Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support my bill that will help combat severe wildfires and save lives. My home State of California has become all too familiar with devastating wildfires.

In 2022, just over 20,000 wildfires burned approximately 5.8 million acres across the Western United States. These numbers represent people's homes, businesses, and livelihoods that have been destroyed or tragically lost.

In my district, we deal with prolonged exposure to wildfire smoke, which settles in the central valley and results in some of the Nation's worst air quality.

As these wildfires become more aggressive, we need to take concrete steps to combat wildfires, while also focusing on improving the long- term management of our forests.

The bill we are considering today will help deploy new technologies to combat widespread damage these fires cause to our communities, our health, and our environment.

The Wildfire Fighting Technology Act would dramatically increase the number of airlift assets available in wildfire emergencies. We should be using every tool available to fight these fires.

Containerized Aerial Firefighting Systems, or CAFFS, are airdrop- capable disposable containers for water or fire retardant, which can be dropped from much higher altitudes with less visibility.

Current aerial firefighting operations depend on single-mission aircraft, but CAFFS can be used by any standard cargo plane. The use of CAFFS provides more coverage for firefighters on the ground and allows teams to quickly respond to prevent smaller fires from becoming uncontrollable.

These systems are being used in other countries, but not here in the U.S. We have the technology that we can and should use to stop the devastation of these fires.

The dangers and long-term impacts of wildfires are clear.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support the passage of the Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act to combat and contain these fires in a quicker and more efficient way.

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