 
quicker.

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