Bruce Westerman

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about something that is positive that this body has done recently, something that is good for America and something that is good for our environment and good for our citizens. What I am talking about is the passage of the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015. Mr. Speaker, this bill is good for trees. When we have healthy trees and when we have a healthy forest, then we also have better air quality; we have better water quality; we have better wildlife habitat; we have less fire danger; we protect private property and public property, and it is a win-win-win situation for our treasured natural resource of our Federal forest. It is a winning situation for America, as we are good stewards and we conserve this valuable resource that we have. Now, what this bill does is it allows us to actively manage our forests. We have qualified personnel in our Forest Service, people who are trained as foresters, people who have the expertise and the experience to manage these forests in a sustainable way; yet our forest managers' hands have been tied in previous years. They have been working hard with local constituents, local stakeholders in these collaborative efforts to come up with forest plans, forest management plans, so that they can manage the forests in a way that is good for the local economy, in a way that is good for the wildlife in the forest, in a way that is good for the health of the forest; yet these forest management plans have been held up through frivolous lawsuits from outside groups, sometimes as far as a thousand miles away that file a suit against these plans. They hold them up in court, and at the end of the day, the forest is not managed properly. Because of this, we have seen an increasing amount of forest fires over the past several decades. Because of these increased forest fires, we are destroying our valuable natural resource. Not only are we destroying our resource, we are destroying our budget for the Forest Service. Currently, the single greatest cost to the Forest Service is fire suppression, and the next cost is litigation, and where the cost should be, in the management and health of the forest, comes in third. What the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015 would do, it would take the focus off of fire suppression and put that focus on fire prevention. These are forestry practices that I have seen carried out in my home State of Arkansas. In my district, the Fourth District, I have approximately 2.5 million acres of Federal forest inside my district, on the Ouachita National Forest, on the Ozark National Forest, and also in four different U.S. Fish and Wildlife service areas. Fortunately, in Arkansas, we have been able to manage these forests in a way that is good for the forest. A lot of this was done in an effort to protect an endangered species, the red-cockaded woodpecker. What our Forest Service employees have done is they have gone into the forests, they have assessed it, and they determined what would create the best habitat for this endangered species. They found that a habitat with an open understory, one which has large nesting trees for the woodpecker, is great habitat for the woodpecker. They implemented a plan to go in and thin the forest--not clear-cut it, but thin it--and then develop a fire regime to keep the underbrush out. You might think that thinning the forest and burning the forest would cause a decrease in biodiversity, but our foresters saw something quite the opposite. Our forests in Arkansas were much like the ones across the country, many forests out West. They had been cut as much as a century ago and allowed just to grow back with the only management being putting the fires out when they start. What happens in a situation like this is forests are dynamic; they continue to grow until they fill up all the growing space, and then they start competing with one another. When they compete with one another, they get weak; they are subject to insect and disease attack. You get more fuel that falls on to the forest floor, creating a fuel load; you get dead and weakened timber, and you get a lightning strike, and it burns the whole forest down. When you manage the forest, when you thin it and you use controlled burns, you open up the canopy; you open up the forest floor, and you see a flush of fauna, and you see biodiversity increase tremendously. At the same time as the biodiversity and plant life increases, you get a flush in wildlife. On these plots in Arkansas, not only did we see an increase in numbers in red-cockaded woodpecker, we saw an increase in the bobwhite quail, in wild turkeys, in deer, in several other songbird species. This management scheme is good for the forest; it is good for the wildlife; it creates cleaner air; it creates cleaner water. Again, it is a win-win situation. By applying these management practices--and they will be different as you go across the country in different regions. As we let the local professionals and the local stakeholders manage the forests the way it was intended to be managed, we will create a healthy forest, which is good for all the local communities where these forests are located. Another thing that we have done in this bill is we strengthened the secure rural schools provisions. We stipulate that 25 percent of funding has to go into local counties to provide emergency services to fund schools. This is critical for these local communities where forest activities around the national forests have greatly decreased over the past several decades. We used to cut nearly 12 billion board feet of timber off of the forests. Now, we are down to less than 3 billion board feet per year. Many of these local economies depended on those forests. As we quit cutting timber and the infrastructure to process the timber left, these communities suffered all across our country where these natural forests are located. This bill will allow funding to go to these communities, so that they continue to provide emergency services, so they can continue to provide funds for education and help to grow the communities. Another provision in this bill is it allows the salvaging of timber after a catastrophic event. Now, a clear cut actually mimics a wildfire in the forest; so when you have a wildfire that is a stand-replacing fire, it causes the damage when the fire occurs. In forestry terms, the land is essentially being clear-cut when the fire happens, but you will still have dead standing trees. These trees need to be salvaged. They have value, value that can be extracted and used to reforest the land, value that not only creates value in reforestation, it also cleans up the land, so you can reforest it and prevent future fire dangers. What has happened in the past is the salvage cuts have been held up in court again, and you get standing