Ken Salazar

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, a few days ago I came to the floor of the Senate to talk about a very important issue that is facing the entire Nation with respect to the fire emergency we are seeing across many of our States, including many of our western States. At that point I proposed an amendment that would provide an additional $30 million in disaster emergency aid so the Forest Service can take on the work it needs to take on to assure that we don't have the destruction from fires we have seen in prior years. In my own State alone, we have seen what happens when you have the fire situation getting out of control. In 1994, the Storm King fire near Glenwood Springs ended up with the deaths of over 14 firefighters. Back in 2002, we had another fire, the Hayman fire, which caused 138,000 acres of national Forest Service lands to be burned across 4 different counties. These kinds of fires are the kinds we are seeing across our entire country, and we need to make sure we have the resources in order to be able to fight the fires we are going to be seeing in the weeks and months ahead throughout our great Nation. What I am doing with this amendment is simply providing the amount of money that would be needed to get us up to the levels for firefighting that we had during the prior year. It is something that is essential to our country, it fits within the framework of addressing disaster emergencies, and I am hopeful my colleagues in the Senate will agree with me and support this amendment. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, if I may respond to my friend from Mississippi, the amendment asks for $50 million because we attempted to make sure we were protecting the amount of money that had been requested in the bill in the Forest Service items for Katrina recovery. So this is $30 million in addition to that, which brings up the amount in the amendment to $50 million.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, regarding Senate amendment No. 3637 to H.R. 4939, I believe it is important to clarify the intent of this amendment. The intent of Senate amendment No. 3637 is similar to Senate amendment No. 3645; however, due to technical considerations I had to redraft the amendment. The intent of Senate amendment No. 3637 is to provide $20 million to the Forest Service to address the consequences of Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes of the 2005 season, as the Senate Appropriations originally reported. My amendment retains that $20 million for the gulf coast and adds another $30 million to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires and mitigate the effects of widespread insect infestations throughout the entire National Forest System. The need for this additional funding is highlighted in the State of Colorado. In Colorado, the Forest Service expects to conduct 35,000 acres of hazardous fuel reduction work as well as process timber sales in insect infested areas. However there is a capacity for more critical work to be done. Colorado has approximately 35,000 additional acres that are approved for hazardous fuel treatments; however the Forest Service lacks the funds to carry out those treatments. Colorado also has 12,000 acres ready for timber sales that would benefit the fire and insect situation but for lack of funding are not being carried out in fiscal year 2006. I use Colorado as an example, but this problem exists throughout the Western United States where extended drought and insect infestations have created dangerous conditions ripe for catastrophic fires in 2006. It represents a true emergency. Waiting to address this issue in the fiscal year 2007 appropriations process is not a viable option; the 2006 fire season is already upon us in the West, and these funds are needed immediately. Mr. President, I thank the Senate for recognizing this emergency on the national forests throughout the country.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank the chairman.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Mississippi as well as the floor manager from Washington, my distinguished friends, for their assistance on this important issue. I yield the floor.

