WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing to consider S. 1462, Fix Our Forests Act, legislation to improve forest management and enhance tools to prevent and fight catastrophic wildfires.
The following is the Chairman’s opening statement as prepared for delivery:
“Good afternoon and welcome. It’s my privilege to call this hearing to order, to review S. 1462, the Fix Our Forests Act, commonly referred to as “FOFA.” I welcome our witness, Mr. Chris French, Acting Associate Chief for the U.S. Forest Service, for being here today to share your expertise and perspective on S. 1462.
“Members and staff on both sides of the aisle and both chambers of Congress have invested significant time and efforts to bring this legislation in front of our committee today, and I want to thank my colleagues, Senators Curtis, Hickenlooper, Padilla, and Sheehy, for their tireless efforts in developing and introducing this bipartisan Senate bill. I also wish to thank Senator Marshall and Senator Bennet for your work as Chair and Ranking Member at the Subcommittee, regarding the hearing you convened in March on H.R. 471, the House-passed Fix Our Forests Act.
“Finally, I want to thank my friend and fellow Arkansan, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, who along with Congressman Scott Peters of California led an exhaustive bipartisan effort to construct and pass H.R. 471 on the House floor with 279 votes in January of this year.
“As we all know, wildfires are indifferent to federal, state, tribal, and private property lines or political subdivisions. The Fix Our Forests Act provides us with a unique bipartisan opportunity to modernize and right-size some of the tools and processes our federal land management agencies, states, counties, tribes, rural and urban communities, and private partners across the country need to mitigate the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfire while helping to keep our forests healthy and working for generations to come.
“Similar to the House-passed legislation, S. 1462 identifies and prioritizes the most fire prone landscapes and provides federal land management agencies with improved authorities and technologies to mitigate those risks as expeditiously as possible. It enhances the federal government’s public-private partnership authorities to increase the pace and scale of the work needed on the ground.
“S. 1462 rectifies certain processes to mitigate frivolous litigation and remove duplicative review processes to facilitate the Forest Service’s ability to proceed with its statutorily required environmental review process for projects on National Forest System lands.
“This legislation also elevates the critical need to incentivize innovation and resilience in our nation’s forests by prioritizing initiatives such as biochar, nursery capacity, and white oak restoration.
“This legislation reflects the bipartisan efforts and ideas to mitigate the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfire, and I'm pleased members of the committee will have this opportunity to further explore FOFA and hear from the Forest Service on how the legislation will reduce catastrophic wildfires and improve forest health.
“I’m grateful for the work our colleagues have done on both sides of the Capitol and the aisle that brings us to this point. I’m pleased to continue working with my colleagues through the Committee process before the end of this work period to deliver these essential improvements and modernized tools to our federal land management agencies.”