[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11126-11128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 RESILIENT FEDERAL FORESTS ACT OF 2015


                             General Leave

  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and 
extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill, H.R. 
2647.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 347 and rule 
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House 
on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 2647.
  The Chair appoints the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding) to 
preside over the Committee of the Whole.

                              {time}  1524


                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill 
(H.R. 2647) to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act and 
improve forest management activities in units of the National Forest 
System derived from the public domain, on public lands under the 
jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and on tribal lands to 
return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands, and for 
other purposes, with Mr. Holding in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the 
first time.
  General debate shall not exceed 1 hour equally divided among and 
controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on 
Agriculture and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee 
on Natural Resources.
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop), and the 
gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Tsongas) each will control 15 
minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time 
as I may consume.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support and as an original 
cosponsor of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015.
  Since the inception of the National Forest System in 1905, the 
fundamental mission of the Forest Service has been to manage our 
Federal forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future 
generations. As a result, the Forest Service has played a critical role 
in rural America, partnering to produce timber, natural resources, and 
jobs, while sustaining the ecological health of the forests and 
surrounding watersheds.
  National forests have been extremely successful in creating 
recreational and educational opportunities for millions of Americans. 
However, our forests are facing declining health and simply are not 
managed as well as they need to be due to numerous challenges that have 
grown over the past few decades.
  Often unnecessary and prolonged planning processes limit the Service 
from effectively managing our forests. This also goes along with the 
constant litigation, or even the threat of litigation in some cases. 
Both of these situations keep boots in the office instead of in the 
forests and spend money on doing paperwork instead of work in the 
field.
  The costs of suppressing and fighting wildfires has been a growing 
challenge for the Forest Service, with their fire costs increasing from 
13 percent of the Forest Service budget in 1995 to approximately half 
of the annual budget today. This epidemic of declining health and 
catastrophic wildfires are in direct correlation to policies that have 
led to a dramatic decrease in managed acres. Timber harvests have 
drastically plummeted from almost 13 billion board feet in the late 
1980s to only 3 billion board feet of timber in recent years. At the 
same time, the number of acres affected by the catastrophic wildfires 
has doubled from around 3 million acres during the second record timber 
harvest to 6 million acres now.

[[Page 11127]]

  This bill reverses this cycle by ending the destructive fire 
borrowing problem that robs Peter to pay Paul, and it does so in a 
fiscally responsible manner, with the funds only made available for 
wildfire suppression. In my view, this legislation is the next step to 
build upon the groundwork laid by the 2014 farm bill and is an earnest 
attempt to give the Forest Service more authority and much-needed 
flexibility to deal with these challenges of process, funding, 
litigation, necessary timber harvesting, and much-needed management.
  H.R. 2647 incentivizes and rewards collaborations with the private 
sector on management activities. It allows for State and third-party 
funding of projects. The bill reauthorizes the resource advisory 
committees, known as RACs, while returning county shares of forest 
receipts for long-term stewardship projects.
  Perhaps most importantly, the bill provides commonsense categorical 
exclusions, or CEs, for certain Forest Service projects. These CEs are 
routine and have known impacts and will expedite the planning process 
to get projects up and running.
  To conclude, this is a thoughtful piece of legislation that will do 
much to help the Forest Service to better do its job. I urge my 
colleagues to vote ``yes.''
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PETERSON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 
2015. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that will address some 
of the burdensome regulations that have arisen from legal challenges 
and help get our forests actively managed the way we need.
  For some time now we have been concerned about efforts undertaken by 
extreme environmental groups to twist laws to their liking. The so-
called sue and settle strategy has led to policy changes decided by 
activists and bureaucrats. These policy changes often ignore 
congressional intent and fail to take into account constituent input 
and real facts on the ground. Additionally, this means a less 
transparent and less accountable regulatory process. H.R. 2647 will 
simplify forest management activities, thereby reducing some of this 
bad behavior.
  The bill also includes an important budgetary fix to help address the 
rising cost of wildfires. Just this year, the wildfires have burned 
hundreds of thousands of acres and caused millions of dollars of 
damage.

