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▶ 0:06:54good afternoon the committee will come to order without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time today the rules committee is convening to consider two important pieces of h471 the fix our forest act S5 the lake and Riley ACT first the fix our forest acts is a piece of bipartisan legislation that addresses restoring Forest Health bolstering resiliency to devastating
▶ 0:07:24wildfires and protecting atrisk communities when the house considered the bill months back in the 118th Congress many bipartisan member ideas were Incorporated and that same bipartisan nature is still present today I believe we have all seen the devastation caused by the wildfires in California as of late the footage that has been broadcasted on TV and reflected within print media has been nothing
▶ 0:07:54short of harrowing HR 471 offers us the opportunity to lead the way with common sense solutions to strengthen Forest management and stewardship in 20125 and Beyond S5 the lake and Riley Act is the Senate companion legislation to hr29 that the house passed on January 8th of this year on January 8th we saw bipartisan support for the house version
▶ 0:08:25of the lake and Riley act and I expect that we'll see the same result this around as well this legislation would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to to detain illegal aliens who commit crimes related to either theft assaults on Law Enforcement Officers or other violent crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury bodily harm
▶ 0:08:55Immigration and Customs Enforcement would utilize the existing def definitions of these act in the criminal codes of the state or local jurisdiction in which they took place it also allows State Attorneys General to sue the Secretary of Homeland Security for injunctive Relief if immigration actions such as parole violation of detention requirements or other policy failures harm that state or its citizens again this is another piece
▶ 0:09:25of bipartisan legislation that will make a sizable positive impact not only for border security but also for the Safety and Security of men women and families Across the Nation I look forward to the open discussion of these two bills and I now yield to the ranking member Mr movern for any comments he wishes to make well thank you madam chair and um before I begin I just want to recognize Tom Wickham the former um host parliamentarian who's here
▶ 0:09:55and uh and it's great to see him again uh but um you know we're here as you pointed out to consider two bills U one is the fix our forest acts um and look the wild fires in California have been absolutely horrible and um you know I have talked to many of our California Representatives who represent districts in LA and around La about their Devastation um and it's absolutely horrific and what these
▶ 0:10:25members have been telling me and with what friends of mine in the area have been telling me is they they need resources they need us to invest um in infrastructure and to invest um in uh relief to help people uh deal with the immediate crisis and um and I look at this bill and I mean there there is some I guess maybe some meritorious ideas in it but what's really frustrating is it
▶ 0:10:55doesn't address the problem at hand right now uh um and I I I fear it's an attempt to try to divert discussion away from things like climate change um and some other issues and to again get us to look someplace else and meanwhile not helping any of the people who have been adversely impacted uh by by the wild wildfires I think this is a it's sad because I think it's a missed opportunity uh we have a bill here that correct me if I'm wrong didn't go through regular order
▶ 0:11:26um and you can tell I think um uh even some of the good ideas in this in this bill aren't even funded uh so I mean what's that all about um you know passing programs where there's no funding I mean it's that's that's a press release or a soundbite and again I also think we need to uh seriously um all accept the science and I know science is a dirty word around here but uh that climate change is real um and that we're seeing in California
▶ 0:11:57um and by the way we're seeing in other states is something we need to be very much concerned with uh so um again I U I just think this is a Miss opportunity uh and then secondly is is the revised Lake and Riley act um there's been some revisions made to it and I and I'm just curious how how come how come the Senate gets to revise bills and we don't even get an opportunity to offer an amendments I mean I like what what makes the Senate so special why can they change the text of bills
▶ 0:12:27um but here in the house we're told take it or leave it um I I don't know whether there's an answer to that question but I just kind of I I point out that we we're we're dealing with this bill again it's it's a little bit different from we passed in the house um originally but it's changed because the senators were able to make changes and we can't do anything over here uh this place is being run again I said this at the opening uh of the uh of the session I mean you know Republicans presided over the most closed Congress in
▶ 0:12:58history the only Congress more closed was the previous Congress um and here we are dealing with two more uh bills that have closed rules but you know on the lake and Riley act a dedicated nursing student um uh talented cross- country Runner and beloved daughter um you know um you know life was cut short L and Riley's life was cut short and I'm glad that the man responsible for this is is being brought to justice but under the under this bill you can be
▶ 0:13:28here legally under programs like DACA or TPS and you can be arrested for a crime you did not commit and then deported without even a trial so you don't have to be convicted of what you accused of in order to be subject to deportation and I think some of us if we had an opportunity to be able to um amend things would like to make sure that people had due process
▶ 0:13:58in this country and by the way I think some of you may have forgotten about dhca yeah this is a program uh that applied to um people who were brought here uh through no fault of their own their parents brought them here sometimes when they were infants you know when they were only a few months old um and this is a bit of a program that has allowed them to remain in this country lawfully now these these kids we're talking about are now in their 30s
▶ 0:14:28many of them have never ever been to their home country all they know is this country and so people who are being protected under DCA under this bill can be arrested for a crime they did not commit and deported I I mean I I don't even know whether my friends have even thought about the Imp implications of the of the bill that they're we're talking about here today and again I
▶ 0:14:59and I say this with respect Madam chair that is why we need a process here where some of us can offer amendments and even Republicans can offer amendments we could actually improve the bill I think you would probably have more people saying okay I I I I I will I I you know I'm more likely to support a bill where I know that the person especially if you're a DACA recipient you know actually committed the crime actually committed the crime uh but I guess I guess that's too much to ask um look I I want to secure I want to secure the Border I want to make sure
