Continental Divide Trail Completion Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. If there is anyone that should be leading this discussion, it should be somebody whose career was as a professionally trained forester who actually knows this topic.
I rise in opposition to this legislation. Wildfire is a national crisis that we must confront immediately. Tens of millions of acres are overgrown and unhealthy, but this bill won't meet those challenges or provide the Forest Service with the tools that they need to combat this threat.
The Forest Service has already announced a strategy to treat 50 million acres. Mandating a new plan is duplicative, removes flexibility, creates restrictions, and limits projects.
This bill authorizes billions for recreation, wilderness programs, and old growth, which have nothing to do with protecting communities and mitigating wildfire. Because this is only authorizing legislation, the Forest Service will be directed to carry out the provisions without being provided the necessary funding.
Additionally, there are none of the much-needed regulatory reforms that would allow the Forest Service to increase the pace and scale of restoration and wildfire mitigation.
There have been no committee hearings, markups, stakeholder feedback, or technical assistance. The majority also blocked nearly every amendment filed from even being debated today.
The provisions within the Committee on Agriculture's jurisdiction are largely unvetted but are being crammed into this 558-page bill, which we only first saw last week.
Madam Chair, let me just say, on the issue of firefighting, I served as a state-certified firefighter, so, on behalf of my brothers and sisters, I appreciate what they do, those that are fighting wildfires or structure fires.
But I agree with the ranking member here that the Forest Service's own words said that they were going to have to lay off more than 610 wildland firefighters because of this bill.
What my brothers and sisters who are wildland firefighters need more than anything else are other firefighters. They are the primary tool when it comes to battling these conflagrations.
This bill is an insult to them, an authorizing bill that provides no additional funds. Quite frankly, Madam Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote.
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