Providing For Consideration of H.R. 5016, Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4718, Bonus Depreciation Modified and Made Permanent
Floor Speech
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Mr. PETERS of California. Mr. Speaker, San Diego and the entire State of California are facing a prolonged drought that is placing us at increased risk for wildfires. We are currently in the midst of what is expected to be one of the longest and hardest wildfire seasons in recent memory.
That is why I also agree that we have to take action immediately to ensure adequate funding for wildfires by bringing to the floor H.R. 3992, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act of 2014.
It is a bipartisan bill with dozens of sponsors from both sides of the aisle. It is fiscally responsible and has broad support from Washington and beyond.
Mr. Speaker, in May, San Diego saw an early start to fire season, when nearly a dozen wildfires erupted over a 5-day period, burning 27,000 acres and destroying 65 homes. Every day, communities in the region are at risk of wildfires.
This is an elongated fire season. We are not used to seeing these kinds of events in San Diego until September or October. That means that the cost to contain fires and the damage they cause will increase, and it makes it vital that we provide sufficient funds for officials to respond to them.
So we need to make the existing disaster contingency fund open to cover part of the cost of wildfire response. I have seen the impact of catastrophic wildfires firsthand. It is clear to me that wildfires should be treated the same as other natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes or Superstorm Sandy.
Mr. Speaker, it is vital that we change the law in this way on which there is an agreement, so that natural disasters include wildfires and allow our States and localities to access the necessary funds, without forcing us to choose between disaster relief and disaster prevention, which is a silly budget policy, but the one we are following today.
So I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and amend the rule, so we can bring up H.R. 3992, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act of 2014. We can bring it to the floor for a vote today.
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