Fix Our Forests Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend, the chairman of the committee, for his hard work to try to save one of our country's greatest assets that we see burning to the ground on an annual basis.

We are always shocked, like we are surprised that it happens. It seems like my good friend, the chairman, continues to work on this issue. I don't know if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would be included in this statement, but certainly, some in the State and local governments don't seem to get that policies produce these outcomes. Now, we have a great chairman who is prioritizing the solutions here and managing the risks so that we do better.

This amendment, which I think the chairman agrees with, strikes the prioritization of carbon sequestration and ecosystem services in the biochar demonstration projects in this bill.

It is by prioritizing projects based on their impact on carbon sequestration and the impact on ecosystems rather than the impact on forest health and forest fire reduction that we risk throwing more money at the problem while failing to improve the situation on the ground.

Mr. Chairman, I think that is what we all want to focus on today. That is our priority. The chairman's priority is focusing on finding a solution to the problems that we see today occurring in our country.

As the most recent wildfires in California have demonstrated, the continued prioritization of other things at the expense of risk reduction--that is what we are talking about here is risk reduction, not only to property but to lives that are lost--creates deadly disasters that kill Americans and destroy their property over and over again.

The underlying bill makes important changes to improve how our forests are managed to the maximum extent possible. It is not like Mr. Westerman is just some guy here who is trying to do the right thing because he believes it is the right thing. He is the guy in Congress who actually knows how to do this stuff, so it is great that he is the chairman and that he is leading this effort.

This amendment furthers this intent by making sure we are focused on demonstration projects which maximize forest health and resiliency.

Let's remember, Mr. Chairman, we are $36 trillion in debt. Every 100 days, another trillion dollars go by. We have to really make sure that the resources we are spending get to fixing the problem. We would like to do other things. We would sure like to do a lot of other things, but there are needs and there are wants. The chairman is focused on the needs, and so am I.

Moreover, this amendment ensures that these projects are not hijacked by those who would use them to implement the U.N.'s natural capital accounting to block the actual productive use of land and undermine one of the fundamental values of America, which is personal property rights.

Mr. Chairman, I certainly appreciate Chairman Westerman's support for this commonsense amendment to improve this bill, and I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).
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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, let's not mislead anybody here. We have amendments. This is one, and I think there is another one coming very shortly from the other side of the aisle, which is awesome. We want to have these debates.

This is not ideological. Maybe it is great. Maybe the biochar demonstration needs to happen. The question really is, does the Federal Government need to pay for it? If it is so valuable, then the private sector, private industry, should do this work. Private industry should make this investment because we are out of money.

The American people, this government, is out of money. I don't know how many times we have to tell everybody here.

Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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