▶ 0:15:29we have lots of legal immigration legal immigration um and um you know but the lake and Riley Act is is not just about people who are here illegally it expands government's power to go after people who didn't even commit the crimes they were accused of um who are protected under TPS or or or or duck I mean what a what a terrible idea and if this is implemented the way it's written I'm going to tell you we're going to read story after Story of of
▶ 0:15:59of of of of Injustice and of um of Cruelty again I I think we should um we should have a strong just and welcoming immigration system this bill does not do that in fact it does the opposite and in my opinion sadly it exploits lakan's Riley's tragic death to pass a bad bill um and I I'm hoping that maybe rather than exploit every tragedy that maybe we get serious about passing legislation that
▶ 0:16:29is well thought out that has gone through regular order um where people have an opportunity to improve it again I I still don't have an answer to my question is like what's so special about the Senate they can do things like improve bills but we can't even we can't do that here uh because I'm told this will be brought up under a closed rule uh but anyway with that I I will end my opening statement and yield back to the chairwoman thank you Mr McGovern um I had a bill taken last session
▶ 0:16:59by a senator too so I share a little bit of your frustration in that I had a wonderful Bill I'd worked on and uh it suddenly came back with a senate number on it but uh well this was a lousy Bill to begin with I'm just simply saying we could have made it better in the house U before we send it to the Senate well thank you very much without objection any prepared statements that our Witnesses may have will be included in the record I'd like to welcome our first panel ch chman Westerman and
▶ 0:17:29ranking member Huffman from the committee on natural resources chairman Westerman I welcome your testimony thank you chair Fox and uh good afternoon it's such an honor to be here with you today I don't think any of us have um can say we haven't been disappointed by the Senate if you haven't been disappointed by the Senate then you probably haven't been in the house very long but we have an opportunity to do better today I'm not disappointed with the I'm just disappointed with us
▶ 0:18:00I just want us to be able to do what the Senate can do that's all and we'll we'll be able to do good stuff here today good Byars and work uh chairwoman Fox uh congratulations to you I can tell you it's an honor uh to get to be here on the the first panel uh under the first hearing with you leading the committee I know you've got much important work to be done in this Congress and the opportunity to get to present the first rule bill of the year is uh is pretty
▶ 0:18:30neat actually and there are a few topics that are more urgent for the house to take up than the catastrophic wildfire that the fix our forest act addresses I want to begin by saying once again that our prayers are with the people of California right now as they battle fires that have delivered Unthinkable Devastation uh we got updated numbers today these fires have claimed the lives of 28 people they've destroyed over 100 or over 15 ,000 structures
▶ 0:19:00and the estimated damages right now are $250 billion let that sink in 250 billion dollars of damage but today we have a unique opportunity we have an opportunity as uh as we say to put feet to our prayers we need to continue lifting up people in our prayers but we need to do something different and unlike hurricanes tornadoes uh and other natural disasters proper Force management can prevent
▶ 0:19:31wildfires we really can save a pound of Cure by investing a penny uh of prevention and the fix our forest Act is comprehensive bipartisan package that offers real solutions that will help prevent future catastrophic wildfires like the ones affecting Southern California fofa uses state-of-the-art science to identify the top 20% of fire sheds and prioritize treatments near communities at high risk of fires that could threaten lives and property
▶ 0:20:01the emergency actions occurring now in Los Angeles like clearing brush and cutting fuel brakes are the same treatments that would take place under this legislation the bill ensures land managers do the work when the sky is blue not when it's orange and fire is on the doorstep fofa codifies emergency authorities used by both Democrat and Republican administrations to increase the pace and scale of management without these tools completing a single Force management
▶ 0:20:31project takes 3 to 5 years with them land managers can act immediately fofa also expands existing categorical exclusions to meet the scale of the crosses for example if agencies wanted to treat an area roughly the size of the Palisades fire they would need eight separate CES under fofa they would only need two fofa doesn't wave a single environmental law let me repeat that it does not wave a single environmental law we're just making
▶ 0:21:02existing tools more flexible and efficient so the work that needs to be done can actually happen fofa also contains several Provisions to clear flammable vegetation and Hazard trees and utility rights away and that was uh what we believe was the cause of the fire that have devastated communities like lahana and uh in Paradise California and we also have reports that this uh could have started one of the fires in Southern California
▶ 0:21:33additionally fofa creates a new inter agency Community Wildfire risk Reduction Program to streamline fragmented Federal programs and standardize applications for existing Community Wildfire defense grants making it easier for communities to access the assistance that they need fofa also encourages technological innovations in Wildland firefighting so we can detect fires faster and put them out before they spread to communities finally we've added new Provisions to standardize repayment timelines
▶ 0:22:04between local fire departments and the federal government to support the local First Responders who battle fires that cross jurisdictional boundaries alongside firefighters we know what needs to be done and make no mistake there is a price for continued inaction since FAA passed the house on September 24th uh of last year an additional 1.5 m million Acres have burned across the United States we don't have the luxury of sitting around and
▶ 0:22:34doing nothing any longer my good friend from California representative Scott Peters and I have negotiated this legislation in good faith for more than a year continually incorporating ideas from members on both sides of the aisle we added several Democrat amendments during a natural resources committee markup last year where the bill passed by Voice vote on the floor we accepted Republican and democ amendments that helped improve the bill Forest management should not be a partisan issue
▶ 0:23:04and last year this bill passed the house with overwhelming bipartisan support this year we have 17 Democrat co-sponsors on the bill I urge the committee to report an appropriate rule so that the fix our forest act can be considered in the house thank you madam chair and I you back thank you madam chair ranking member of M govern and members of the committee it is an honor to lead
