Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this week, in the Natural Resources Committee, we passed my bill, H.R. 289, the Guides and Outfitters Act, called the GO Act. It will help people be able to access public lands, national parks, U.S. Forest Service land, and BLM land for recreational activities without the litany and long wait of having to get permits. This will streamline that process.

A couple of aspects include getting all the different agencies to work together to have a one-stop permitting process and shorten the length of time it takes to get these permits so that people can have events that are compatible with the use of these public lands and enjoy them. Indeed, no one is trying to hurt the environment, and we don't need a 6-month study every time somebody wants to have a bikefest or a jog through their public lands.

We think the GO Act will be a very important, helpful tool, especially during the summertime, when people like to get outdoors and enjoy their public lands.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the importance of

the Secure Rural Schools program. In over 700 counties and 41 States, timber was once an economic engine, supporting tens of thousands of jobs while keeping critical government operations going strong in these communities that house tax-exempt Federal land.

However, in recent decades, restrictive forest management regulations, combined with devastating partisan environmental campaigns, has resulted in access to our Federal forests being cut off, blocking any economic activity opportunities.

Rural counties do not want to come to Congress every year to beg for money they should be getting to generate in their own backyards anyway. Money that should come from Federal and State land, though it may take up most of their county, now generates no economic value for them.

Reauthorizing Secure Rural Schools is very important and will provide, though not a permanent solution, at least a temporary one until we get back to the wise management of our Federal lands instead of watching them burn each fall, as we see in the news. We can't sit back and watch rural communities suffer until we wake up to that reality.

As Congress works to implement commonsense forest management policies, it is imperative we keep the Secure Rural Schools program in place so rural communities will have the funding for schools and roads that they need.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the storied life of one of my constituents, Stanley David McEtchin, better known as Stan.

Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Stan passed away on June 9th after 92 years of enriching the lives of those around him. For the past few decades, the small town of Paradise, CA has known Stan as a pillar of the community whose sculpted metal artwork decorated shops and houses all across Butte County. But before his creative artwork made him a local celebrity, Stan served in an even higher calling, volunteering in his country's military in World War II.

In 1943, Stan volunteered for the First Special Service Force in the Canadian Army and served as an ammunition supplier and medic. His unit, known as the Devil's Brigade, was an elite American and Canadian commando unit that preceded modern special operations forces that we have today.

In 2014, Stan and the rest of the Devil's Brigade travelled to Washington, D.C., where they were awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal for their heroism during the Second World War--the highest civilian award in the United States.

What makes Stan special is that he is known for his Congressional Gold Medal and for his distinguished military service, but also for his creativity and his artwork that help unite his community. Most people in Paradise, California would surely tell you that his metal artwork adds a distinct personality to his small town. I consider myself fortunate to have known him--and our country fortunate to have gained such a good man from our northern Canadian neighbors. He will be greatly missed.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment made in order under the rule.

Mr. Chairman, I also want to thank my subcommittee chairman, Mr. Lamborn, for his leadership on this, and Mr. McClintock for bringing the bill in chief forward here that I am asking to amend today.

This amendment ensures that State-led projects can also enjoy the coordination that the bill itself will do, State-led surface storage projects such as Sites Reservoir. These will be defined in the WIIN Act and they will be eligible under H.R. 1654's permitting.

Doing so enables States to direct their own resources towards infrastructure needs at lower cost and improves States' ability to partner with the Federal Government on projects that provide both State and Federal benefits.

Adopting this amendment to include State-led projects will allow the development of more water infrastructure more rapidly and at no additional cost to the Federal Government. For example, in my home State of California, the voters have approved billions of dollars toward infrastructure projects such as Sites Reservoir--not too far from my neighborhood--which will include enough water storage for millions more people in our State.

Now, if you know the saga of Sites Reservoir, the locals there will tell you they have been talking about it, studying it, poking it, prodding it for about 40 years. Bureaucracy plays a major role in that.

So the bill in chief is not looking to change environmental laws or get rid of environmental laws. Indeed, my colleague on the other side of the aisle talked about having an honest discussion in this area. Well, an honest discussion would show that the bill in chief is one that is merely coordinating. It is not changing the Water Quality Act. It is not changing NEPA, CEQA, or anything else, other than getting these people all in one room to coordinate at one time.

