[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 14, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H123-H124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CALIFORNIA FIRES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, we are all watching the ferocious Palisades, 
Eaton, Altadena, and Hurst fires expand along California's beautiful 
Coast. I can recall my many trips there. Surely we all love the 
Tournament of Roses Parade and the magic of Hollywood.
  Our hearts go out today and forever to come to the thousands of 
displaced people, the brave, unrelenting fire and rescue crews, and the 
public officials trying to bring order in the midst of chaos.
  Let me share. Having practiced as a city and regional planner long 
before my election to Congress, I was awestruck when I visited there at 
the large number of homes built high on forested mountainsides with 
many sizeable mansions at their very peaks.
  In fact, most recently, as ranking Democrat on the House 
Appropriations Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies 
Subcommittee, I was flown on an extensive tour over Los Angeles by a 
U.S. Army Corps helicopter to evaluate freshwater challenges in that 
drought-prone region.
  As the granddaughter of a forester, experience led me to question how 
such densely developed communities with housing perched on forested 
ascending hillsides could be evacuated in the event of emergency. My 
stomach became queasy at the thought, and my premonition is now being 
affirmed.
  Last fall, I called for Congress to return to Washington to fully 
fund FEMA and the Small Business Administration to assist with disaster 
relief efforts. It took until late December to approve $28 billion in 
funding, well below the $40 billion the Biden administration requested, 
and now this horror has launched.
  Statistics show in Canada and the United States, whether it is along 
our Pacific Coast, in Vancouver, or Quebec, historic precious forests 
are burning to the ground during this era of prolonged drought.
  One estimate indicates the recent annual tree loss just in Canada 
equates to their forests' lost capacity to absorb the annual carbon 
dioxide from all jet aviation fuel spewed into the atmosphere across 
our globe. This chart attests to that.
  Just a few years ago due to major forest fires in Quebec, our 
southern Great Lakes region in my home State of Ohio was covered with 
an eerie, hazy, atmospheric soot blowing south across the border with 
Canada. What an out-of-body occurrence never before encountered where 
we live. My own rhododendron plants were smothered by it.
  Long ago, I learned in a forestry class there is only one way to 
regenerate a forest: burning it to the ground. Thus, allowing massive 
communities to be built in forests is always dangerous.
  When I was born, California's population numbered about 10 million 
people. Today, it has quadrupled to over 42.5 million people, and Los 
Angeles County's dense population alone now numbers over 10 million 
people, larger than 80 percent of the States in our Union. California's 
population is projected to reach 60 million people by 2050, and that is 
six times its population in 1950.
  Freshwater is running out.
  Challenges to life on a changing continent and world are daunting, 
and we must all ask tough questions about how to build and rebuild 
places that are livable and survivable.

                              {time}  1115

  It will take years to salvage the Los Angeles neighborhoods, and some 
will never be rebuilt. Meanwhile, other regions across our Nation can 
welcome fire refugees.
  The growing freshwater fights between communities and States that 
attend to life in the West are hastening. More people are demanding 
more freshwater when that is a physical impossibility as aquifers run 
dry.
  There is only so much freshwater. If one looks at places like the 
Great Lakes, we say: How does our Nation best invest in sustainable 
water and energy systems for the coming century and beyond?
  We must think forward, not backward. America must have a more 
comprehensive approach to build forward sustainable communities.
  Step one is to rescue the West, but there must be attention to 
resettling in freshwater regions that are more sustainable.
  For example, advancing freshwater settlement for our Great Lakes 
region will require standing up the Great Lakes Authority and infusing 
it with the ability to relieve bonded indebtedness of struggling 
freshwater communities. They must be able to financially reinvest to 
upgrade their freshwater systems in places like Flint, Detroit, Toledo, 
Cleveland, Youngstown, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Chicago, and so many more. 
Freshwater is life.
  The old expression, ``Go west or south, young man,'' still applies, 
but our planet is teaching us there are limits to what the Earth can 
sustain.
  Living in the past is not an option. Onward, America, together.

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