Commending the firefighters from California and throughout the United States for their courageous actions and sacrifices in fighting the California wildfires.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I especially thank the author of the resolution, Mr. Farr of California, for his leadership and insight here in the Congress. It's a privilege to serve alongside him. A very thoughtful man.

I want to join the chorus in praising these firefighters and encouraging others to answer this extraordinarily difficult call to public service every time that one of these fires encroaches on areas where people live and work. But I do find it ironic, having been here for 14 years, from time to time these issues cross over with each other because, frankly, the nexus between the environment, which is a part of these fires; energy, which is also a piece of this; and national security is the most important challenge of our generation, this nexus. And they are connected.

Over the last 14 years I have had the privilege, even with Mr. Farr, to travel to places like Yellowstone and Yosemite Valley and the Olympics in Washington State and actually see with the stewards of our public lands, which represent over one-third of the land mass of the continental United States, is government-owned land, and actually be there with the Forest Service, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management personnel, many of whom are registered foresters, who will say that one of the biggest problems with the creation of these fires is the dead and dying timber which we have refused to clean out in terms of our stewardship of the forest. You can't just leave this forest alone and let all of this timber become just a matchbox on the ground without huge problems with the fires.

So the mindset that says leave all forests alone and do not touch them, even to the point of not cleaning up the dead and dying timber, which creates with any kind of a spark these out-of-control fires that come into California into the areas where people live, the mindset that says, for whatever reason, do not touch these forests, is a flawed mindset that causes these fires.

The best thing we can do for the firefighters is to try to mitigate the fires with good forestry practices, good stewardship, and logical environmental response. I consider myself a very logical and rational lawmaker on issues of the environment. But that is the same mindset that says under no circumstance do you take a piece of land in the middle of the Arctic tundra and not explore for oil and gas there.

That is the same mindset. It's a flawed mindset. That is why we have the energy pinch. It's a mindset that says States cannot even go into the Outer Continental Shelf, if they want to, and explore oil and gas resources, when in fact we should leave that up to the States.

So here we are, kind of feeling the pinch and the adverse consequences of extremist environmental policy, whether it's fires, whether it's energy sources. We have to come back to a rational, logical modern approach.

Now I am very much part Cherokee Indian. The Cherokee National Forest is in my district. The Cherokee used to intentionally burn the forest. Why? Because it helped the nutrients in the ground. It became more robust. It's a natural cycle. They intentionally did it.

Speaking of good forestry practices, they were not only not afraid of fire, they used fire for the right purposes so that the forest wouldn't get out of control and just burn wildly.

It's that kind of thinking, long-term stewardship, that we need to get back to so that the political winds of the day do not stymie us on good management practices with our forests or good energy policy as a Nation so that everything is not off-limits to the point that the lights go out in California or we are paying $4.50 for a gallon of gas.

These are unacceptable outcomes when all we have to do is take a reasonable, responsible approach from the center of America, representing average people, and saying, We are all for stewardship, we are all for participating in global warming, but we don't want to do it at the expense of our future. Our economic future, our quality of life, all these issues come together.

So I would implore the leadership--I understand the Speaker of the House yesterday said in fact the SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, does need to be released so that we can increase some supply of oil. I am glad to

see these steps are taken finally to recognize that supply and demand are at stake here, they are at work here, and that we need to increase the supply of oil and gas in this country. Not that that is the cure- all, end-all, but it's one of many things that we need to do in an all- of-the-above approach to energy, which is connected to the environment and good long-term stewardship for our country.

I thank the gentleman for the time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding. I rise, supporting this resolution, with the backing of almost all the Members of Congress and certainly many co-authors that are on here.

This resolution commends the firefighters who are fighting. On this incredible map, you can just see what the extent of fires are in California. Having come off the fire in the Big Sur region that I represent, you can't help but have an incredible amount of pride for the ability to call to order firemen and women from all over the United States, and in this case, because we are so over strapped, we are now asking help from Mexico with both crews and equipment. We have had firefighters come down from Canada and, as I understand, CAL FIRE is negotiating now with New Zealand and Australia to even bring in more personnel.

These firefighters work nonstop. They are on 12 hours and then off 12 hours. But they have to work every day. They don't stop on weekends. They just keep going out of the camps and into the fire lines. As was pointed out by the Speaker just a moment ago, the tragedy for two of those workers, one a volunteer fireman from Anderson Valley Fire Department, Robert Roland, died on the fire line of heart failure. John Hermo, who is a firefighter, full-time professional firefighter from Oregon, came down to fight the California fires and got some time off after so many days on the fire, and during his rest, just not being on the fire line, drowned in the river there, in the Kern River. It's really a tragedy. Here, these families have sent off these young folks to help us to respond as first responders, as emergency responders.

So this resolution is a profound debt of gratitude to them. I know that those firefighters can't see this on their C-SPAN at home, but certainly the parents and relatives of all of those who have sent loved ones to these fires.