Yes, we, indeed, have costs involved, because people give up, whether it is

private sector money or the people that pass bonds as State voters give up after a while because they don't think their dollars are actually getting to the projects, when they hear needless, endless delays, when we have this game of bureaucratic badminton being played by various agencies knocking one idea to another, taking years of time and additional costs, especially those surprise ones at the last minute.

Lake Oroville is in my own backyard. Now, what we have seen there since the crisis happened with the breakage of the spillway is that coordination under an emergency, where, even though there are some trying to throw roadblocks in there, people recognized coordination was needed, because when 188,000 people have to evacuate an area due to some unknown factors with how the infrastructure is holding up, then they saw the need to fix it.

And the spillway at Lake Oroville is going to be fixed pretty rapidly over a 2-year period and made usable in this short amount of time. So that is how coordination can work to get a needed project done when it can be an emergency.

What we need to quit doing is waiting for emergencies like this and on levee projects when we know for years and years that levee projects--highways, bridges, other infrastructure that have this bureaucratic badminton played when people are trying to get these projects done--need to be coordinated. That is what this bill does.

My amendment adds to it, again, an important ability for State dollars under State-led infrastructure projects to be included in that. So I think it makes a heck of a lot of sense and will help our voters like in California and others around the country to be able to enjoy that coordination.

I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate my colleague, Mr. Costa, for his bipartisan support and effort in ensuring we have a proactive way of doing things in California on water infrastructure. I appreciate that a lot.

So for anybody to say that the amount of effort it takes to get past the bureaucratic process, to simply get the existing permits under existing laws, is not burdensome is naive. Indeed, whether we are talking highway projects, levee projects, bridge projects, and, more particularly, this bill, water storage projects, we need this coordination.

So the coordination will mean more for the American people, more for the people of my own State, with less dollars, less delay, and they can start enjoying the fruits of this project, the fruit of their tax dollars.

So my amendment simply adds to that, State-led efforts, whether it has been a bond passed by a State or other State funding in California and other States, that they, too, can enjoy that coordination that this bill would provide.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the passing and celebrate the life of a good friend to many, Mr. Stan McEtchin. Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Stan passed away on June 9, after 92 years of enriching the lives of those around him.

For the past few decades, the small town of Paradise, California, has known Stan as a pillar of the community, whose sculpted metal artwork decorated shops and houses all across Butte County. But before his creative artwork made him a local celebrity, Stan served his country in World War II.

In 1943, he volunteered for the First Special Service Force in the Canadian Army, an elite American and Canadian commando unit that preceded the modern Special Operations Forces we have today. In 2014, the man beloved for his artwork and for his charity was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal right here in Washington, D.C., for his unit's heroism in battle.

I consider myself fortunate to have known him just a little bit, and our country fortunate to have gained such a good man from our northern neighbors.

God bless his family and his memory.

Mr. Chair, I also thank Mr. Webster for managing this legislation for us here on the floor today. I appreciate it.

I rise today as a sponsor in strong support, of course, of H.R. 1873. It is indeed a commonsense vegetation management bill that reduces forest fire danger possibilities and electricity blackouts, while cutting through the bureaucratic red tape in the process.

I also want to thank my colleague Mr. Schrader from Oregon for his strong support in making this a true bipartisan effort for something that really should have no partisan roots at all.

As we have heard several of my colleagues speak earlier in testimony on the floor here today, there are gross inconsistencies and impediments in the way the Forest Service and BLM manage transmission lines, particularly in the West, where many of these lines run through difficult terrain and dense forest.

One electric utility in my district, the City of Redding Electric Utility, uses helicopters to engage in vegetation management along the rights-of-way on Federal lands. Such remote and forested areas make it especially difficult to effectively manage an area so large and dense.

Rapid agency response is needed to help electric utility requests to conduct routine and emergency vegetation maintenance along Federal rights-of-way. It is absolutely essential to avoid wildfires and blackouts.

Another benefit this bill brings to utility companies is much-needed safeguards in instances where the Secretary fails to allow them to trim or remove a hazardous tree. There was an unfortunate incident in La Pine, Oregon, in which a rural electric utility company was unjustly billed for a $300,000 fire suppression bill when its request to remove a tree in imminent danger of falling on a transmission line was denied by the Forest Service.

This bill would provide the electric utility companies the confidence and means to manage and maintain their own transmission lines from overgrown and unmanaged trees along rights-of-way, something the Federal Government should already be doing in the first place.

