Fix Our Forests Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Chairman, the wildfire crisis is not just a product of inaction, but decades of wrongheaded land management that let our forests, wildlands, and hills turn into tinderboxes. We have suppressed all natural fire, all the time, and let invasive, fire-prone vegetation grow unabated.
The work of clearing dead trees and dry vegetation that fuel fires requires long environmental reviews often followed by years of litigation. While we wait for analysis, forests burn down, habitats are lost, air pollution worsens, and our communities are threatened by catastrophic fire.
The wildfire crisis is also climate change. California wildfires in 2020 contributed more greenhouse gases than the State's entire power sector. It was said before that the fires in that 1 year undid the State's entire progress on emissions reduction from 2003 to 2019.
The Fix Our Forests Act will simplify and expedite the most critical forest management projects while maintaining strong environmental standards. It will reduce the threat of litigation and add new ways for communities to provide input early, something that does not exist today and is one of the reasons why the National Congress of American Indians supports this bill. The Tribes support this bill.
This bill will also protect communities on the front lines of wildfire crises like Los Angeles and my hometown of San Diego. It helps localities craft modern, fire-resistant building codes. It also promotes public-private partnerships to clear flammable materials where nature meets our homes.
We crafted this bill with input from groups like The Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund and others who have their priorities reflected in the text.
While we don't have the firefighting pay increase, which we need and we must get, the grassland firefighters and Western fire chiefs support this bill as is because they know it will help relieve the strain on their already stretched thin resources.
There is more we need to do, and along with Chairman Westerman, we support providing aid for all those hurting in Los Angeles without conditions. No legislation is perfect, but this is a good bill that takes on a problem that is serious throughout the West and the entire country. For once we are not just making speeches. We are passing a bill that can become law and solve problems, and we don't have more time.
I implore my colleagues to join me and vote for this bill and bring some relief to constituents scared that their towns will be next.
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