[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 22, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H288-H290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kennedy of Utah). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. 
Moore) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, with President Trump officially in 
the White House and the inauguration festivities behind us, House 
Republicans are hitting the ground running this week on critical bills 
to protect the most vulnerable among us and to respond to the 
devastating wildfires ravaging throughout southern California.
  Just to capture what just happened maybe 30 minutes ago, in the House 
of Representatives, we just passed the final version of the Laken Riley 
Act, which is commonsense, immigration border security protocols that 
put the lives of Americans first.
  It is so commonsense, I am going to highlight: There are two people, 
and primarily probably just one, that made this so we couldn't do this 
a year and a half ago when it should have been done in the 118th 
Congress.
  We just had over a dozen Democrats in the Senate vote for this bill. 
We had numerous Democrats in the House also support this bill. What is 
the difference today versus 6, 8 months ago when we tried to pass this? 
It is Senator Schumer.
  Senator Schumer, as the leader of the Senate, would not allow for 
this bill to come up. He told those 12 Democrats in the Senate, I am 
not going to give you a chance to actually vote for sensible border 
security about the life lost of a Georgian because of absolutely insane 
border falter from President Biden.
  Chuck Schumer basically said to a big portion of his Democratic 
Senators: I am not going to give you a chance to vote on something 
sensible. The House sent it over to us. We are not going to vote on it.
  One change was made. Senator John Thune was put in the leadership 
position where he, with Republican Senators, decided to bring this to 
the floor, and a dozen or so Senators came on board from the Democrat 
side and voted for something sensible.
  I wish the American people would truly understand that that is why 
elections are so important. That is why you put conservative leadership 
over in the Senate coupled with what we are doing in the House to 
provide sensible legislation, not extreme legislation like when it gets 
highlighted.

                              {time}  1730

  Mr. Speaker, it is literally going to make a positive impact, and 
that is just the second day. President Trump now has something to sign 
and show the American people that he hears us and he is ready to go and 
move about this.
  I commend the bipartisan group of individuals from the Democratic 
Party in the House and the Senate that were willing to sort of buck the 
trend and say let's do this. I am very excited about that. I make that 
point. Obviously, I am a little frustrated it took so much time. It 
should have been brought up under Senator Chuck Schumer when he was the 
majority leader. That is clearly not the way he is going to govern.
  Who knows if President Trump would have signed it. If the Senate 
leaders are going to push, you can sometimes get something across the 
finish line in the White House, even in an opposing White House.
  We got that done today. This week we are focusing on Congresswoman 
Wagner's Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, another very 
commonsense piece of legislation that protects the fundamental right to 
life by ensuring that babies who survive an attempted abortion receive 
the same medical care health providers would have administered to a 
fetus born at the same age.
  If a baby survives an abortion, this bill says to that physician they 
have to administer the same healthcare treatments that they would in 
any other labor situation. This legislation also requires that 
healthcare providers transport the child to the hospital and report 
abortion violations to law enforcement.
  As southern California continues to struggle with devastating 
wildfires, House Republicans are also supporting Chairman Westerman's 
Fix Our Forests Act which enhances resiliency after wildfires and 
reduces regulatory burdens that hinder active forest management.
  I am grateful to my colleagues for joining me this evening to discuss 
these necessary pieces of legislation. I gladly yield to my colleague 
from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden).
  Mr. VAN ORDEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I look at this issue from a different perspective. I was 
a combat medic in the United States Navy SEALs teams for over two 
decades. If I had encountered an enemy combatant that was injured on 
the battlefield, and I have, if I did not render medical aid