You see from the example here that electricity frequently is generated in rural parts of our country, and long, long transmission lines are needed to get to the urban parts of the country. So we are all in this: blackouts for the urban areas and, indeed, black skies in our rural areas where the forests are from unneeded wildfires.

The Forest Service's own document shows that, between 2012 and 2013, approximately 350 forest fires were caused by this interface of damaged trees, dying trees, falling trees falling into the different types of lines you would find in rural areas in order to move the power.

These changes to status quo are long overdue. This bill is an answer to many of the problems electricity companies are having with the management of electricity rights-of-way on Federal lands. Too many dying and dead trees have fallen unnecessarily on power lines, sparking devastating forest fires that could have been prevented had they had that ability to remove the tree in question.

By providing the utilities with the tools they need to ensure the reliability and the longevity of our national forests, we can bolster investment in energy infrastructure and enhance the lives of all Americans and do much better to preserve the habitat of these areas that we treasure.

I urge swift passage of the bill today and favor in the Senate when it gets over there. Indeed, I thank my colleagues for helping this process along today.

Mr. Speaker, on this day, June 6, 1944, 73 years ago, the largest amphibious assault in history landed on the beaches of Normandy, known as Operation Overlord, which we know more commonly as D-Day.

I rise today, 73 years later, to honor the thousands of Allied soldiers who lost their lives on the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword, and those, as well, that lived to carry the battle, ultimately, to Berlin and win.

General Eisenhower told his soldiers that ``the hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.'' Today we commemorate the operation which began the liberation of Europe from Nazi control and paved the way for the eventual Allied victory in Europe--and for all of us to remain vigilant to preserve that same precious and fragile freedom.

As was said in the movie ``Saving Private Ryan,'' for all of us, ``Earn this.''

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 7 o'clock and 23 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, June 7, 2017, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to note the veterans' bills passed by the House of Representatives this week. Amongst the legislation are bills to provide veterans with a cost-of-living adjustment for disability compensation, create a pilot program to explore magnetic resonant therapy as treatment for veterans with mental health conditions, and streamline the disability claims process at the VA, amongst other legislation.

I would like to specifically highlight the VA Scheduling Accountability Act. A 2014 investigation found that no less than 40 veterans died while on unauthorized waiting lists, waiting to receive care that they never got. This is completely unacceptable. This legislation puts into place measures to ensure every facility is in compliance with VA scheduling policies and will withhold any awards or bonuses from any centers who fail to certify their compliance.

Together with our new VA Secretary David Shulkin, whom we met with this week, I am confident that we will continue to create meaningful reforms for the VA. As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, this is just one way we can honor veterans and those who have fallen for us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 953, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which eliminates the need to apply for additional permits for using pesticides already approved for widespread use under current law.

The permitting process places an unnecessary compliance burden on farmers who simply want to protect their crops using already available pesticides that have been determined to have minimal or no environmental impact in their original testing process.

But of greater concern is the impact on disease control. This bureaucratic red tape can have the severe unintended consequence of raising the difficulty for local mosquito control districts, and others, and increase the likelihood that mosquito-transmitted diseases can spread.

The Zika virus, which reached epidemic levels last year, remains a serious threat in the United States, with 119 cases still in place and over 400 cases in U.S. territories. We are not out of the woods yet.

This duplicative process hamstrings health officials and agencies who are responsible for suppressing these viruses and maintaining public safety.

This legislation provides critical protections of our Nation's food supply, as well as increasing our ability to combat public health crises, such as the Zika virus.

H.R. 953 passed the House last year with bipartisan support, and I encourage my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to do so once again.

Mr. Speaker, in 2010, the Democratic majority passed the Dodd-Frank Act, a 2,300-page rewrite of America's financial laws. This sweeping law imposed significant costs on the economy, financial institutions, investors, small businesses, and American consumers.

Dodd-Frank was supposed to help lift up our economy; instead, what we got was the slowest, weakest recovery in 70 years. It was supposed to end taxpayer-funded bailouts; instead, it enshrined, permanently, Wall Street bailouts into law. It was supposed to make the financial system safer; instead, big banks got even bigger, and we have one less community bank or credit union every day. It was supposed to protect consumers; instead, higher bank fees, more expensive mortgages, fewer choices, and the most unaccountable government agency in the history of the Republic, the CFPB.

The Financial CHOICE Act moving through committee and to this floor soon will give consumers the protections they need and the opportunity for investment that has been so bottled up for many, many months--even years--in this country. The Financial CHOICE Act will be very helpful toward restarting our economy and bringing back, once again, consumer choice.

