[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13935-13936]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               WILDFIRES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I concluded my summer tour of Oregon at 
the fire control center on the Warm Springs Indian reservation.
  Summer was an amazing time in my State. Smoke enveloped downtown 
Portland and drifted all the way for 270 miles to the south in Medford. 
As I drove past, into central Oregon, the Crater Lake National Park 
consumed 25 square miles.
  Throughout the West, 8.5 million acres have already been burned this 
year. And like we hear almost every year, the 2015 fire season is one 
of the worst on record.
  We should acknowledge the amazing men and women who are on the front 
lines and the tremendous strain they bear.
  We need so many people that we have actually had active military 
personnel brought online for the first time in a decade. Even 
firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have come to 
assist in these efforts.
  One cannot say enough about the tremendous bravery and sheer hard 
work involved on so many levels with the men and women who are 
literally putting their lives on the line for this heroic fight.
  But it is important to note that we are not just decimating our 
forests. We are decimating the Forest Service budget. The portion of 
the overall budget spent on fighting wildfires has grown in the last 20 
years from 16 percent to over one-half, 52 percent.
  Because Congress refuses to treat wildfires like other natural 
disasters, the Forest Service budget is being consumed, squeezing out 
other critical areas, not just maintaining these special places and 
trails and recreational opportunities, but even the efforts that would 
deal with forest health and reduce the danger and the cost of future 
firefights.
  The trend is that two-thirds of the budget in the next 10 years will 
be firefighting. Absolutely, totally unacceptable.
  These fires ought to be treated like any other natural disaster, not 
decimate our ability to manage our national forests.
  The people dealing with these megafires know that part of the problem 
is climate change making itself felt. Less than 2 percent of these 
megafires consume almost one-third of the total fire suppression costs 
because our forests are drier.
  There is less snow and rainfall, one more graphic reminder of the 
devastating impact of climate change, with higher temperatures and less 
water.
  It is past time that Congress steps up to reduce carbon emissions. 
Perhaps the Pope in 2 weeks will inspire us to do something about 
climate change.
  But, in the meantime, we should at least pass H.R. 167, the Wildfire 
Disaster Act--bipartisan legislation introduced on the very first day 
of this Congress, but languishing in committee--that would treat 
megafires like other natural disasters, not discriminate against the 
Forest Service.
  One final point is that we should stop making the problem worse by 
allowing more and more people to move into the fire zone in the 
wildland-urban interface and give these people the illusion that 
somehow they are going to be provided with urban-level fire protection. 
Sixty percent of the new homes since 1990 have been built in the flame 
zone.

[[Page 13936]]

  We should stop this madness because we are putting more people at 
risk not just to their properties and their families, but also the men 
and women who fight forest fires to protect structures.
  Remember the 19 hotshots who were killed in Arizona a couple years 
ago who lost their lives trying to save homes that probably shouldn't 
have been there in the first place?
  Commonsense budgeting, fighting climate change, and reasonable land 
use will reduce costs, protect lives, and allow us to begin spending 
money on prevention, which will, in turn, reduce further costs. It more 
than pays for itself.
  Sensible budgeting, prevention, sound land use planning, will protect 
people and our forests, along with our budgets, while we start our long 
overdue actions to reduce carbon pollution.
  It is time that Congress steps up to start addressing these problems 
now. This is not rocket science.

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