                              {time}  1530

  H.R. 2647 will allow access for our land management agencies to the 
resources they need to fight wildfires without having to rob their 
other accounts. The current practice of fire borrowing leads to taking 
away resources from productively managing our forests to keep them 
healthy and less prone to fire. This bill would end this practice and 
ensure that agencies have access to the needed resources to fight 
wildfire disasters all year.
  Again, this is much-needed, bipartisan legislation that addresses 
many of the issues currently impacting forest management. I urge my 
colleagues to support H.R. 2647, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Abraham).
  Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from Arkansas 
(Mr. Westerman) for introducing this bill and recognize the hard work 
done by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committees to bring this 
important bill to the floor.
  For too long, failure to properly manage our national forests had led 
to increased tree mortality from wildfires, droughts, insects, and 
disease. The Resilient Federal Forests Act gives the Forest Service and 
the Bureau of Land Management the tools needed to reverse this trend.
  This bill will allow critical forest health projects to move forward 
by streamlining regulations, will give parishes and counties greater 
flexibility in how they use forestry revenues, and will ensure Federal 
agencies have increased access to fund in order to fight and prevent 
wildfires.
  These reforms will put more Americans to work through increased 
management activities and timber production. It will give money back to 
our local community for infrastructure and education and will make our 
forested communities safer by reducing their vulnerability to 
wildfires.
  In my home State of Louisiana, the Kisatchie National Forest covers 
604,000 acres, with 382,500 of those acres in my district alone. In 
all, forestry and the forest products industries accounts for well over 
18,000 jobs and over $1 billion of income in my district.
  The people of Louisiana know how valuable well-managed forests are to 
the health of our State and our economy. I would imagine forested 
communities throughout the country know this as well.
  It is time we start being proactive instead of reactive when it comes 
to managing our national forests. The Resilient Federal Forests Act 
will put us back on track to realize the full potential of our forest 
resources.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. PETERSON. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 
minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek), a member of the 
Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee.
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2647, the 
Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015.
  I represent northern Michigan, which has over 20 million acres of 
Federal, State, and private forest land. Our forests are a vital part 
of the economy in northern Michigan that generate over $16.3 billion 
per year and creates more than 77,000 jobs. In addition to forestry, 
the outdoor recreation industry also contributes $18 billion to 
Michigan's economy and over 190,000 jobs to our State.
  Healthy forests are vital to our way of life in northern Michigan. 
Like most in my district, I grew up exploring these forests, hunting, 
fishing, snowmobiling. It is a way of life for so many, not only for 
those who live up north, but for the millions who visit the forests 
every year from all around the country.
  Sadly, many of our Federal forests are in a state of disrepair these 
days; they are overgrown, and especially in the Western United States, 
they are consumed by wildfire.
  The Forest Service, which is entrusted with managing 10 percent of 
the continental United States land base, has identified approximately 
58 million acres as being at high risk for catastrophic fire. Even 
worse, by conservative estimates, over 56 billion board feet of timber 
have simply burned away in wildfires on Forest Service lands over the 
last 10 years.
  Over the past 10 years, over a billion dollars of timber rotted on 
the stump instead of being sold. Those revenues aren't available to the 
U.S. Treasury. The Forest Service couldn't use the funds to buy 
seedlings to replant our devastated national forests. We are literally 
allowing jobs for American families to burn away in our poorly managed 
Federal lands. Nothing about the current process is working.
  H.R. 2647 takes some very simple steps to allow our forests to become 
healthier and better managed for the future. This bill would streamline 
timber harvesting on Federal forests in existing land use plans, while 
reducing the threat of frivolous lawsuits related to forest management.
  The Acting CHAIR (Mr. Womack). The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 
minute.
  Mr. BENISHEK. In addition, this legislation would allow States and 
Federal forests to react faster to catastrophic wildfire events, 
thereby reducing the future risk to public lands.
  Finally, this legislation includes a number of collaborative 
processes for tribal, State, and private contracting, which will lead 
to healthier and better managed forests.
  I understand that many of my friends here today may live in areas 
with a few forests or low risk of wildfire. I ask all

[[Page 11128]]

my colleagues here today, especially those not in heavily forested 
areas, to listen to your friends from forested districts.
  Support this bipartisan, commonsense legislation and help improve the 
health of our forests.
  The Acting CHAIR. The Committee will rise informally.
  The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Duncan of Tennessee) assumed the chair.

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