[[Page H289]]

to the best of my ability, up to and including to the detriment of my 
own troops, I would be subject to prosecution.
  When we talk about the most innocent amongst us, unborn children, who 
survive the most traumatic circumstances imaginable, an attempted 
abortion, when we say as a body that we will not render medical aid to 
that human child, we are less of a people.
  Unfortunately, tomorrow we are going to hear many of my Democrat 
colleagues say that this bill is to restrict a woman's right to have an 
abortion. That is a lie. We are going to hear many of my Democrat 
colleagues say that this is vindictive. That is a lie. We are going to 
hear many of my Democrat colleagues say that Republicans want to burden 
women who find themselves in a place where they feel like they must 
abort their unborn human child. That is a lie. Enough.
  This is about the sanctity of human life, the dignity of a child, and 
our ability as a nation and as a body to express humanity to someone 
who has done nothing wrong, not to themselves, not to our culture, not 
to our society.
  I implore my Democrat colleagues to look at the life of a human child 
that has survived possibly the most traumatic circumstance, an 
attempted abortion, and think of that child as their own. Think of that 
child as someone that is a child of God, that is the apex of creation 
because that is exactly what that child is. They deserve all of the 
respect that we can possibly give them because they are our children.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin 
for his passion. It is always appreciated.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from California (Mr. 
LaMalfa).
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to hearing more of his perspective on 
what is ravaging through his State. Our hearts go out to those 
affected. As we hear many conversations about the California wildfires, 
we constantly hear that concern for the human element of this and a 
sincere desire to find improvements in how we can support them now and 
address this going forward.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the 
time. I appreciate it a lot.
  If viewers watch this channel a whole lot, they might see me on the 
floor talking about forestry and water, whether it is California or the 
whole West. I know it greatly affects my colleague from Utah, too. The 
forest fires and lack of forest management is appalling.
  Why do we have to suffer this year after year when we know what 
actually works? When the Forest Services should be doing its job and 
treating more acres in a timeline that is much more rapid, when we want 
to say increase the pace and scale of doing so. It just doesn't happen.
  We know they face lawsuits all the time. At some point we have to 
beat the lawsuits, let them come, but get the work done. Be bold. Be 
strong. Take them on. At some point it has got to be proven that what 
we are doing is the right thing, even though there is a liberal judge 
in San Francisco or somewhere that is trying to say that we have to 
restudy once again for a salamander or something like that.
  When we have the kind of destruction that we see time and time again 
in our forests, especially in the Western States, then we will just 
keep suffering it. There is no reason for that. We have been working on 
the Fix Our Forests Act this week. My colleague and chairman of the 
Committee on Natural Resources, Mr. Westerman, has been working a long 
time on this. It is a very practical bipartisan plan to tackle the 
wildfire crisis and finally start managing the forest correctly. We see 
the destruction.
  One fire in my district called the Dixie fire 3 years ago was a 
million acres. Several other fires were in the six-digit number such as 
the North Complex. The Camp fire was several hundred thousand acres but 
also took 85 lives in the town of Paradise.
  What we see is the destruction in Los Angeles. It is unspeakable what 
is going on down there. Unfortunately, I have already lived that in 
3\1/2\ communities of mine in the North State that were almost 
completely lost in fires the last few years.
  It is heartbreaking, and it is mostly avoidable. We are going to have 
fires. They are going to happen. If we have managed lands, it is much 