Let's move this bill through.

Mr. Speaker, as we know, this week is National Police Week. With many officers coming from all over the country to Washington, D.C., it is an opportunity for all of us to show our support for our local law enforcement at home by thanking them for all they do to keep us safe in our communities.

I recognize all the men and women in uniform in my own district in northern California and across the country who sacrifice to protect and serve our communities each day. We can't allow these sacrifices to go quietly unnoticed either.

Last year, 135 officers never made it home to their families or their loved ones. In California, 11 officers lost their lives in 2016, one of which was from my district in northern California.

Sheriff Deputy Jack Hopkins of Modoc County Sheriff's Department was murdered while responding to a disturbance call at a rural property a few miles south of Alturas, California. His watch ended on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.

Jack's killer is rightfully facing the death penalty in California; and this week, the House of Representatives is voting on the Thin Blue Line Act, which adds the murder of a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or first responder, as an aggravated factor for a jury to consider in deciding whether to impose the death penalty in Federal capital cases.

The murder of a Federal law enforcement officer is already an aggravated factor under current law. Now we are

taking action to ensure that those who harm local and State law enforcement officers are brought to justice as well. We have to send this clear message: We cannot tolerate this under any circumstances.

Mr. Speaker, this week in the Natural Resources Committee, we conducted an important hearing and review on the Antiquities Act. This is the process for which these days the President unilaterally can declare national monuments, thereby placing acres that are deemed to be preserved into a monument, which then cannot be touched by human hands as it is interpreted and enforced these days.

Under President Obama, twice as many acres were placed into that type of monument status as all other Presidents combined over the history of the country.

Now, what this means is that you can't have access for forestry, fire protection, and other things you need to do for human activity. Even access for hunting and fishing is oftentimes limited. What we need is to have a process where Congress can have approval of the Antiquities Act if one of these proposals comes into place. We need to have that so that the people will have access to their lands so they can be managed if need be.

The size of the monument, yes, we have areas we need to declare and protect. But the size of the monument is very important as well because it doesn't need to be always hundreds of thousands, even millions, of acres. Indeed, under the act, the idea is that it would be under the smallest possible size to preserve the object.

Mr. Speaker, with all of the wildfires we have in the West each year in the summer and the fall, did you know that if a utility has a right-of-way through Federal forests, through the Forest Service, it can still take months for these utilities to receive Forest Service approval to remove trees from transmission line rights-of-way even if the trees are already in contact with electric transmission lines?

We have had blackouts for large portions of several States that have happened from this; and the power lines, when they contact a tree, can start more wildfires even. Yet, still it takes months sometimes to get the Forest Service to approve the utilities to go out there and do a commonsense removal of these trees and other material.

Well, we have a remedy that passed last week in the Natural Resources Committee. Working with my colleague, Representative Kurt Schrader from Oregon, we passed H.R. 1873 through committee to streamline the red tape to have preapproval for utilities to be able to do the necessary and commonsense work through these already existing transmission rights-of-way through our forests, preventing fire, preventing blackouts, and just good common sense.

Mr. Speaker, this Sunday, April 30, will be the 42nd year of the conclusion of the Vietnam war. The conflict started between Communist-backed North Vietnam and the U.S.-supported Government of South Vietnam in November 1955 and went on for another 20 years.

While the motives and justification of the war were seen as controversial to many, what needs to be recognized is the service demonstrated by our brave men and women who risked their lives to do their duty asked of them. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice. For that sacrifice, our Nation is eternally grateful.

Of the nearly 3 million Americans who served in Vietnam, 58,220 laid down their lives in that service. We can find their names forever enshrined right down the road here in Washington, D.C., at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Oftentimes, those who did return were not treated well or properly welcomed home for having served in a war they did not create or ask for. Finally, and thankfully, that welcoming has improved for our Vietnam veterans in recent years as we honor their service. Much still needs to be done in regard to the effects of Agent Orange and other health issues.

Of the 75 living Medal of Honor recipients, 52 earned their medal in Vietnam. In total, there were a staggering 260 soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic acts in the Vietnam war.

As we commemorate the 42nd year of the fall of Saigon and the dissatisfactory ending of the war in Vietnam this Sunday, we must be thankful for the millions who served in what seemed a thankless role then, who risked their lives in battle for freedom, and for the many still missing or those who did not make it back alive.