Wildfires

Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, the West is on fire. At this very moment, historic wildfires are raging across our Western States. Communities have been devastated. Homes have been destroyed. Businesses have been turned to rubble. In the wake of these disasters, many families have been left with absolutely nothing.

Nevadans are no strangers to seeing wildfires wreak havoc in our State. Just this year, Nevada has seen over 650 fires. Yet what is happening now is something different. These are some of the largest fires the West has ever seen. Already, in 2020, over 4.7 million acres of land have been burned across our Nation, and we have already seen billions of dollars in economic losses and damage.

Despite what you might hear from our President, these disasters are not blue State issues. That kind of partisan sentiment is just unconscionable. We must take a nonpartisan approach to saving lives and protecting property from fires that know no partisan affiliation. It doesn't matter that these fires are in the State of California or in the State of Oregon or in the State of Washington or in the State of Idaho. These disasters are happening in our United States. These fires are impacting our communities, and in this time of crisis, we have a responsibility to really help one another--to help our communities and to help our friends and our neighbors.

People have died in these disasters, and some people are still missing. Over 30,000 courageous men and women are risking their lives to fight these fires and to save those families and save those properties. I am really proud to say that Nevada's firefighters have been deployed to assist in combating many of these disasters. I am so proud of them.

As a result of these fires, the air quality in some of our communities is so poor and so unhealthy that it is exceeding 20-year records. This toxic haze has already impacted air quality in my own State of Nevada, and it is not just in Western States. This harmful smoke is spreading. It has been measured as far away as the east coast--in places like New York City and right here in Washington, DC. These fires put our collective health--all of ours--in jeopardy, especially now, during the pandemic.

As I have said before, these fires impact every single one of us. Do you know why? It is because this is an environmental issue; this is an economic issue; this is a public health issue; and it is absolutely a climate issue.

The science speaks for itself. Climate change and increased temperatures directly correlate to the growing intensity of these wildfires, and the longer we fail to address climate change, the more costly and more dangerous and deadly the impact is going to be for our friends, our neighbors, our States, and our communities.

September is wildfire preparedness month, and make no mistake: We need to get a handle on these disasters. We need to provide resources to our local communities, to our firefighters, and to our land management agencies immediately. This is why I cosponsored my colleague Senator Harris' Wildfire Defense Act, which is legislation that would provide FEMA resources so that our local communities can develop wildfire defense plans and allow all of us to respond more effectively.

We also need to address climate change, and we need to be proactive and practical, which is why, earlier this year, I cosponsored Senator Carper's climate change resolution. This resolution recognizes that climate change is real, that human activity is the primary cause, and that Congress must take immediate action to address one of the most pressing issues of our time.

We need to act. Lives are on the line, and we need to act now. Nevada, the West, and Americans across the country are counting on all of us. So we need to get to work.

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