▶ 0:23:34the first Rules Bill in the 119th Congress uh the committee our committee on natural resources is not yet even organized but here we are with a 100 plus page Bill going straight to the floor a bill that we could have made better if we had the chance uh to debate and consider some amendments now uh clearly my Republican colleagues uh are attempting to seize the opportunity of the fires that are still being fought in Los Angeles and if this was something u in this Bild
▶ 0:24:04that would actually help the people of Los Angeles it would be welcome uh the fires in LA are devastating 27 people have died thousands of structures have been destroyed neighborhoods entire communities are decimating are decimated we have uh tens of thousands of climate refugees right now in Los Angeles looking for places to stay but instead of helping these people in their community ities uh many Republicans have actually been threatening to condition critical disaster relief
▶ 0:24:35for the people of Southern California something Congress has never done and today we have a bill that seeks to exploit the tragedy of the LA fires to advance the same old tiresome Republican agenda of rolling back environmental laws while ignoring the climate crisis that keeps bringing us record-breaking disasters one after another I will acknowledge that this Bill includes some important measures championed by democrats to enhance Wildfire response but these good Provisions
▶ 0:25:05in the bill are undermined and rendered virtually ineffective by the lack of funding vulnerable communities greatest need right now to achieve fire safety and resilience is resources and this bill doesn't provide any instead it uses fire safety as a pretext to repackage the same old Republican Playbook we've seen for years going after Bedrock environmental laws drama atically limiting public input this bill does it in the context of forest management but when the the
▶ 0:25:35bill passes and it will uh this will surely be used by Republicans as a precedent for gutting environmental reviews on all manner of polluting projects with devastating consequences for disadvantaged communities let's talk about the most critical fire safety need right now Aid in the final days of the Biden Harris Administration Democrats stepped up to approve desperately needed aid and there's still a a long road ahead though Congress must ensure that this Aid is actually
▶ 0:26:05delivered just as we have for communities devastated by floods and hurricanes in many of your States we must work together to help Los Angeles rebuild not use the tragedy of lost homes livelihoods and loved ones to score political points if Republicans are rushing fix our forests through as a response to this disaster then please tell me why does it not do anything to help the victims and the impacted communities right now they need
▶ 0:26:35Aid the bill has no funding for Federal Land Management agencies to do the work of making our Force healthier and more resilient no funding to help Los Angeles and other Frontline communities Implement projects to protect against cat catastrophic Wildfire although it says that it supports these type of projects it doesn't include the long-standing bipartisan prior priority of funding for Wildland firefighters who are soon going to lose the temporary pay increase we provided under the iiga these Brave
▶ 0:27:06firefighters are battling apocalyptic conditions right now around the clock for pennies on the dollar of what they should be paid they deserve more now for the next major issue with this legislation the endless scapegoating of environmental laws and a tax on public review and participation contrary to uh the talking points on the other side of the aisle there's nothing new or Innovative um to fix our forests here the GOP has been pushing these industry requested
▶ 0:27:36environmental roll backs for years by rolling back NEPA for broadly defined emergency fireshed projects the bill waves environmental review for a lot more than the good projects that we all support more than controlled burns more than vegetation clearing thinning and clearing it sweeps in large steale commercial logging projects which is really what that part of the bill is all about Bonafide Bonafide fire safety projects already can move forward under categorical exemptions and they are doing so
▶ 0:28:07at a record Pace but commercial scale logging is rarely about fire safety in fact research shows that harvesting mature trees and clear cutting can actually increase Wildfire risk another problem is the Bill's Reckless reduction of Endangered Species Act protections on National Forest land exempting the forest service from any requirement to consider new scientific discoveries new Esa listings or new critical habitat designations once a forest plan
▶ 0:28:37has been approved this could put some species at greater risk of Extinction and it will surely be used by Republicans to advance sweeping Esa roll backs in other settings as well this is all deeply unnecessary Land Management agencies already have a suite of streamlining authorities paired with funding from the iig and the IRA to move good projects faster and that's why we have advanced so many proactive healthy Forest management projects in
▶ 0:29:07the past few years the supposed regulatory obstacles to Forest management that my colleagues site ad nauseum are more often than not caused by an ongoing lack of agency resources and staff a result of short-sighted Republican budget cuts not our environmental laws it is well worth noting that NEPA and Esa the these roll backs that were being proposed today we're not among the consensus recommendations from the nonpartisan 2023 Wildland fire mitigation and management
▶ 0:29:38commission report some other aspects of that report are reflected in the bill although they're not funded but these controversial NEPA nesa rollbacks were not consensus recommendations from that report these changes would also limit judicial review and rewrite the rules to tilt the scales against communities who go to court looking for help the Bill's Draconian NEPA shot clock would crush meaningful public participation and good faith collaboration between public between the public
▶ 0:30:08federal agencies and project proponents and when that process works it actually U makes projects better that doesn't just delay things most glaringly this bill does nothing to address the climate crisis the scope and severity of these wildfires is a direct result of climate change that is a fact we cannot just bury our heads in the sand and ignore the climate component of This Disaster Democrats on the natural resources committee and across the caucus are committed to actual Innovative
▶ 0:30:38and effective responses to uh the growing Wildfire crisis Investments secured by house Democrats enabled the Biden Administration to achieve record Acres of hazardous fuel reduction and prescribed fire projects through the Wildfire crisis strategy these Investments are working but they have an we need to come together to double down on this success and ensure Land Management agencies continue to have the resources they need Democrats are ready and we have real solutions