easier to put fire out and control it.
  When we look at the picture here, a managed forest is a better 
forest. It is better for the forest health itself. It is better for the 
wildlife in it. It is much easier to control fire and put fire out with 
the way fires behave. When we see this managed forest here on the far 
side of the poster, this is thin. This is how forest used to look 120 
years ago.
  We have let them fill in too much because we have had the stance of 
putting out all fires or at least we did for a while. The forest became 
built up like this. It is very dense. It is hard for the wildlife to 
even get through there. The old standard was could a cowboy ride a 
horse through there like the first explorers who came to the West. They 
can't now.
  This is a tinderbox. Trees compete for very limited water supply, 
especially in a drought period. When they compete for limited water, it 
harms the tree. The tree struggles, and then it becomes weak. It 
becomes susceptible to insects waiting to take advantage. They know a 
weak tree.
  A tree's self-defense mechanism is the sap that it produces when it 
is healthy. When that sap is there, if a borer tries to bore into that 
tree, the sap tends to push that insect out. It works pretty well. If 
the tree is weak, it doesn't make as much of that sap. The tree gets 
killed over time.
  There is an area in eastern-central California, east of Fresno. We 
have gone camping up there before. This area all looks green. If we 
look at that area, about every other tree is gray. If lightning ever 
hits that, if something happens there, it will be yet the next fire. 
They keep happening.
  The Park fire that happened in Chico, California, near my home, 
400,000 acres. It blew from that area east of Chico all the way up to 
basically right near Lassen Volcanic National Park. We can't get used 
to these six-digit numbers for fires. The amount of resources it takes, 
the amount of firefighters, and the amount of people who put themselves 
in a dangerous way to do this is unnecessary.
  Let's defeat these environmental lawsuits. Let's defeat these 
naysayers because this makes sense here. This doesn't. We keep losing 
this. We see the issue. Let's take southern California since that is 
the topic right now and for good reason. We have to manage these 
grasslands and these brushlands that are around. They are not forested 
per se. That is a little farther east of L.A. and those areas. It is 
the same thing. If this brush is managed, then they have a better 
chance, when the Santa Ana winds come up every year, of being able to 
control or stop the fire. It won't be perfect every time, but it gives 
them a fighting chance.
  They had been doing it. For some reason this year they suspended that 
work. There were budgets cuts. What are they spending the money on? 
That has been a hot topic of giving California money and yet it seems 
they are not helping themselves.
  That is my home State, and I have been frustrated for a long time. 
They spend a lot of money on a lot of other things. They want more 
Federal money. They are still wasting money on the high-speed rail. 
They want to give more money to illegal immigration and benefits for 
that. The State is trying to set aside $50 million to fight Trump. What 
is that all about?
  They want to ask for money here and say we are putting conditions on 
them. They are not acting properly. They not acting in a way that is 
responsible when they should be focused on things that are keeping the 
public safe. The water supply that ran out in the area by the Pacific 
Palisades didn't need to run out. Maybe they should upgrade their fire 
hydrant systems with larger lines that can hold more water at a time, 
but they are not doing that.
  The lake that was nearby was empty for almost a full year. When we 
see the work that needs to be done not getting done, what is everyone 
supposed to do? What are the other 49 States supposed to say? Oh, keep 
doing what they are doing; we will give them money. All the complaining 
around here is about conditions.
  When you don't do that, this is what you get. We have seen it in 
vivid colors and coverage here. Thankfully, the wind had subsided 
somewhat in southern California. They are getting their water around it 
somewhat, but the

