[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13250]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FIREFIGHTING BUDGET

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the end of this week begins the August 
recess, or district work period. Some of us will go home working--and I 
am going home to a State that is on fire. We have four major fires, and 
many dozens of other fires are burning in Oregon, Washington, 
California, Nevada, and Utah.
  The Forest Service and the BLM have about exhausted their budget for 
fighting fires. They can't stop fighting fires. So they are going to 
have to gut their other budgets, including budgets that would mitigate 
future fire risk, fuel reduction, and other programs. They will also 
cut recreation and other things that people really care about. Congress 
has not seen fit to give them adequate money.
  There is a bipartisan, bicameral proposal, supported by the 
President--that is about the rarest thing in Washington, D.C., these 
days--to give the Forest Service and the BLM the tools they need, an 
adequate budget, and for these extreme fires--the 1 percent that cost 
30 percent of the budget--treat those like emergencies, like we do 
floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
  What have the Republicans done with this? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Not one 
hearing. Not one mention, except in the Ryan budget, where he said he 
didn't support that approach; they should just gut their budgets, or we 
should kill some other program to pay for fighting fires.

                          ____________________