▶ 0:31:09to address the Wildfire crisis in fact I just introduced with my Republican colleague Mr oberti the Wildfire protection and Community resilience act to help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfire this bipartisan Bill empowers communities to implement not just we don't just support it with lip service we give them what they need to implement science-based Wildfire mitigation methods providing funding to design and Implement new community protection
▶ 0:31:39and Wildfire resilience plans with Community Members First Responders and relevant state agencies also establishes a targeted FEMA grant program for home hardening and makes it eligible uh for funding under existing us forest service programs devastating fires aren't just a problem in our forests the LA fires make it clear that we have to focus on and prepare for fires in cities and towns all over the country I was optimistic that this bill might improve with several amendments that Democrats
▶ 0:32:10filed to address some of the actual and most pressing needs first and foremost that includes ensuring Fair wages for federal Wildland firefighters something this bill again woefully lacks but in another disappointing turn I understand this bill will be considered under a closed rule with zero opportunity to consider or vote on any amendments under the eyes of the majority the bill is already perfect and will completely fix our forests uh when it is far from that this is a real missed opportunity
▶ 0:32:40we can do so much more to meet this moment and I will keep working to ensure that those priorities are addressed in this Congress I yield back thank you very much Mr Huffman um we are not uh imposing any kind of uh time frame name in The Rules Committee at this time but I will note that you spoke for about nine a little over 9 minutes and Mr Westerman just a little over uh five minutes I believe
▶ 0:33:11so we're going to encourage people to submit their written testimony and hold their comments to a minimum chairman Westerman I want to thank you for reintroducing this legislation and I also want to thank you for your dedication to Bringing forward a thoughtful bipartisan package I understand countless hours were spent with representative Peters and many others in crafting the product before the committee today it's a testament to the good work
▶ 0:33:42of the natural resources committee this bill can be considered under the first rule of the 119th Congress Mr chairman can you please expound upon why it is so important this legislation be signed into law quickly thank you madam chair and I will answer that with a two-part answer number one the stakes are extremely high and number two is what we're doing is not working and
▶ 0:34:12when I say the stakes are high we're looking at this devastating fire in Southern California where 15,000 homes and 28 lives and $250 billion have gone up in smoke but if you look at what we Define as the Wildland Urban interface that's where homes and the and the wildlands uh interface with each other there are 44 million homes in our country in the Wildland Urban interface now
▶ 0:34:4315,000 homes lost is unimaginable but there are um 44 million other homes that are at the same risk as what the homes that are in Los Angeles that's very very high stakes and what we're doing is not working it simply is not working as I mentioned earlier we passed this bill last fall and there's been 1.5 million Acres burned since we passed
▶ 0:35:13the bill and the Senate failed to take it up I know it's been mentioned that what uh we need is more money thrown at the problem but look at what happened in the not the last Congress with the one before there was $12 billion sent to the for forest service and our Land Management agencies and the amount of Acres treated went down so we threw money at it and the problem didn't go away
▶ 0:35:43actually it got worse so there's got to be something else other than money and the problem is we can't manage the land and what this bill does and again I thank representative Peters for all his work on it is it allows land managers to do their job and we know how to address these issues but you've got to put feet to those actions and that's what the fix our forest act does so that's that's why it's so important
▶ 0:36:13I think you've pointed out a problem that exists across our federal government I understand 471 has some modifications from HR 8790 the bill that passed last Congress including the addition of HR 3396 the fire department repayment Act of 2023 which passed last Congress can you explain how these changes complement the overarching goal of the legislation again
▶ 0:36:43we want this legislation to be bipartisan we want it to be effective and we've been open to many ideas and we took many amendments on both sides of the aisle to create the uh the text that we have today this amendment that just requires the federal government to pay local firefighting um officials the money that they're owed when they go in and fight these fires it's common sense it's hard to imagine that there are local firefighting
▶ 0:37:14entities tribal County state city that go in and fight the fire and then a year later they haven't been reimbursed by the the force service so this was bipartisan Common Sense legislation to include in the Bill thank you I'm I'm going to ask one more question um since California the Cal California situation has come up um there's a lot of discussion about whether this legislation
▶ 0:37:44could have helped the situation in California I think it the bill would have helped and could provide future assistance could you point to some specifics in the bill that would have aided in the prevention of response to and recovery from these fires in California thank you madam chair uh really it's the provisions to do work in the Wildland Urban interface Provisions to do work on um rways and the ability to actually
▶ 0:38:15do the work in a in a timely manner you know there's a saying about planting a tree the best time to have planted a tree was many years ago uh the next best time is today when we want to look at keeping Forest healthy a lot of this should have been put in place many years ago decades ago but until we start actually doing the work on the ground the situation is not going to get better thank you very much Mr
▶ 0:38:45mcgoverin yeah well I I was just told my opening was close to 9 minutes long too um so in the interest of moving this uh hearing forward uh I would uh I'm going to yield back by but before I yeld back by time I me I'm I'm just looking at some of the Amendments I mean for example there's an amendment here that Mr nus has that would U improve paying benefits for federal Wild Land fight firefighters um I would hope that some of these amendments like that could be made in order because I have
▶ 0:39:15U we've been watching the terrible ordeal in California and these brave men and women who are fighting these fires uh deserve uh deserve better so um but anyway I will yield back my time because I don't want to be Madam chair certainly so I I and the reason that Amendment wasn't made in order we've already provided the additional funding for firefighters in the Appropriations bill that I voted for and a lot of others in this
