[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 16485-16486]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WILDFIRES IN THE WEST

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the wildfires in the West 
have been very devastating for a lot of

[[Page 16486]]

people, a lot of property, and a lot of habitat.
  One of the subjects this week in the Natural Resources Committee was 
a sage-grouse habitat that has affected so many western States, 
including my own district in northern California, and my friend in 
Nevada as well. We worked very hard to have a good sage-grouse plan, 
except what is the common bond in all this and the inability to have a 
successful recovery of this species as well as use of the land? The 
Federal Government.
  In the past, its involvement has been to merely slow down a process 
or say no to wise management practices. Cattle graze is a very 
effective tool, when prescribed correctly, to help make this habitat 
better and more sustainable long-term.
  We need more cooperation, we need the Federal Government to be more 
bold in putting out the type of policy that will help the grazing be an 
effective tool in that and not cower every time an environmental 
organization may come along and wish to threaten the entanglement of 
lawsuits that are stopping good management like that. It is hurting the 
habitat, it is hurting the sage-grouse population, it is hurting 
western lands, and western economy.
  Mr. Speaker, we need solutions coming from Washington, D.C., not 
impediments.

                          ____________________