Mr. SALAZAR

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, my colleague from Oklahoma is seeking recognition. I appreciate his courtesy, and I look forward to his debate on this amendment.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Oregon for yielding a few minutes to give him a break so he can take a drink of water and continue his dialog. He raises a very important point in the argument he has been advancing for the last several hours. I very much respect his passion on the issue. I request of my friend from Oregon to enter into a consent to allow at least my amendment to move forward, and perhaps two or three others of colleagues who have been waiting in the wings, with the understanding that upon the offering of those amendments, then the floor would return to him.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask another question of my friend. All I am attempting to do, as many colleagues here are attempting to do, is put an amendment on file so we can make them part of the pending business. We can have a unanimous consent for you to yield to me for 2 minutes so I can offer my amendment. Part of that unanimous consent would be that we then go back to the Senator's amendment. I think we can get down to at least offering one more amendment. I ask the Chair whether I am correct in my assumption that if there is no objection to my unanimous consent request, then I can offer my amendment and then return the floor to the Senator from Oregon.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, to my friend from Oregon, I ask if he would object to a unanimous consent request on my part to offer an amendment concerning a fire emergency disaster we are facing across our Nation in the West--something that also affects the State of Oregon-- and to agree not to object to my unanimous consent request to offer this amendment and to speak to this amendment for a period of no more than 3 minutes.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask my friend if he would yield for another question.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Oregon for yielding for this question. I appreciate what my friend brings to this issue in trying to make sure we are dealing with the budgetary situation that faces our Nation in a straightforward manner. I appreciate his advocacy here this morning. My question to my friend from Oregon is whether he would be willing to yield time for me to simply offer an amendment that I could do at this point in time.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending business be set aside.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I call up amendment No. 3645.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I, likewise, have been in this Chamber for many hours just like the Senator, waiting to get back to the regular order and to allow amendments to come forward and to debate those amendments. I don't intend to speak long in offering my amendment. I ask unanimous consent that I may offer my amendment, speak on it for no more than 5 minutes, and then following my presentation, the Senator from Oklahoma be recognized.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I rise today to offer a very straightforward amendment to the emergency supplemental appropriations bill before us. I offer this amendment because we in the United States, especially in the western part of the country, are looking at a great fire disaster emergency that requires this Senate in a last chance to address the issue and do something about the fires that will rage across the West in the summer. The emergency is created by the extreme threat of wildfires as a result of the great droughts we have had as well as widespread insect infestations that make massive fires a reality across the West. I am pleased to be joined in this amendment by Senator Max Baucus. In the West, the seasonal wildfire potential outlook map shows above- normal fire danger in the Western United States. Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho have increased fire dangers to contend with, as well as the State of Montana. The outlook also shows Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida to have increased fire risks. While the Southeast United States may not have as much Forest Service land as the West, that region has its hands full cleaning up from the hurricanes. I support the supplemental bill for that purpose, as well as to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places. At the same time, many western forests are facing a force that is leaving thousands upon thousands of acres of our forests subject to fire in local community after local community. It is something I believe the Senate must act on now that we have the opportunity. Montana and northern Idaho, for example, are experiencing the largest mountain pine beetle infestation in 20 years, with nearly 1.1 million acres infested in 2005, compared to 675,000 in 2004. The State of Washington is reporting a mountain pine beetle epidemic, and 554,000 acres are now infected, which is a 28-percent increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, my State of Colorado has over 1.5 million acres that have been infested by bark beetles. After these infestations come through a forest, they leave behind entire stands of trees-- sometimes thousands of acres--that are more susceptible to fire due to the dried-out conditions and increased fuel loads in those forests. I believe we must consider this situation from the point of view of our rural communities throughout the West. Many of these communities are surrounded by already dry forests. These communities are now contending with insect infestations that are further increasing the fire danger. When you combine these factors, I believe the local communities are very right to be alarmed and concerned that the ingredients are here for catastrophic fires in the coming fire season. Just this week, an article in USA Today noted that Federal forecasters predict the wildfire potential this spring and summer is ``significantly higher than normal'' and that the areas at risk, from Alaska to the east coast, ``are so far-flung that the Federal Government's more than 20,000 firefighters and fleets of ground and air support could be spread thin if fire danger lingers long in any area.'' The Forest Service annually conducts hazardous fuels and forest health projects. However, the funding available to the Forest Service is not living up to the commitments made by Congress in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Healthy Forests authorizes $760 million a year for hazardous fuels projects, and Congress has appropriated less than $500 million of those funds per year. The funding is simply not keeping up with the increasing needs that today have been estimated at over $1 billion per year. My amendment will provide the U.S. Forest Service with an additional $30 million to conduct critical hazardous fuels and forest health projects to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires and to mitigate the effects of widespread insect infestations. Private land owners and local governments are doing all they can to combat this problem. They are using chainsaws to protect their homes, they are spraying trees, and they are devising protection plans. They wonder, however, if they are not alone in this fight. They wonder if the Federal Government is asleep at the wheel in the face of this potential disaster. This year, we know, could be worse than other years in the West. We must provide emergency funding so that the Forest Service can conduct hazardous fuels and forest health projects that are already approved and are sitting on the shelf. I agree with many colleagues who have raised legitimate concerns about adding spending to this bill that is not really intended to address an emergency situation. But that is not the case with this amendment. This amendment addresses a real imminent threat, and the situation is urgent. We must take action now. I am reminded by the reports of spring fires in Colorado, where we have seen 13 firefighters killed in a fire at Storm King, 135,000 acres of land burned in what was called the Hayman Fire, which consumed a large part of four counties of the State of Colorado. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I ask unanimous consent that Senator McCain and Senator Warner and Senator Levin be added as cosponsors to the fallen hero amendment, which I have offered. It is No. 3643.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Bingaman be added as a cosponsor to my amendment on improvised explosive device training. It is No. 3644.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. SALAZAR. I seek to ask a question and to make a unanimous consent request that following the conclusion of your presentation here that we move forward to the consideration of an amendment I will send to the desk, and to establish also that Senator Conrad from North Dakota be given the opportunity to send an amendment to the desk and to speak on it, as well as I believe there are Senators on the chairman's side who would also like to offer an amendment, including Senator Coburn. So hopefully we could come up with some kind of arrangement that allows us to move forward in an orderly fashion that can then assure that several other amendments can be considered yet this afternoon. Mr. COCHRAN addressed the Chair.

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, may I ask my colleague from Oregon to yield a minute of time to me while maintaining his right to the floor?

Mr. SALAZAR. Through the Chair, I ask permission to ask a question of my colleague from Oregon. Assuming that in a few minutes or a few hours you give up the floor, which you currently now claim to make the very passionate argument you have been making for the last 4 hours, would it be----

Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Oregon for yielding a minute for a question. I would hope if we are getting to an end of this discussion, which has been on the floor now for the last 4 hours, we can move forward in some orderly fashion with respect to the consideration of other amendments here on this Thursday before I know people have to leave. So it would be my request to the chairman of the committee that we try to come up with some arrangement that will allow those Senators who have been waiting in the wings to come forward and offer amendments, in an orderly process to come forward and offer those amendments in the next few hours. I would ask a question of the chairman----

Mr. SALAZAR. For the last 5 hours, as you have tried to get a vote on this amendment you have offered, would it be in order, then, for us as a Senate to come to some kind of an agreement on how we move forward with the orderly processing of additional amendments that go beyond the amendment you are offering now?

Mr. SALAZAR. To my friend from Mississippi, the unanimous consent request that I made earlier would essentially allow the work of the Senate to continue forward for a brief period of time while we would have three Republican amendments and three Democratic amendments to be offered. As I understood your statement, you believe that would then allow my good friend from Oregon to essentially control the floor throughout his amendment to essentially supersede the other amendments that are pending--some 21 amendments, as I understand that to be the case. I do not think that was at all the nature of the unanimous consent request that I made. What I suggested that we would do with my unanimous consent request is that we move forward with the filing and then move forward with the pending business of the Senate with six amendments in total. And at that point in time we would return to the amendment of the Senator from Oregon, without prejudging whether or not there is going to be a vote at all on the amendment of the Senator from Oregon. So I would like clarification from the chairman of the committee as to what will happen via the unanimous consent request that I previously made, which was objected to by the chairman of the committee, with respect to the pending business that is currently before the Senate.

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Oregon for yielding, once again. I would like to ask a question of the Senator from Mississippi, if I may.