▶ 0:39:45room voted for one minute Mr you stman yeah Mr rank remember that funding is in limbo it is we're operating under a CR because of Republican politics so uh the long-term uh security of that funding is totally unresolved could have been in this bill uh but right now we have uh a few more weeks I think if we want to we want to help these firefighters we would make this amendment in order but I yield back thank you thank you Mr mcover Mr Norman
▶ 0:40:16recognized thank thank both of you for testifying uh testifying Mr Congressman Westerman would any of this had an impact in California in your opinion I mean had it been implemented years ago and the work had been done it absolutely would have had an effect and I don't want to create a uh the wrong idea of the severity of these fires I've been in this area I've flown over in helicopter and what what we think of as traditional Forest
▶ 0:40:46is not really what you see in Southern California you got a lot of chaperel and scrub brush and it's in very steep Canyons it's very aired conditions you get these strong winds and it's it's amazing you can put these fires out but what this bill would have allowed to have happened was to create defensible zones so that firefighters and emergency Personnel could have gone in and had a chance to stop the fire before it got into the neighborhoods you know once these fires
▶ 0:41:17get into the homes the homes become the forest fire I mean they're they're actually obviously homes but they're the fuel for the fire so your best option is to be able to stop the fire before it gets into the the neighborhoods and starts burning homes and and have these Provisions in the bill been implemented years ago um we would have seen good results now we've we've passed forestry management legislation a great example is up in h South Lake
▶ 0:41:47Tahoe it's a totally different kind of forest but uh representative ment talk got language passed they went in and did the man management and almost like clockwork the management was done a huge fire came through and that management probably Sav South Lake Tahoe there was another region uh just up from there where the um management activities got held up uh in permitting and and leg in
▶ 0:42:18in the courts and the fire came through and took the whole Community out so we know this works we've seen it in practice and there's numerous examples we can p point to the paradise fire um or the campfire in Paradise where it was actually put out was on an area where fire breakes had been created it was on private land unfortunately it wasn't on the the federal land but we can do this on Federal Land and and it's good Forest management
▶ 0:42:48you know we we hear talk about endangered species when one of these fires go through it it kills all the species and drives them off the land and makes the at such that they they can't come back for a long time well with with the restrictions California has I don't think you could Implement any of these things could you but how do you get past the the regulations that California has passed that that's doesn't I mean we're talking about federal
▶ 0:43:19land so you could do the management on Federal Land right uh now what the state of California does on their state lands and the restrictions they put on their private land owners um that's really not our U our jurisdiction here but what we're looking at are the federal lands and how to make these Federal lands more resilient and especially where they interface with the urban areas and that Wildland Urban interface California how much of the fire
▶ 0:43:49was on Federal Land versus private I don't have the exact acreage yet I believe it was the the eaten fire was mostly in the Angeles uh National Forest um I can get that information for you well a fifth of the billion acres under Forest under the federal government management fifth of it's at risk of fires like I think what happened in California but I haven't seen it's probably actually higher than that yeah um Mr tuffen you mentioned conditions
▶ 0:44:19what conditions are you saying is are you saying is not right well I hope there won't be any conditions I'm talking about the the federal disaster relief that California will be needing I'm hearing you know tens of billions of dollars there has been a lot of media reporting of some of my colleagues across the aisle suggesting that that should be conditioned not something we've done for other states but um I I mentioned it because there's a lot of concern right now that that may be done for the first time ever where's the money
▶ 0:44:49coming from FEMA FEMA where is FEMA getting the money from the taxpayers okay all of us Americans having each other's back well does it when you have policies like California has and my son-in-law uh was with an insurance company that basically when California passed proposition 103 to set rates in California put had had policies to set the rates that insurance premiums insurance companies
▶ 0:45:19could charge whereas below the cost guess what they did they left and as bad as it is a lot of the victims had their houses burned the insurance company simply could not you know that's called Federal overreach which this Biden Administration was famous for and I guess how do you answer having no water in the fire hydras to P to protect the smell fish how do you answer having no uh water in the reservoirs I I'm glad you asked
▶ 0:45:49that um pardon me I'm glad you asked that representative because that is one of the one of the uh unfortunate consistent falsehoods that we've heard reservoirs are at very high levels right now uh so that's a lie it is not a lie uh you could there's there's an entirely new fact uh debunking uh site on the on the state of California's website now to confront this stuff that's swirling around this is one of it the Delta smelt had nothing to do with the fact that some of the local Water
▶ 0:46:19Systems ran out of water people need to understand how firefighting works and how local tanks are refilled and what happens when you have the kind of demands all at once throughout an entire Community like the Palisades yeah tanks are run down and they can't be replenished in time to keep fire in the hydrants and in the lines that doesn't mean that the Delta smelt cause that problem that means an incredible surge in demand to fight fires overtaxed the system and that would happen in any community
▶ 0:46:50in America so how does that with conditions you mentioned you had a mayor who cut the funding $17 million how does that how does that rank with your wanting money from the federal government when you have all of this yeah and I've had uh activists come to my office I said what about the what about the thatch we own forest Land We thin it you can't thin in California you we are let me just finish I will let you
▶ 0:47:20I'm not filler bu I'll just tell you the facts as we have them uh in California if you let the get that high you got a Tinder Box you can't do anything about it as one actress told me I asked a very simple question do trees have lives what do you mean she said and I said no do they die and need to be cleared and cut out no the the the carbon footprint will not be uh we can't do that all I'm saying is California needs to take some ownership into what happened it's as
