Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2007

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (Senate - September 07, 2006)

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Ms. CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. President. Before I make my statement, I want to take a moment to thank Chairman Stevens and Senator Inouye for their leadership in getting this vitally important defense appropriations bill to the Senate floor. I know that that the chairman and ranking member believe, as I do, that ensuring sufficient funding for our brave fighting men and women during this incredibly challenging Iraq war is an urgent national priority. I appreciate their hard work and look forward to making sure we complete work on this legislation before the end of the fiscal year.

Today, I am here to speak on another issue critical to Washington State, and many States throughout the Nation: the threat of wildfires. To date, we are in the midst of the most active fire year of the decade. That may surprise many of my colleagues who remember the devastating fires a few years ago. But as of today, more than 8.4 million acres have burned as a result of 84,000 fires across the Nation this year. To put this year into perspective--compared to the 10-year national average, this year 73 percent more acres have already burned. Already, this is the third worst fire year since 1960.

As we speak, our brave wildland firefighters across the Nation are fighting 62 wildfires that have burned more than 1 million acres and continue to burn in 11 States. Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming all have active fires that have burned at least 25,000 acres.

In my State, Washington, an area nearly half the size of Rhode Island is ablaze. More than 309,000 acres have burned in Washington State as a result of 13 active fires. The largest fire in Washington, the Tripod Complex Fire, has burned 163,000 thousand acres. In Southeastern Washington, residents and farmers alike have been dealing with and fighting the Columbia Complex Fire. That fire has burned more than 90,000 acres--including some homes and valuable wheat crops--forcing the evacuation of hundreds of Columbia County residents in and around the city of Dayton during the last month.

Fighting these fires has truly been a national priority and I want to thank all of the firefighters, soldiers, local and State officials, and many others who have worked so hard to protect our citizens and property. Last week, when my office called the Incident Command Center for the Columbia Complex Fire in Waitsburg, Washington, a firefighter from Louisiana picked up the phone. Louisiana joined firefighting personnel from the State of Washington, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

This year the Department of Defense has been involved for the first time since 2003. ``Task Force Blaze,'' a 550-soldier battalion was mobilized from Fort Lewis to assist with firefighting activities on the Tripod Fire last month. Air National Guard Units in Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, and California have been mobilized as part of the firefighting effort.

This situation is all too familiar to this part of the Pacific Northwest. Citizens in Columbia County were forced to deal with the School Fire last year that raged for 13 days, burning 52,000 acres and destroying 215 homes and other structures. Unfortunately, we are facing another all too familiar situation, running out of money to fight these fires.

While Congress is aware of this perennial problem, and has wisely boosted wildland fire fighting money the last few years, this season's unusually high fire activity in Washington State and across the Nation has strained us further still. In Washington State for example, more than 3,300 firefighting personnel are bravely fighting these stubborn blazes. That is why I am a cosponsor of Mr. Bingaman's critical amendment.

Any day now, the Federal Government will have spent all of its available funding for wildland firefighting for this fiscal year. This will leave our primary firefighting agencies--the Forest Service and the Department of Interior--stuck with the choice of either cutting back firefighting efforts from the more than 1 million acres burning today, or cutting back from other necessary activities. Without these emergency funds, national forests throughout the country would likely have to cut back on vital maintenance or services to the public. And if we are forced to tap into the land and water conservation fund, we might have to forgo preserving pristine or unique lands.

In these extraordinary circumstances with thousands of people affected by wildfires from Montana to Washington to Wyoming--I believe that providing Federal wildland firefighting agencies with the adequate resources should be a top priority. That's why I support the Bingaman amendment to provide an additional $275 million in emergency funding for wildfire suppression activities. Specifically, based on the resource projections provided to us by the administration, $175 million would be made available for the Forest Service and $100 million to the Department of Interior. These funds will help assure the thousands of our citizens in communities across the Nation that the Federal Government will have the adequate resources to continue fire suppression activities without borrowing from other important programs.

When we run out of funding, we will have depleted available appropriations for fire suppression and a nearly $500 million reserve fund to deal with these emergencies. I recognize that we will probably need to do a lot more for firefighting and I look forward to supporting those efforts. However, based on available projections from the Federal Government providing $275 million now will help provide some immediate relief.

While this is an extraordinary fire year, this is not a new issue for Congress to deal with. Over the last few years, Congress has added emergency appropriations and reserve accounts in response to wildfire suppression activities and other fire-related activities. As recently as 2004, we added $500 million in emergency funding to the fiscal year 2005 Defense appropriations bill for wildfire suppression activities.

With a million acres burning across the Nation in 11 States--American citizens deserve to know that the Federal Government is doing everything it can to protect them, their property, and their communities. I think it is critical to provide these additional funds and I urge adoption of the Bingaman amendment.

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