nine so ordered the first item for consideration is h r fifty five forty one the flame act sponsored by the gentleman from west virginia now recognize myself for five minutes to explain the bill the flame act would establish a dedicated federal fund for catastrophic emergency watchdog wild land fire suppression activities separate from appropriated agency firefighting funding i believe this is necessary because agencies of the interior department and the forest service are having to rob peter to pay paul by borrowing funds from other agency accounts to cover the escalating costs of fire suppression and then never fully replenish those accounts so what we see happening is that there over overall mission of the forest service bureau of land management and other agencies is being undermined everything from trail maintenance to necessary construction activities because funds are being diverted to combat in catastrophic stroppy fires as interior appropriations committee chairman norm dicks said our hearing on this measure last week when fame a response to an emergency it does not take housing funds away to pay for it the same applies in our federal highway program where we have an emergency account that is outside of obligation ceiling responding to emergencies is something folks expect their government to do shortly i will offer an amendment in nature that will incorporate certain aspects of goodlatte measure h r fifty six forty eight but what i will resist in any effort to deal with the fire related issues this exercise is about well i will resist any other effort to deal with fire related measures if exercise is about financing firefighting we need to keep our eye on the ball we need to be focused and what i do not want to see happen is for this legislation to be diverted into other areas and and turn into a healthy forest bill that will generate controversy into what is now a route tilley noncontroversial members of the agriculture committee to find a compromise for some of the other parts of our fifty six forty eight to be combined with h r fifty five forty one i believe however that we are missing a crucial opportunity today by limiting this debate to changes in accounts and funding mechanisms we should couple this with meaningful reform in our forest management practices the one thing repeated by every witness on the panel last week at the hearing on the two fire funding bills from both republicans and democrats was a critical need to reduce hazardous fuels on our public lands that is ultimately the only way we can truly ease the budgetary burdens of wildfires anything short of that just shifts the cost to future congresses which will face larger and larger bills for fighting fires i think this needs this issue needs further inquiry by this committee and broader solutions so far this congress we've only had one hearing on wildfires at that hearing where testimony from all of the witnesses about the one of the most effective tools our federal land management agencies have in preventing wildfires the timely removal of hazardous feels millions are at risk this year yet we are here today considering a bill that only addresses one part of the problem the accounting side without providing real relief in dealing with the underlying problem i believe this is inadequate and i would be offering an amendment that will give the forest service another two preventing wildfires or at least preventing the spread of large and devastating wildfires thank you mr chairman chair thanks the at ranking member and just to reiterate maybe expand very quickly on what i refer to  my comments this measure that i've introduced today the flame act in which we've already had hearings is a narrow focused measure aimed at addressing the cost of catastrophic fires i recognize represent good let's measure which also has because that gets in the management issues a whole host of other controversial issues and i daresay it was slowed down the passage of the flame act so while those issues may or may not have merit a debate for another day and i do appreciate mr salley bringing those leadership on the flame flame act and i'm proud to co sponsor i think your opening comments covered in the city and right now the comments you made about maintaining the focus as to what the intent and the purpose of the flame act is very very important and not to muzzle it or attempt to use this vehicle for other purposes this vehicle is very specific it's about helping communities and it's about prevention as well i should mention that perhaps one of the areas that might be discussed later is the issue of need and i would just mention this one point if i may the lack of investment in fire prevention by this administration means that communities around the country to prove hazardous fuels projects awaiting federal funding in the western states alone there are currently over one million acres of approved hazardous field projects that are awaiting federal funding the flameout sets aside baxter if not then without objection the bill will be considered as read in open for a meme at any point and we're now ready to start the amendment process i have an amendment in nature as substitute which is in the members folders that objection to mamet is considered read and i recognize myself for five fire incidents that result in expenses greater than ten million dollars third a notice of insufficient funds provision requiring the secretary snow fact congress whenever funding in the flying fun drops to a level estimated to cover just two months worth of expenditures and fourth a fire ready communities provision to reduce the risk of catastrophic wild land fires to communities all of us on this committee recognize the grave importance of this issue that is certainly reflected in the brought about partisan support proposal as witnesses at last week's hearing testified while the bill we have before us dedicates funding for suppressing large wildfires in today's climate we cannot address funding for suppressing these large was wildfires without addressing the cause as well the increasing and unchecked load fuel loads in our national forests that surround or adjacent to homes and communities during last week's hearing governor politan no highlighted the close relationship between pre fire meant mad's pre fire management and the cost of firefighting itself as a governor testified the two thousand and six with the fire near flagstaff arizona was halted before it reached one hundred acres because the hazards feel treatment that had none in the area according to governor paul tano those treatments dramatically minimize the fires devastation