Date: 2009-03-25
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my friend. the gentleman from Colorado for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. With the serious conditions in our Nations forests. drought and more and more development closer to our forests. the size and severity of wildfires have dramatically increased. The costs to our public lands. wildlife. private property. and. most importantly. to human life have been tragic. Federal fire suppression spending has growii substantially over the past several years. with approximately 48 percent of the Department of Agricultures Forest Service budget now accounting for these activities. Just over a decade ago. only 18 percent of the Forest Service budget was dedicated to fire suppression. Much to the detriment of other important programs. the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior have been forced to borrow funds from other agency accounts to cover these emergency costs. When agencies transfer funds from other accounts. they must reimburse those accounts when additional funds become available. usually through emergency supplement appropriations. This legislation that Is being brought to the floor today establishes a fund that will be separate from budgeted wildland fire suppression funding for the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. This fund will only be used for the suppression of catastrophic emergency wildland fires. The annual agency budgets will continue to fund anticipated and predicted wildland fire suppression activities. Thus. this fund will help ensure that fire prevention resources of the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior are not completely overwhelmed by emergency firefighting expenses. Appropriations for the fund will be based on the average costs incurred by these agencies to suppress catastrophic emergency wildland fires over the proceeding 5 fiscal years. Although I support the underlying legislation. I know there is concern that the legislation is reactive and not proactive. A.number of Members in the minority have expressed their concern that the legislation only addresses one aspect of the problem. the suppression funding side. without providing real relief and dealing with the underlying problem to help prevent wildfires. I hope that the Natural Resources Committee will review these concerns and work to prevent these devastating fires. Last week. I had the honor of addressing the International Association of Firefighters. IAFF. It was a great honor to stand before those courageous men and women to thank them for their noble service to the Nation. Firefighters put their lives in danger in order to rescue their fellow citizens from peril and to protect our communities. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to them. and I am pleased that the underlying legislation recognizes the selfless acts of bravery of these men and women by ensuring that our firefighters have the resources necessary and readily available to combat the catastrophic fires that ravage our public lands and threaten surrounding communities. I would like to thank Chairman RAHALL and Ranking Member HASTINGS for their bipartisan work on the legislation. Unfortunately. in what is becoming quite a familiar pattern. the House majority leadership and the majority on the Rules Committee continue to block an open debate even on noncontroversial legislation. This legislation passed the House of Representatives by a unanimous voice vote last Congress. That vote clearly shows that this legislation has broad support from both sides oT the aisle. Yet. the majority is apparently so afraid of losing control of the debate that even on something with obvious consensus support the majority blocks Members from offering amendments to improve the legislation. I reviewed some of the amendments blocked by the majority. and I cannot understand what is so objectionable. March:25. 200