Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held an oversight hearing on “Seeking Better Management of America’s Overgrown, Fire-Prone National Forests.” Members and witnesses called for a paradigm shift in the way we manage the nation’s increasingly overgrown, disease infested and fire-prone federal forests and grasslands.
“Our forests are dying […]Nationwide, the Forest Service reports it… Read more »
Today, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a markup to consider H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015 (Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-AR). On Friday, Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), released emergency wildfire legislation as an amendment in the nature of a substitute for H.R. 2647, which… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing with four Western governors on “Respecting State Authority in Regards to Resource Management and Energy Development.” Governors Matt Mead (R-WY), Steve Bullock (D-MT), Dennis Daugaard (R-SD), and Gary Herbert (R-UT) all expressed major concerns about a swath of federal policies that disenfranchise the states from… Read more »
On Wednesday, September 23, 2015 at 4:00PM EST, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), and Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR) will hold a press call to discuss catastrophic wildfire legislation and the Obama Administration’s recent request to Congress for wildfire suppression funding. Details are as follows:
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The severe fire season in western U.S. forests has intensified calls for funding changes so that the U.S. Forest Service does not have to borrow money from other accounts to finish out a fiscal year of wildfire suppression.
The situation has revived the question of whether a solution can be accomplished through fiscal changes alone or whether a stepped-up level of active forest… Read more »
House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) today issued the following statement in response to the Obama Administration’s request for Congress to change the way the nation pays for wildfire suppression.
“Changing the way we pay for wildfire suppression is only one small part of a much more serious land management crisis that we must address – now. Our national… Read more »
Top administration officials wrote Congress on Tuesday to urge it–once again–to change the way it budgets for firefighting in light of the disastrous wildfire season in the western U.S.
The Agriculture Department just informed lawmakers this week that it will have to transfer $250 million to fighting the forest fires now raging, which brings this fiscal year’s emergency spending total to… Read more »
Today, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) responded to the loss of the three firefighters who lost their lives fighting the Twisp River fire in Washington State this week: Tom Zbyszewski, 20, Andrew Zajac, 26, and Richard Wheeler, 31. This follows the deaths of David Ruhl, 38, and Michael Hallenback, 21, who died fighting two different California wildfires earlier this summer.
“I am… Read more »
