[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 25195-25196]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            HEALTHY FORESTS

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in talking about the 
problems I guess particularly in the West, although not only in the 
West. When I was in high school, I lived near the Shoshone Forest in 
Cody, WY, and I would help the firefighters fight fires. I remember 
that so very well, particularly one mountain close to home. It was very 
steep. As the fire went up the rocks, it would loosen the rocks and 
they rolled down. Since that time, it has become even more of a 
problem.
  I always think about those who say we ought to leave things the way 
they are, and I think about the wild horses. If we would get too many 
wild horses, what would happen to them in the old days? They starved to 
death. We don't let that happen anymore. We have to keep the numbers 
down. The same is true with the forests.
  We are using the forests differently than we did in the past. More 
people live closer to the forests. People are using the forests 
differently. We have more insect problems to manage. We are talking 
about managing the resource.
  There will be areas, of course, where we will not have forest 
protection--on roadless areas and wilderness areas. But much of the 
forests are areas where there are many people all the time, where there 
are roads and buildings, and we have to do something different than we 
have been doing.
  Fires burn at naturally high temperatures and cause severe damage to 
the soil, watersheds, and air quality, as well as, of course, to the 
trees. Fires destroy habitat, including endangered species.
  It is our responsibility to protect the health and safety of the 
community in neighboring lands. There is a lot we must do to do a 
better job.
  In Wyoming--and we have not had as much fire as some other States--in 
the Shoshone Forest where I grew up, many of those trees are infected 
by insects. Yet only 1 percent of the corridor is available for any 
kind of treatment and care for these trees. In Big Horn National 
Forest, a fire burned for 3 weeks causing evacuation of dozens of 
cabins and loss of other facilities.
  Black Hills National Forest--interestingly enough, we had some 
agreements before that were limited to the Black Hills to do forest 
fighting, clearing, and so on. We ought to extend that to some of the 
other forests because we have had experience in that area. Grand Teton, 
of course.
  It is clear we need to have a program. Firefighting is extremely 
costly. It is expensive to suppress and control. It is much less 
expensive to seek to avoid fires.
  The Forest Service this year has already spent $1 billion in forest 
fighting. We passed nearly $700 million to cover the cost of the 
shortfall; otherwise, it had to come from other projects. We cannot 
continue to have these kinds of resources consumed by the fire.
  It has already been mentioned that the House has a bill and we have a 
bill and we will be taking up the differences. There are differences in 
view as to how different parts should be handled.
  Between the House and the Senate, there has been a compromise on 
almost all the issues that are important: administrative appeals and 
all the suits that take place. We have an agreement to cut those down, 
so instead of having to do studies for a year before something can be 
done, it can be done in 30 days. We have wildlife-urban interface, with 
half a mile around facilities in which more of this control will take 
place.
  We have the old-growth issues where there can be changes if old 
growth is in that interface close to buildings. There can be 
exemptions.
  I am most disappointed that, having talked about this issues for 
years, knowing the impact of not doing something, here we are with 
objections to moving forward when we have an opportunity to create some 
solutions to the problem that exists and will continue to exist.
  I hope we can do something this week. This is our chance to come 
together and pass a bill that will be usable. I hope we do that.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, how much time remains on the morning 
business allocation for this side of the aisle?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). The distinguished Senator has 5 
minutes 51 seconds remaining.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield the remaining time to the 
distinguished Senator from New Mexico.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
  Mr. DOMENICI. I thank the Chair. I thank the Senator from 
Mississippi, Mr. Cochran.
  First, on the way to the floor, something very interesting happened 
to this bill. The Parliamentarian read it and said: Chairman Domenici--
who had been waiting anxiously to do this bill--you don't have 
jurisdiction the way the bill is written and said the Agriculture 
Committee did.
  For a little while I had a sourpuss look on me until I found out 
that, indeed, we were fortunate because Senator Thad Cochran and his 
committee, letting us help him, did a magnificent job. In fact, I can 
say so there will be no doubt on the record that they did a better job 
than we could have. So I am very pleased the bill came roundabout that 
way.
  As always happens in a bill of this type, you cannot win on the floor 
with just a bill produced by committee because there are Senators who 
are not on any of the committees of jurisdiction who have big interests 
in the bill. Guess what. Those Senators are now supporting this bill. 
We must have somebody around here who is against this bill. Senator 
Wyden is for it. He has had some of the biggest problems with forests 
and forest fires in his State of any Senator.
  We met under Senator Cochran's leadership for weeks. And Senator 
Wyden is for this bill. Surely, he is not for not bringing up this 
bill. Whoever is for not bringing it up--I don't understand.
  California has so much of everything that we sometimes forget they 
have huge forests and huge forest fires, and it burns a lot of things 
down.
  They need to fix the law. Guess what. She is not on the Agriculture 
Committee. Right?
  Mr. COCHRAN. Right.
  Mr. DOMENICI. So she came in and said: Let me help. She went to 
meeting after meeting. Of course, they invited me and my staff. I had 
more than a few things to do, and I probably was there less than the 
Senators I just mentioned, but I came. I was one who pursued it and 
pushed it.
  On the Democrat side of the Agriculture Committee, the Senator from 
Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, was there all the time. She came to these 
meetings and she is for it. Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, a State 
with huge problems, he was there. He is for it.
  Everybody knows the Senator from New Mexico is for it. I have been 
trying to do this for 10 or 12 years. I got one big bill through that 
nobody thought could happen in the midst of the forest fires. It passed 
in an amendment on the floor. We got $250 million times 2--that is $500 
million--for each agency. We named that bill ``happy forests.'' We 
named it happy forests because we thought if it works, these forests 
that cannot see sunlight may see sunlight and they might be happy when 
they look up at the sun.
  So I nicknamed the bill the happy forests, with the trees of America 
once again being unclogged. The clogging makes the trees limp but also 
makes them burn like wildfire. We got that one through and it did a lot 
of good, but we are stuck with the problem that this bill tries to 
solve; namely, we cannot get anything done in a reasonable period of 
time. That is the issue.
  We do not have to talk about the fancy words, jurisdiction, courts, 
and all of that. The truth is, for those who do not want things to 
happen, they have an inordinate amount of time that they can make 
everybody waste without doing anything. At least in this bill, for 
instance, if there is an infested forest--and I do not know anyone that 
does not have one around--they are ugly, they burn like tinder, and at 
least in this bill that would be handled very expeditiously.

[[Page 25196]]

  People wonder why that is not the case right now. In a few months, 
why can't there be a contract to cut those trees down? Well, those kind 
of things are getting fixed in this bill.
  I am grateful to have these few minutes. I am thankful that this bill 
went to the Agriculture Committee. The staff did most of the work, and 
I am very grateful the outsiders came in and helped. I do not want to 
fail to mention, on the Republican side, the distinguished Senator from 
Arizona, John McCain, who was not on the committee of jurisdiction, 
also came with his competent staff. They presented their views and some 
of the bill was adjusted their way.
  So I say to the leadership, I hope when some Senators come and say 
let's delay this bill, let's not take it up, I hope they would ask, 
what is this about? When are we going to do it? When are we going to 
stop destroying our forests or at least do some positive things that we 
all know are right?
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Under the order, how much time remains on this side?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is no time remaining.
  Mr. REID. I yield the remaining time on this side to the Senator from 
North Dakota, Mr. Conrad.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from North Dakota is 
recognized.

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