▶ 0:47:50serious as it is and the difference in what Helen did versus what California did with the regulations with their inability to cut any trees uh to ask the federal government for for money with no conditions uh that's like going to a bank and not putting it up any collateral it doesn't happen or it shouldn't happen that bank will go broke that's why this country is going broke with liberal policies that Gavin Nome and Miss bass who I like I serve with but cutting funding from Firemen and then wanting pay
▶ 0:48:21increases I I don't understand I'll let you respond well Congressman I I think some of what you're saying is going to break the fact check machine and and I will if if you'll allow get you separately an entire debunking sheet that walks through several of the things that you've just said and shows that they are not true we do all kinds of forest treatment in California in fact the state has put new streamlining authorities massive funding into this right now state and federal and local partners and tribal partners are treating
▶ 0:48:51absolutely as much land as they can on strained budgets what's holding back the opportunity to do even more are some of these stubborn budget cuts that we've seen here in congress not The Endangered Species Act not the Delta smelt not any of these other red herrings that we continue to hear about was a 17 million cut from a fire department real or not real in the city of Los Angeles wherever mayor bass cut it I I just is that a fact I I am not aware of the city's budget but
▶ 0:49:21I will look into it and you know I don't know what has happened in North Carolina and in the Gulf Coast in the wake of some of these hurricanes I didn't ask whether those local governments cut their budgets I provided their disaster relief because I think we all should have each other's back in the face of natural disasters I think this is raw politics well the only politics you know you would think you I think Mr MCG was talking about using science it's political science that's been used in California and I resent
▶ 0:49:52uh conditions ought to be placed on California's going to to help itself before you before you we've turned money over that we don't have we borrowed money to pay the light bill and you're prepared for us to apply that same standard to uh the victims of hurricanes and duros in the midwest here's here's a difference and like take uh helina that took out and Virginia Fox knows this that was a hurricane not from from the neglect of man of of the people in North Carolina it took out it took
▶ 0:50:22out complete roads it took out complete the flooding I wouldn't that wasn't a a product of of worthless legislation that the government put on North Carolinians there and the $710 that the past administration gave was a teardrop in the ocean and it's a I resent uh when he came all bid wanted to do was a CO a photo op in in h Greenville uh it's a joke and until y'all take ownership in California to to get things
▶ 0:50:53back to what this is trying to do and this wouldn't help California to be because it would never get ped it's 250 I think in California to get a regulation changed is it's 253 days but I know in the one case on in when you got government regulating insurance companies M and that's why they're not getting they are victims but they did it they allowed this type of insanity to exist so we have a Nationwide Insurance uh crisis because of climate change and we're going to be talking
▶ 0:51:23about it a lot I'm sure in the months and years ahead but would just say Sir that when we approved funding to rebuild roads and bridges wiped out by that hurricane in North Carolina uh we weren't parsing local budgets to see how they were funding their roads and their Bridge maintenance uh we had our fellow Americans back in a moment of tragedy I would hope that my fellow members of Congress would do the same for the people of Los Angeles well I'll fight anything that doesn't have conditions and again uh this is money we don't have and to
▶ 0:51:54this type of you know no strings attached uh there's federal government the federal government did not allow the the forest lands to get in the condition they did and what Bruce what Congress Westman has they would never do in California because they don't you've got environmentalists who run they do it all the time I can take you to my district and show you the Shaded fuel breaks and the fire breaks and the forest treatments and the controlled Burns that have been happening at record level um look you're entitled to your opinion sir but not your own facts get me the facts that I'm wrong
▶ 0:52:25and let's come back to this committee yeah and uh if it's wrong what Karen bass did if it's wrong that the uh you could uh take trees out you can cut uh do burns burn pits um among the forest lands it was 6 I think it was 6 back um I don't know back when this country was settled it was 64 trees per acre and now it's 300 in California no wonder that they're starting fires anyway I've taken enough time
▶ 0:52:55but I would love to see facts tell me show me where I'm wrong thank you and show me how anything here could be implemented in California you bet I you back thank you Mr Norman Miss scandin you're recognized thank you chairwoman um yeah I mean a lot of us have been following the fire some of us have kids who've recently moved to LA and lived across the street from an evacuation area so um it's been top of Mind top of the news of course for weeks um
▶ 0:53:25we're seeing these increasingly destructive weather events across the country we now have tornadoes in Southeastern Pennsylvania something that didn't happen previously as well as increased flooding Etc so there's a lot we need to work on here um I'm encouraged that natural resources has been able to work together to um come up with some solutions now you did mention something about having local input into these regulations I think there is concern that DC
▶ 0:53:56is is going to be dictating what local conditions should be addressed whether in terms of this bill or in terms of what conditions have to be met I mean if DC is going to dictate conditions to California maybe it should dictate conditions to North Carolina and say you can't rebuild in the flooding areas along the coast so what can you tell us about the need for local input here thank you uh for that question this is one provision in the bill that just goes too far it shortens the statute of limitation and dramatically
▶ 0:54:26constraints public input uh right now the standard is 6 years you could argue that that's too long uh this takes it down to 120 days we have nothing like that uh in any NEPA review process and what it's going to do is prevent the system from working the way it should where local communities and stakeholders and others receive notice of a project and then work with the project proponents and the federal agencies to make sure it's in the right place and doing the right thing and it makes projects better when you cut
▶ 0:54:56out any opportunity to do that and you do it in the name of getting rid of of frivolous litigation you encourage the frivolous litigators to just quickly file instead of trying to work out problems on projects you probably produce more litigation but you undermine the Integrity of the system to work the way it should yeah I mean we have a lot of concerns in my region about making sure that obviously nobody wants things hung up with red tape but we also want to make sure that when these projects move forward that they're
