Fix Our Forests Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Chair, I am not sure how familiar everyone is with the committee proceedings on this legislation, but just in case, I want to offer a little refresher.

This is not the first time that I have spoken out on the majority's either inability or outright refusal to do what is right by our Nation's firefighters.

In August 2023, my friend and colleague, Representative Joe Neguse, who is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands, introduced the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2023. This bipartisan legislation would permanently fix the pay cliff that our firefighters, our hometown heroes who are actually out there fixing our forests, are facing at the end of this week.

We have known about this pay cliff for well over a year, but here we are, nearing the end of 2024, and the majority has still failed to enact a permanent fix. There is certainly not one in this bill, the Fix Our Forests Act.

Right now, the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2023 has over two dozen champions on both sides of the aisle, evenly divided by Democrats and Republicans, myself included. Yet, all we have to show for this is yet another temporary fix in this week's CR, with Republican leadership once again stringing along these men and women in uniform for another few months without a permanent solution.

As appropriators on both sides of the aisle have emphasized, these temporary patches end up costing taxpayers more than simply locking in a permanent pay fix. Strangely, this all comes after the House Republicans actually did vote for a permanent fix, as the chairman has stated.

Let me clear this up: It was part of the fiscal year 2025 Interior appropriations bill, which stands no chance of making it to the President's desk because of the majority's insistence on including over 80 poison pill policy riders to appease partisan extremists. If they were serious, they would have dropped these partisan riders.

Now, in spite of the bipartisan support for both the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act and my own amendment to this bill to achieve the same goal, the majority is now claiming that that permanent pay fix is somehow not germane to the Fix Our Forests Act.

I ask, again, who exactly are the people on the front lines doing the work of fixing our forests? Answer: Our wildland firefighters.

Men and women are being paid less than a living wage in one of the wealthiest countries in the world to literally jump out of planes and contain fires before they burn down our homes and businesses.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LEE of Nevada. Mr. Chair, instead, we are going to slap a Band- Aid on this and revisit the pay issue after another congressional recess, which just got longer.

Meanwhile, these firefighters will hold their breath for another torturous 3 months, or even worse, they will get fed up and walk off the job, and our country will be less safe as a result.

What is happening is not just wrong, but it is nonsensical. We have firefighters risking their lives, needing a fix, with Republicans and Democrats both supporting a fix. Either a standalone bill or an amendment to this bill would provide that permanent fix, yet we don't have one. No more excuses.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source