Fires have threatened 9,000 homes and businesses. There are still 223 wildland fires burning in California. More than 14,000 fires have already been contained because of the work of the firefighters. There are 18,000 personnel, firefighters on the lines right now, and there have been evacuation orders in Kern, Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Plumas, and in my county, and I'd like to personally thank our sheriff, Mike Kanalakis, for lifting the mandatory evacuation, which made people leave their homes in the rural area, many of whom felt that they were best suited to protect those homes. That evacuation order has been lifted and now the Big Sur Highway, Highway 1, is back in order for local personnel.

So our firefighters are working nonstop, and some for 4 weeks without rest. They are going to need rest. You can't stop the fire burnings. You're going to have to bring in more personnel. That's why we are reaching out to other countries.

So I want to thank those who I saw on the lines, the people I talked to, the communities that rallied around them. This is a heartfelt thanks from the Congress of the United States of America to the personnel in this country who respond on a basis to keep our cities and rural areas safe during wildfires. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I too rise today to commend the heroic efforts of firefighters throughout our Nation. At times they are called to pay the ultimate sacrifice to save the life and property of others. I have had the honor of meeting the men and women who fight these wildfires in my State of Idaho, and there is no greater example of courage than these folks.

I understand how important it is to provide firefighters who battle wildfires with the right tools they need to do their job. Threats to human life are compounded by the fact that more and more people are living in homes near the fire-prone forests, placing themselves and the firefighters who try to protect them at greater risk.

In April of this year, I offered an amendment to the United States Fire Administration Reauthorization Act of 2008 that allowed the Administrator of the United States Fire Administration to develop and distribute information on the importance of clearing biomass from Federal lands. This commonsense amendment will require USFA to work in consultation with other Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, to ensure that the USFA provides the best possible recommendation. As we come upon another deadly

and costly fire season, this information is as vital as ever. We must provide our Federal employees, who are the best in the world, all of the tools they need to keep our communities and themselves safe from catastrophic wildfires.

I urge the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee to hold more hearings on the crisis situation in our Nation's forests. We have had just one hearing this year on the wildfire problem compared to six last Congress. I urge Members on both sides of the aisle to continue to work on providing firefighters and our public land management officials with the necessary tools they need to do their job. As firefighters risk life and limb to protect us, the least we can do is to provide them with everything they need.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, so I would yield back the balance of my time.

I thank my committee chairman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, as a representative of areas affected by the recent wildfires and as a cosponsor of House Resolution 1322, I rise in strong support of this legislation, and I thank my colleague and my neighboring Member of Congress, Congressman Farr, for introducing this resolution.

In the last 3 weeks, more than 1,700 wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in our home State of California. In my district alone, the Gap Fire, one of the State's highest priorities now, has burned nearly 10,000 acres and threatened several hundred homes in the city of Goleta. Yet, despite high winds and temperatures, our incredible firefighters and emergency personnel have limited the destruction, have saved hundreds of homes, hundreds of lives.

I am so proud to say that California's emergency preparedness system and procedures are among the best in the Nation. My constituents in Goleta are the most recent beneficiaries of this system. I have to admit that I am a little biased toward our firefighters as well. Years ago, as a school nurse, they taught me CPR, they taught me first aid, they helped me train our school personnel. They are a wonderful asset to safety and preparedness in our communities.

From their base at Dos Pueblos High School, State and local officials have worked together to move resources from across the State to areas that needed them most. They're masters at doing this. If not for this organized and swift effort, many more acres, homes, and lives could have been lost.

As we speak here today on the floor of this House, in this well, thousands of men and women are putting their lives on the line, enduring great hardships to protect our wildlife, our property; indeed, our lives. Today, we commend these amazing individuals and we express our gratitude at their sacrifice and their service.

I urge my colleagues to join Mr. Farr, to join all of us in thanking and honoring these courageous individuals by supporting this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of the brave firefighters from across California and around the country who have courageously risked their lives to halt the spread of wildfires that continue to devastate California. The dedication and determination of our Nation's first responders and firefighters have helped dramatically contain the nearly 1,800 wildfires that have burned over 829,000 acres, or 1,300 square miles, across California.

These fires have been the most intense and widespread in California's history, and thousands of brave men and women have honored the call to protect our state from these fires. More than 150 firefighters from Sonoma County, in my Congressional District have responded to the fires, and firefighters from Santa Rosa served more than 22 days each, totaling 4,000 hours of their time in June. More than 80 Marin firefighters and other support personnel have been dispatched to fight fires throughout Northern California. In addition to the unrivaled contributions of the California's firefighters, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called up 2,400 National Guard troops join the fire crews. Furthermore, firefighters from 41 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have all offered their support, resources, and manpower during this crisis.

The bravery of these committed first responders and the tremendous sacrifices they made to help fight California's fires have not gone unnoticed. Our firefighters deserve the highest commendation for putting themselves in the line of danger. That's why I am proud to support H. Res. 1322, a resolution honoring the firefighters from California and throughout the United States for their heroism and sacrifices in fighting the California wildfires. These brave men and women deserve no less.