[[Page H290]]

wind can come back. Who knows what it will hit next.
  When we talk about what we need to do in the Fix Our Forests Act, we 
need to pass this legislation. I can't believe the arguments on that 
side of the aisle against it. It doesn't make any sense because we need 
to manage these lands.
  The Federal Government is in charge through the Forest Service of 193 
million acres. Their ambitious goal is to treat 2 million per year. 
That is 1 percent per year. If we do the math, that takes 100 years to 
get over all that. Although this is the city situation, it doesn't look 
that much different when I was in my home district next to a town named 
Canyondam which had that same orange glow 5 minutes before the town of 
Canyondam disappeared. There is no reason for this.
  The Fix Our Forests Act would be a very important step in managing 
forests in a way that is successful. In only 2 days, President Trump 
has been leading the charge on the executive orders. He is not playing 
around with the climate change game. He is not playing all that. 
Instead, he wants to move toward water supply for California, move 
toward forest management. We will be working with him on that more. He 
gets it.
  This is him in Paradise, California, saying: Why aren't they managing 
these lands? Governor Newsom stands there empty-handed 6 years later 
after that fire with empty promises and with very little land having 
been managed the way it should.

                              {time}  1745

  I am really glad we have President Trump, who understands this and is 
going to do everything he can to help. We will help supply him the 
legislation, such as the Fix Our Forests Act with the things it does.
  Particularly, it expands the clearance zone for hazardous trees 
around power lines, a bill I have been carrying personally as one of 
the fires in my district, known as the Carr fire, was caused by that, 
as were two others, the power lines and things.
  It directs the Forest Service to expand the use of livestock grazing. 
There is a concept. We know it works, and it works all through the 
West. They try to shut that down and say you don't get the permit for 
that, that it might affect the species. It actually has been found to 
help species when the cattle keep the noxious weeds and such down.
  They have made it more and more difficult to keep those grazing 
permits and grazing abilities there, including a very heinous one going 
on in a northern California park right now where they are kicking the 
growers and the cattle people off the land after many years.
  We are also talking about looking at having a Western headquarters 
for the Forest Service instead of in Washington, D.C. They need to be 
based where the forests mostly are, where the problem usually is. The 
idea is to migrate the Department of the Interior, the Department of 
Agriculture, USDA. Why don't we put them where the issue is, especially 
the Forest Service? That is an idea that is in this bill, as well.
  It will take advantage of local expertise, people who actually know 
and live with the conditions. They know the wind patterns and what 
things look like, instead of a fire team maybe coming from somewhere 
else and maybe not making the right call on how they should treat the 
area.
  The Fix Our Forests Act is a giant step in the right direction. I 
support it wholeheartedly and ask my colleagues to jump in on it to 
have it be a bipartisan effort. There is nothing wrong with this bill. 
Let's do it.
  Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I will quickly touch on it, as well. 
I anticipate there will be some clear bipartisan support on this. If we 
are looking at it through a lens of common sense, we should get an 
abundance of it.
  I reflect back to Monday when President Trump, during his inaugural 
address, said we will be the party of common sense. It is something 
that I want to sincerely communicate as I wrap up here.
  There are a lot of games that get played in Washington. There are a 
minority and a majority and a lot of back and forth that goes on. I 
have experienced both. I have experienced it all, from the White House 
switching, the Senate switching back and forth, and the House going 
back and forth.
  There are a lot of games. There are a lot of times that the majority 
will put in a bill that has some poison pills in it for the minority, 
and it becomes an entire messaging bill, a party-line exercise.
  I was subject to it for my first term. Not every bill from the 
majority was like that. I joined on, in a very bipartisan way, 
sometimes not even from the majority of my side.
  You have to look at the policy. I have seen a sincere effort from us 
not to go down the poison pill route, just to get them to say they are 
going to vote against it and then we go out there in the public world 
and use it for campaign purposes.
  This Fix Our Forests Act is such a sincere, commonsense approach from 
Chairman Westerman, who is a forester by trade. He has delved into this 
issue. He knows more about it than virtually anybody here in Congress. 
He can dive in and talk about how we can protect, preserve, and enhance 
our forest health, while also protecting our communities, by putting 
the type of forest breaks in there, controlled burns, things like that 
that have proven to be very successful.
  My State goes through this all the time. We have seen devastation 
happen, and we have learned from it. That is all we are asking to do in 
this moment, is to take a look.
  Honestly, I hope it ends up being a net positive. With all the 
destruction and the sadness that has gone on and the devastation in 
California right now, I hope it has captured the attention in all 50 of 
our States to recognize there are better ways to do this and that it is 
not a partisan exercise.
  That is what we are trying to accomplish this week with Chairman 
Westerman's Fix Our Forests Act, a commonsense bill that works to 
prevent destructive wildfires, improve emergency response by providing 
new tools and advanced technology, and cut burdensome regulations and 
hinder active forest management.
  I have served under Chairman Westerman on the Natural Resources 
Committee. He leads with a really sensible approach to solving 
problems. It is something we absolutely need more of back here.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues tonight for being here to help 
share the message of what we are trying to accomplish this week.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________