▶ 0:55:26doing so in a way that's not going to harm members of the community I had to kind of chuckle as you say 120 days um anyone who's ever tried to get public comment on something knows that 120 days um all you're going to get at that point is people saying wait you didn't tell me this was happening um so I do appreciate appreciate your efforts on this and and as several people have mentioned now have to really strongly object to the idea that we would be conditioning disaster Aid upon some kind of
▶ 0:55:57micromanagement of state and local conditions so thank you I yield back can can I address that Madam chair certainly so I I think this illustrates just what the problem is right now you have six years not for public comment but to sue on the public comments after the comments are made this bill says you've got four months so you get your comment period and then you've got four months to uh to
▶ 0:56:27challenge what came out in the comment period that seems like an exceptionally long amount of time uh to be able to challenge something not to carry it out six years into I mean think about if you wanted to do Management on a project and you're waiting six years to get approval to do it think of the cost uh just the the fiscal cost but also the costs that can be incurred in Forest Health and and C catastrophic wildfires thanks for clarifying
▶ 0:56:57that Mr Langworthy you're recognized well thank you very much uh chairwoman Fox uh chairman Westerman it is uh no surprise to anyone least of uh to you that the radical environmental groups who claim to care about Forest management that they have time and again criticized this bill and this legislation uh similar to what we've heard from our colleagues on the other side of the day as today these groups have claimed that the fix our forest act quote stifles citizen voices
▶ 0:57:27and quote removes the science from Land Management decisions um let me ask you this chairman Westerman is limiting frivolous legislation and litigation by these same groups who hold up the management of our forest for years and years uh really stifling citizens voices well it's stifling citizens ability to live in safety in these Wildland Urban interfaces and again this bill has 17 Democrat co-sponsors we had 55 Democrats
▶ 0:57:58vote for the bill in the house last year and I think um people are seeing on both sides of the aisle that what we're doing isn't working you know the the definition of insanity is to continue doing what's not working and expecting to get different results uh the fix our forest Act is a new approach that protects the environmental review process but it streamlines it so it can happen in a reasonable time frame and the the bipartisan
▶ 0:58:29co-sponsors of this legislation I mean you know do they come from all over the country or they one particular area they're from all over the country but there are a lot of uh California Democrats who are co-sponsoring the bill and again Scott Peters from Southern California has been a an excellent partner in drafting this bill you know Scott's backgrounds an Environmental Lawyer and he's worked in very good uh Fai and as a partner to come up with uh not only this
▶ 0:58:59bill but we've worked on other bills on saving the Seas and um Now's the Time to do something different we can't continue doing what's not been working well I I I I appreciate your Insight here today Mr chairman and and I do agree uh with a gentleman from California I mean we need to support our neighbors uh in their time of need and there's been tremendous loss in the state of California uh every one of our states um suffers natural disasters from time to time uh but we do need to have worldclass
▶ 0:59:29standards of forest management across the country and I think this is a step in the right direction towards that and I really salute the committee uh for taking that on Forest management needs in aderes to the science this should not be a partisan issue uh if we are going to protect lives protect communities and preserve our nation's forest for future Generations uh my colleagues on the other side of the a all need to abandon a Mindless Zeal that results in nothing more than locking away Federal lands forever and ever and allowing our National Treasures like those uh in the Majesty
▶ 0:59:59of America's West to burn year after year uh I appreciate your leadership on this Mr chairman and with that I yield back Madam chair Mr Mr Westerman you want to add it I just wanted to U kind of go off of something representative Langworthy said this bill could be passed out of the house passed out of the Senate and signed into law before female ever even comes with the estimate on what the disaster relief package is this we
▶ 1:00:30passed this bill out of the house again on a bipartisan basis long before the fires in California even started so this this bill is about Forest management and it would be great to do something positive before FEMA even came up with the the estimates on what the disaster relief number should be thank you Mr Westerman M leure Fernand as you're recognized for your questions for my questions right you're so used to saying for five minutes
▶ 1:01:00right so I don't think we'll take that much time hopefully uh but I want to join others and thank you Mr rang Langworthy I want to thank you because you notice noted I believe uh and listening to you that there is a difference and a separation between responding to a disaster and what this bill is trying to do uh and that we need to keep those uh separate and I want to join those um who are recognizing how
▶ 1:01:30hard it is in California right now over the suffering that is going on uh and I do hope that we can stand United with them in their grief and their loss because those fires that are raging in California you know they might be raging in Utah in Wyoming in Montana in their near future and we need to remember Americans do not turn their backs on Americans when disastrous hit you know when Democrats were in charge we never talked
▶ 1:02:01about restricting access to disaster Aid based on whether there was a Democrat or Republican as the elected leaders we responded to the idea of disasters like Americans do with help and it's a helping hand it doesn't completely bail you out I know because we've had those disasters in my district and I am hopeful that Republicans would not start such a precedent of giving out Aid based on the state's voting record because we didn't do it
▶ 1:02:31for North Carolina we did not do it for South Carolina Florida or Georgia and I know that we will respond to California like we will but chairman Westerman going to this bill I said it last time you were here and uh in our committee I do appreciate the work that has gone into the uh not every provision but I do appreciate the hard work you've done on it and I've spoken to you about my community's objections to restricting Community impact precisely because the forest service burned almost a
