Fire Facts

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), my good friend, for yielding.

As we all know, the West has been on fire.

In my home State of Washington, over 700,000 acres have burned, causing thousands of families to evacuate, leaving their homes, their businesses, and their farms behind. Whole towns have essentially been wiped off the map.

Smoke blanketed central Washington, with fires raging up and down the West Coast. The air quality of our cities and our rural areas ranked the worst in the world.

As the people of central Washington and many of my colleagues in Congress understand, healthy, resilient forests are the key to wildfire prevention. We have made significant progress, but there is still much work to be done.

Without our leadership in Congress, families will continue to lose their homes and their businesses, and jobs will continue to be lost, and our public health will continue to be threatened.

While a loss of homes and livelihoods is heartbreaking, there is nothing more tragic than the loss of life.

Today, I join the people of central Washington in mourning the loss of 1-year-old Baby Hyland, whose life was tragically cut short as his parents fled to escape the Cold Springs fire that was raging across Okanogan County. The Hyland family has suffered immeasurable loss with the deaths of both their toddler as well as the death of their unborn child. My heart aches and my prayers go out for the Hylands as they recover from their own wounds in this unimaginable heartbreak.

These tragic circumstances fall on us, Mr. Speaker. We are responsible, as the Federal Government, for failing to deliver a management strategy that enables us to prevent these catastrophic events.

We cannot continue to sit idly by.

We have to responsibly log our forests and graze our lands, or we will watch them burn.

These wildfires and this year have truly tested our resilience, but of this I am certain: in the face of catastrophe, central Washington will recover.

Now it is the Federal Government's responsibility to do everything in its power to prevent another disaster like this again.

For years, extreme environmentalist groups have insisted that we leave our forests and natural lands alone, leaving them in their quote ``natural state.'' But as we witness, year-after-year, that strategy simply does not work.

Many point to climate change as a contributing factor; I am not here to refute that. At the end of the day though, the facts remain: our land management--or lack thereof--is a serious problem.

Decades of mismanagement, misguided environmental policies, and lackluster forestry and grazing practices have led to forests and grasslands that act as tinder for wildfires, just waiting to be set ablaze each summer.

We cannot continue to sit idly by. We have to responsibly log our forests and graze our lands, or we will watch them burn.

As I have stated all along throughout the many challenges this year has presented: Central Washington's communities are resilient.

Wildfire recovery is no easy feat, but I have seen firsthand how citizens, volunteers, local organizations, and government entities work together to revive our communities, rebuild our fallen structures, and actively work to prevent future devastation.

I have heard stories of students and volunteers jumping into action, working to clear burnt areas, making way for new structures. Fairgrounds and community groups opened to help house and treat evacuated or injured livestock and animals. Donations continue to pour in from across the state, region, and country to families and firefighters in need.

I am working closely with FEMA and USDA to ensure our communities receive the federal assistance they need, and I stand ready to help the people of our district in any way I can.

These wildfires--and this year--have tested our resilience, but of this I am certain: In the face of catastrophe, Central Washington will recover. Now it is the federal government's responsibility to do everything in its power to prevent another disaster like this again.

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