dead timber that, the next time a fire comes through, it makes it dangerous for our firefighters to go in and fight the fire. What this bill does is it still requires an environmental assessment of the area, but it speeds the process in that, and it prevents injunctions from allowing these salvage cuts so that this timber can be salvaged, and the revenue is used to go back into the Forest Service to reforest these lands and, again, provide the management practices to have healthy forests. What happens now is we see, after a catastrophic event, we get only 3 percent of regeneration or reforestation of the land. This bill requires that, after the catastrophic event, we have to have 75 percent reforestation after a period of 5 years. The 5-year timeframe gives foresters time to come in and assess the efforts that they put forth and to correct any problems that they have had in restoring these forests. This bill, again, is very critical and very much needed. It has the support of, I believe, 117 different organizations, from wildlife groups, from environmental groups, many tribes across the country, many county governments. People recognize the benefits of this bill and the benefits that can come to our country if we enact this legislation. Unfortunately, the bill is held up in the Senate right now, and as the fire season increases out West and we see more and more of our natural treasure and our Federal forests going up in flames, it should become more imperative for the Senate to take up this bill and pass it and for the President to sign it into law. As I have stated in committee hearings when we were pushing this bill through, the forests don't really pay attention to what we legislate here in Washington, D.C. They are dynamic, living organisms. They continue to grow. They continue to fill up the growing space. They are more reactive to what happens in nature. We need to be proactive in managing these forests--managing them to be healthy, managing them to be more resistant to wildfire and inspects and diseases. I call on the Senate and the President to take up this legislation, to pass it, and to move America forward with healthy forests. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse). Recognizing Makenna Schwab

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to talk about some other positive things that this body has done here, as we approach the August break. This has to do with the VA. Since the wait list manipulation scandal was brought to the public's attention last year, Americans have become all too familiar with incompetence and misconduct at the Federal agency charged with helping our veterans. The House Veterans' Affairs Committee has held dozens of hearings; the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs resigned under congressional pressure; and Congress has enacted major reform legislation. The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act created a 3-year program to allow veterans to seek care from private providers if they live too far from a VA facility or cannot otherwise get an appointment within 14 days. It also gave the VA Secretary the authority to fire senior executives for poor performance and required a top-to-bottom study of the entire Department to be completed within 1 year of enactment. However, even with this oversight, the Obama administration has failed to correct the problems. We continue to hear about unacceptable patient wait times, unanswered benefit inquiries, patient safety concerns, medical malpractice, flagrant mismanagement, infighting, corruption, and years of construction delays that total millions of dollars. When government failure is exposed and legislation aimed at restoring accountability is enacted, it makes sense that action would be swift and immediate: people would be fired; wrongs would begin to be made right. Unfortunately, that has not been the case at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While there are as many as 1,000 employees that could potentially face disciplinary actions, the VA has only fired three people for involvement in the scandal. Our veterans have earned our respect, and they shouldn't have to wait in line for months or years just to see a doctor. New documents show that one out of every three waiting for care at the VA has already died, and recent reports reveal there are now 50 percent more veterans on wait lists for a month or longer than last summer. When our brave servicemembers come home, we have to keep our word to them by modernizing our VA system to deliver the best care in the world. In the 114th Congress, House Republicans have passed numerous pieces of legislation designed to help veterans and increase accountability at the VA. In February, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act was signed into law and provides veterans with access to the mental healthcare resources they need. Last week, the House passed the Veterans Information Modernization Act, which would give Congress and the public access to key data regarding the delivery of health care, medical services, and nursing home care by the VA healthcare system. Many veterans have contacted us expressing their frustration at having to carry official Department of Defense discharge papers to prove their military service, and last week, legislation was signed into law to create an official identification card for veterans. Just this week, we have passed the VA Accountability Act, which would provide the VA Secretary with increased flexibility in removing employees who fail our veterans; the Hire More Heroes Act, which would make it easier to hire veterans by exempting those who already have health insurance from being counted as full-time employees under ObamaCare; the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, which would provide an annual cost-of-living adjustment for veterans receiving disability compensation; and the Ruth Moore Act, which would update regulations for veterans seeking financial compensation for mental health conditions linked to sexual assault while they were serving in the military. The House also had to pass legislation that included provisions to allow the VA to transfer funds within its budget to cover an unexpected $2.5 billion shortfall in hospital and medical care accounts. Without this fix, the agency said it would start shutting down hospital operations in August. It is critically important that we take care of those who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. This week, Congress has continued its efforts to meet our responsibility to America's veterans. However, we cannot transform the VA alone. It is the President's responsibility to ensure changes are made within the agency and employees are held accountable for their actions. America's veterans deserve a meaningful, decisive plan to right the many wrongs that have been committed. It is past time for the Obama administration to change the culture at the VA and end this agencywide pattern of misconduct and neglect. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, as did my colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina, to note that today marks the 240th birthday of the military Chaplain Corps, which was originally founded by the Continental Congress. I stand today to honor the men and women who serve the spiritual needs of those in uniform. The military chaplains who serve and have served bravely go with their fellow soldiers into combat theaters not to fight, but to fill the role of pastor, counselor, and listener for our armed services. Military chaplains are held in especially high regard within my own office, with Arkansas National Guard Captain David Wittee serving as an Army chaplain in addition to serving as my military affairs liaison and a field representative in the Fourth District of Arkansas. I want to thank Captain Wittee and all military chaplains, both current and past, for their service to their fellow soldiers and for their service to our Nation.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the concept of this amendment. The gentleman brings out a very important fact that we do need forest products to be able to utilize the resources coming off our forests in order to do healthy management. There are many forest products that can be made from smaller diameter materials that are already out there. We have the science behind it. A landscapewide collaborative project that uses these lower value products would be a good thing to do. I do challenge the gentleman to support the whole bill so that we could put this into practice, should it be passed, because it would be of benefit to the bill and to healthy forests across the country if such projects were implemented.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2647, the Resilient Federal Forests Act. This bipartisan legislation will give the Forest Service tools it needs to better manage our national forests. As a professional forester, I see that our forests are in decline and lack resiliency. President Teddy Roosevelt, who worked alongside a fellow Yale forester, Gifford Pinchot, to create the U.S. Forest Service, are the two I would credit as the fathers of our national forest. Roosevelt said, ``The Nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.'' We have problems with our current forest policy that is leaving one of our most treasured natural resources less resilient, decreased, and impaired in value. It is not only our forests that suffer. Without forests that are healthy, we have poor water quality, poor air quality, less wildlife habitat, less biodiversity. My bill aims to fix these problems, and it aims to fix them through proactive and sound management. First, our forests are living and dynamic, but we have a problem of delayed decisionmaking or, even worse, no decisionmaking at all. This bill incentivizes collaboration and speeds up the implementation of collaborative projects while safeguarding strong and timely environmental reviews. We have a problem of not salvaging timber destroyed in catastrophic events, which makes the forest more dangerous, increases future wildfire problems, and makes it difficult for reforestation. This bill sets up requirements for salvage and reforestation. The Forest Service would have to implement greater reforestation in response to catastrophic events. Typically, less than 3 percent of an area is reforested after a catastrophic event. This is unacceptable. My bill requires 75 percent reforestation within 5 years. We have a problem in our rural communities that not only depend on our forests for their sustenance, but also provide emergency services, education, and support for the forests and residents who live near the forest. As our forests are decreased and impaired in value, our forest communities immediately suffer and suffer even more in the future. My bill gives counties flexibility in spending Secure Rural Schools funding and puts 25 percent of stewardship contracts into the county treasury for our schools and other public services. There are other policy problems this legislation solves, but none are more important than problems caused by having to spend too much of our Forest Service budget for reactive fire suppression rather than on proactive sound management and fire prevention. This bill ends the destructive practice of fire borrowing in a fiscally responsible manner. It creates a subaccount under the Stafford Act specifically for fighting wildfire. I would like to thank Chairmen Bishop, Conaway, and Shuster for their assistance with this critical bipartisan bill. Our national forests desperately need scientific management to become resilient again. In the words of Roosevelt, I call on us to behave well, to treat our forest resources as assets that we will turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value. I look forward to advancing this bill today and call on the Senate to act promptly to ease the burdens of the summer fire season.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 391, I was in the chamber and my vote did not register. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' Personal Explanation

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to the gentleman's amendment and in support of the underlying reforms included in H.R. 1806, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015. This amendment would remove important measures that ensure greater transparency for the Federal Government's climate science initiative and require accountability for the Office of Science to justify the value of related work going forward. The gentleman's amendment would also remove underlying language in the America COMPETES Act that would require the Government Accountability Office to identify duplicative climate science initiatives across the entire Federal Government. All Members of Congress should support transparency in federally funded research. It is our core responsibility to provide oversight for Federal programs and make sure American taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly, not duplicating work that has already been done. That said, the language in the America COMPETES Act does not ban any particular area of science but, instead, requires that DOE justify the science's merit and provide greater transparency if climate science work is intentionally duplicated. This provision in the America COMPETES Act is simply good governance and is more important now than ever. The Obama administration has unapologetically pushed forward a politicized climate agenda through the Federal Government, prioritizing climate change research above all else. Better transparency can help prevent wasteful spending and prioritize the most valuable research. H.R. 1806 authorizes the Office of Science within the Department of Energy to support basic research in the physical sciences, including research on Earth's atmosphere. By including these good government measures, the America COMPETES Act gives Congress appropriate oversight, funds valuable research, but does not provide a blank check for the President's climate agenda. This amendment would strike these important accountability measures from the America COMPETES Act research. For that reason, I oppose the amendment and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I realize, like my friends across the aisle, that we find ourselves in a crisis situation of our own making. The Federal highway trust fund is set to run out of money, and with our current infrastructure needs, the fund's moneys are simply not enough. But instead of addressing the issue during the last several Congresses, short-term fixes have been passed, and Congress has kicked the can down the road. We need more than rhetoric on the importance of infrastructure. We need solutions. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday I will introduce the Prioritizing American Roads and Jobs Act. This bill will roll back 100 percent Medicaid expansion reimbursement rates to be equal to traditional Medicaid rates, with the savings transferring to the highway trust fund. This bill will add $15 billion a year to the trust fund and put it back on the path to financial stability for the long term, while freeing up $150 billion for deficit reduction over the next 10 years.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, with this being National Infrastructure Week, I want to call attention to the crisis facing the Federal highway trust fund. In my home State of Arkansas, the highway and transportation department has canceled several projects due to the depletion of the trust fund. It is vital that we find a solution to this crisis that finances the trust fund for the long term and keeps our roads and highways safe for travel and commerce. This is why, next week, I plan to file legislation to plug the $15 billion deficit in the trust fund without raising taxes. It will be commonsense legislation that Members on both sides of the aisle should get behind in order to prioritize funding for our critical infrastructure construction and maintenance and to avoid these crisis deadlines in the future.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Madam Speaker, Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt began his service as a Member of this body from my home State of Arkansas in 1967, the year that I was born. He did so for 12 terms, long enough for me to grow up, graduate from college, get a job, and get married. His love for Arkansas and America was evident in his service. He was a champion for his district and our State. He was a tireless advocate for all his constituents on both sides of the aisle and worked hardest to do what was right for the citizens of Arkansas. He served his country and fellow man with honor, both in the military and in Congress, leaving a lasting legacy and setting the bar high for those of us who follow him in service. Congressman Hammerschmidt was from the beautiful Ozark hills, and many times, the people of Arkansas and America were blessed by the leadership of a gentleman from the hills who served his Creator by serving others. As we remember his service, may we all continue to look to the hills and be comforted by the words of the psalmist who wrote: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The Sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the Moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. This budget incentivizes work, not dependence. This budget reduces spending growth instead of growing government. This budget moves us in the right direction. I encourage my friends on both sides of the aisle to assume responsibility by voting for this balanced budget for a stronger, working America.

Mr. WESTERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the diligent work on the Budget Committee and the leadership you have shown there. Mr. Chairman, Americans know that this country was built on a strong work ethic. This budget provides a framework to create work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults receiving Federal benefits. Some may ask, Why work requirements? In 1996, President Clinton, a fellow Arkansan from my hometown of Hot Springs but from across the aisle, said: Today we are taking an historic chance to make welfare what it is meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life. The goal of workforce requirements on able-bodied, working-age adults is simply to give Americans a hand up, not a hand out. Mr. Chairman, we should be concerned about the negative effects these Federal benefit programs are having on our American work ethic when we review the data. The maximum an individual can earn and still receive government assistance under some programs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is only $1,000. The Cato Institute reports that in 39 States, individuals can make more on government assistance than by working an 8-hour, $8-per-hour job. In six States, government benefits pay more than a $12-per-hour job; and in eight States, government assistance pays for more than the average salary of an American teacher. In my home State, where Medicaid expansion was accepted, 40 percent of the able-bodied, working-age adults receiving 100-percent-funded Medicaid had zero income. By adding workforce requirements for able- bodied, working-age adults in the Medicaid population alone, this budget establishes a blueprint for work requirements that will result in savings by 2022 of up to $376 billion federally, with an additional $170 billion saved at the State level. President Franklin Roosevelt made clear during a 1935 address to Congress that these programs were not intended to be an entitlement but a temporary aid to those in need. He said: ``The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers.'' The principles President Clinton and President Roosevelt before him promoted are more important now than ever before as we find ourselves in a fiscal crisis created by dependence and entitlement. President Clinton reminded us in 1996 that this is not the end of welfare reform, this is the beginning, and we all have to assume responsibility.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in support of this amendment. Mr. Chairman, many of my constituents are much like me. We are ready for a government that works like the one that we studied in civics class, one with coequal branches of power. Winston Churchill once stated that the price of greatness is responsibility. As members of the legislative branch, voting ``yes'' for this amendment is a responsible step in the right direction.

Mr. WESTERMAN

Mr. WESTERMAN. Section 2: ``The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.''