Recognizing Fire Prevention Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise as a former State certified firefighter one from Pennsylvania. As we kick off the month of October, I mention that next week is Fire Prevention Week.

In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge established Fire Prevention Week, and today it is the longest running public health observance in the Nation. It is celebrated each year during the week of October 9 to commemorate the devastating Great Chicago Fire.

This is an opportunity to educate one another on simple measures we can all take to prevent fires at home. You can bolster your family's safety by testing your fire alarms monthly, giving home heaters appropriate space, and having an escape plan if, God forbid, your home does catch fire.

We must also do more to prevent wildfires. As former chairman of the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, I have been a part of many conversations, meetings, and hearings about how we can better prevent forest devastation as a result of wildfires.

We continue to see devastating wildfires on the West Coast. Homes, businesses, and forests are burning to the ground. The air quality is dangerous, and millions of Americans are at risk.

For decades, the health and resiliency of our national forests have been in decline due to a lack of management and, more recently, extreme environmental policies.

With nearly 90 million acres of forestland in need of urgent treatment, Congress needs to finally act and provide the tools and authorities to enable the Forest Service to proactively manage. Doing so will directly help prevent wildfire outbreaks, support our local communities, and restore the health of our Nation's forests. And a healthy forest is one of the largest carbon sinks in the world.

The 2018 House-passed farm bill contained bipartisan, commonsense forest management provisions to help prevent loss of life and property from these fires. These bipartisan authorities were created with input from the U.S. Forest Service under both the Obama and Trump administrations. These were ideas that were well vetted through hearings and markups and supported by the House Agriculture Committee and on the floor.

However, Senate Democrats have refused to even discuss these needed reforms. Since these provisions were rejected, 3.5 million acres of Forest Service land have burned.

Wildfire response and recovery efforts should not be a partisan issue. We are blessed as a nation to have hundreds of millions of acres of beautiful forestlands, and the best way to prevent forest fires is through a well-managed forest.

Mr. Speaker, well-managed forests, again, are the largest carbon sinks in the world and the greatest filters for our watersheds that originate in those forests. Our forests provide great opportunities for outdoor recreation, but they are also unparalleled environmental tools. Our national forests serve as some of the Nation's largest carbon sinks.

This Fire Prevention Week, I would like to encourage everyone to brush up on their fire safety measures, and I reiterate just how crucial healthy forests are in preventing wildfires.

I thank the brave men and women who are on the front lines fighting those devastating fires out West.

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