a similarly our friend and colleague norm dicks testified last week about the large fuel loads that continue to accumulate he pointed out that today that we are seeing much longer fire seasons because of climate change congressman dix further commented that larger fires have resulted from the increasing tree density and fuel loads these large fires then release enormous amounts of carbon to the atmosphere for the compounding the problem mr chairman and members of the committee to address the magnitude of the fires we facing in the ongoing increase in fire suppression costs more must be done and just adjusting funding history is shown as the witnesses testified last week that we will continue to have larger and larger fires until we reduce f loading these fires mean communities in the western united states will see homes burned watersheds destroyed even the lives lost unless we do what we can to protect them and preempt the devastating fires the kind of preemption pointed to by governor  that protected so many people and homes in the two thousand and six wood fire near flagstaff last year nearly two million acres went up in smoke in idaho while threatening communities homes and individuals providing tools to these communities to protect their homes livelihoods and very lives from these devastating fires is something we can and must do in addressing long term funding to suppress them my members would provide one more tool to assist with the implementation of community wildfire protection plans by protecting private property homes and potentially the lives of homeowners near and in federally managed lands last year during the pope cabin fire in idaho in one area the fire moved some three miles in a mere twenty minutes burning as hot as fifteen hundred degrees fahrenheit in that area ten homes that had defensible space around them due to feel reductions on private land survived the fire while other structures in the area did not survive one of these homeowners was able to get his wife out while he himself stayed just a little bit longer to finish loading his truck however because of the fast moving and intense fire combined with heavy fuel loading on federal grounds he became trapped by the fire and was unable to leave all this  quickly become a tragic story the man lived and his house survived thanks to feel reduction that had been done around his home while this was feel reduction conducted wholly on private ground many communities and individuals abutting these forests do not have the luxury of enough land to adequately protect their communities watersheds homes and lives in my beautiful district in the great state of idaho many communities to put the time and energy into developing community wildfire protection plans but implementation of many of these plans has been significant delayed in large part because of the neighbor process the c w p p s as my colleagues know our cooperative plans require a community collaboration and input in the formation of a plan by the length treatment for the safety of communities we permit these communities to be threatened by large fires my memory will provide for a categorical exclusion to provide another tool for timely treatments to protect these communities from the large and devastating fires and w loading created by dead and dying trees because of insect infestation as well as communities in california which know the effects of while land fires all too well with that mr chairman i yield back the chair will make a point of order that  by this legislation is beyond the scope of the bill i will say however the concerns raised by the gentleman ma'am it is certainly valid and one in which we all share and should be addressed at some point in the future just not as part of this legislation because of the germane to which every for chairman i happen to have a billet deals with that perhaps you'll allow me a hearing on that would be up to park so committee chair beetle another's a lot of the forest fires that we had and also creates a lot of mudslides in the immediate area so it is a hazard to a lot of areas hopefully that we can see that with our chairman to look at some kind of a compromise in coming up with incorporating this into some kind of a language in a future bill concerns of the phrase in writing because as a force service has responded to our staff such a requirement is sometimes unworkable if they've sent out written notices and weather conditions change for example then they have to change their plans and it's very difficult then to go through the whole process of notification in writing states for service does under current law provide ample network notification through the media and other forms of communication without explanation and was eventually bought by speculators in the fall of one thousand nine hundred my dad was seventeen years old my dad remembers this while i began my journey just as for native americans in the fall of one thousand nine hundred sure did the tribe people from their village and burn the village to the ground and my dad remembers that i remember the time i was making my first holy communion my dad always taught us how the indians were treated so unfairly at michigan he lived up in that area and that's why i took on this mission he told me that a few years ago the catholic church there recognizing what had happened everywhere and fire gave the tribe but the ten acres so they'd have some land they could call their own which is very important for india so they have ten acres now they are trying to get there we affirmation of their sovereignty with the federal government it was based primarily on the fact that the land was taken illegally we know they're not and of course acted a spec not very often you have an opportunity to write a really tremendous historical injustice and something that members on both sides of the aisle can be very proud to be associated with so i thank you for bringing them out of the committee i thank you mr hill the very much  so that they conform better to the administration's findings and advance petition for instance the administration's suggestion that the bill referenced the assistant secretary of indian affairs sort of reference to the bureau  thirty five twenty two twenty four fifty seven h r thirty four ninety eight with a memo to nature's substitute filed by this gentleman from west virginia and hearing no objection so ordered that objection to motions to reconsider are laid upon the table no other business chair wishes to express his appreciation for the cooperation to all members on both the out as well as staff for they said for work thank you thank