Continental Divide Trail Completion Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Madam Chair, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 5118, the so-called wildfire response package.

The Greenwood fire in northern Minnesota was the worst in decades. It ravaged my district, forcing home evacuations, closing the Boundary Waters, and upending people's lives. Still, even worse wildfires ravage southern California and across the West.

Wildfires are the result of weather, topography, and fuel. Madam Chair, the only factor we can control is fuel. Our forests are thick with dead wood fuel, and they are, predictably, going up in flames.

Real solutions include reforming our broken permitting process so we can get our loggers into forests on projects to really make a difference. There are no better conservationists and forest managers. They know better than anyone how to preserve our forests for future generations.

Like everything done by this majority, it throws money at a problem and offers no real solutions to ensure this doesn't happen again. And, no, not one single wildland firefighter receives a raise under this bill. $20 an hour is already the minimum wage, and when you authorize no money with it, it will, in fact, lead to wildland firefighting jobs being cut.

Republicans are offering solutions. Ranking Member Westerman has the Trillion Trees Act. I have the ESA Flexibility Act and the Healthy Forests for Hunters Act.

Madam Chair, Republicans will keep offering solutions until you accept them because we need to fix this problem. It cannot go on like this any longer.

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