▶ 1:03:01quarter of a million Acres when they didn't get enough Community input so my my district is saying you can't do that right and and I've shared that with you uh we through NEPA I will tell you that we do have Forest management going on uh we do have prescribed Burns going on in my district we do have uh thinning projects some very Innovative stuff going on I'd love for you to come visit my district and see that work uh but it is through that Community input that we're rebuilding the trust
▶ 1:03:32and and so I you know I have to listen to my constituents in that I want to talk a bit about reedling uh and you know I'm passionate about this uh there's uh about an average of 7 million Acres burning each year uh the bill addresses reedling but it's really hard to keep up we are not growing enough baby trees right um and you know that I have an amendment to the bill that would expand seedling production by allowing seedling
▶ 1:04:02nurseries run by nonprofits when by universities and States uh because they for some reason weren't included in the bipartisan infrastructure Bill uh so would you agree that we need to expand uh seedling production and and how we might do that yeah we need to concentrate on on what it's called regeneration whether you plant seedlings or where you uh Sprout new trees from seeds what's happening in a lot of these fires and I I'll use
▶ 1:04:32the uh the angor fire that I visited that site 12 years after the fire and they had replanted it six times and the trees hadn't taken hold because there's so much fuel load on the land that when these fires get so hot that a lot of times they're burning the organic matter out of the soil so you've got not only a denuded landscape but you've got um a sterilized soil and when you plant seedlings in it there's there's no nutrients
▶ 1:05:03to allow the seedlings to to grow uh fire is a natural part of the of the landscape and a lot of species actually need fire to regenerate or and you know trees were reproducing the oldfashioned way before we started containerizing seedlings by just uh the land being cleared by fire and the seeds falling down on the soil and sprouting and taking up so it's
▶ 1:05:33I think the we we definitely need more seed tree nurseries uh so that we can have more seedlings to plant but we also need to manage the forest in a way where it can be the the lowest cost maybe the most effective way to reproduce trees is through seeds dropping from the be lovely if we could do that we right we call it in New Mexico we we Rec celebrate uh the collection of seeds in fact our famous
▶ 1:06:03Pon like Falls like Mana from heaven and we go and collect it we leave enough so the Pinon trees can grow back but we do know we have to have more nurseries and uh the my bill was passed by unanimous consent uh I have it as an amendment and unfortunately since we're not allowing amendments even when a bill was passed by unanimous I mean uh passed uh out of committee we're not allowing Amendments of bills that are bipartisan and support it so I'd hope that you will work with me on seeing
▶ 1:06:33if we can uh uh have my bill come into law some other way thank you is that a yes I I worked with you on the in the committee so I'll continue working with you on thank you I do appreciate that Mr chair and ranking member Huffman um uh you know I'm the last Democrat on here so I always get to ask the ranking member what else do you want speak to because uh it is a friendly uh uh a friendly questioner here but I would like Madam chair I'd
▶ 1:07:03like to uh ask unanimous consent to enter into the record uh the article conspiracies are R about water and the LA fires here's what experts say with that objection and uh in response to some of the issues about whether there was enough water uh you know some of what the experts are saying is one that fires in California have grown more explosives because of climate change uh but that with regards to the water that these so many fires exploding at one time
▶ 1:07:34is that you had infrastructure that was designed to fight a house fire here some fires there not the kind of biblical I think this is what it says uh we have infrastructure that is not made to fight cataclysmic fires biblical size fires and with regards to the water the Allies Metropolitan Water District board the ones who should know the experts said uh and I quote I can say with great Authority we have as much water stored as any time
▶ 1:08:04in the history of our agency closed quote so this issue about you know was California you know uh Northern California hoarding all the water uh I think has been laid to rest by the fact those reservoirs there was a reservoir that was out of service because of uh repairs and and and work on it right you would you want to take care of your reservoirs but can you do you want to add anything else to some of the comments that have been made today no I I appreciate
▶ 1:08:34that and you're absolutely right uh Southern California reservoirs are full um I was asked earlier about several of of these things that that have had to be debunked frankly over and over again and I I reference that the governor has put together a debunking uh site I I have that now what the governor has it it spoke to several of the things that that my colleague brought up uh explains that the budget in California for Forest treatment is is literally 10 times bigger than when Governor Nome
▶ 1:09:05took office it's gone from 200 million to2 billion during that time it explains that the Delta smelt had nothing to do uh with this that the water reservoirs in Southern California are at record levels uh on point after Point um there's just a bunch of stubborn misinformation that is not help ing the people of Los Angeles and is is really just uh distracting all of us from the things that we really need to come together and and help them in this moment so I would like to
▶ 1:09:35enter this into the record if I could Madam chairman without objection yeah thank you uh and the last lastly to my colleague's question you know if you really want to point to the one thing uh that drove the scale of this crisis um it is the hurricane force winds that grounded air tankers that drove these Embers over vast distances in ways that completely overpowered even the best firefighting
▶ 1:10:06response so uh that's something that's happening more and more and we know why uh we know the climate change is increasing the severity of these events and at some point in addition to the the triage uh of dealing with the damage from these disasters we are going to have to stop making them worse by worsening human caused climate change appreciate the question uh and I think that this concept of 100 mile hour winds right I mean that's that's hurricane Force right
▶ 1:10:36and and you I mean my colleagues on the deas they they suffered that they live through that now their hurricane Forest winds were part of a hurricane and came with flooding and water and and in this instance uh there wasn't those those winds those 100 m hour winds were not bringing water but they were they were bringing Embers uh and uh I I just can't imagine you know what it must feel like to be there and this concept of Americans coming
▶ 1:11:07together in times of need and being unified and responding is something I've always been very proud of who we are as Americans that that's what we do we have each other's backs we take care of each other we don't start the blame yes we must look at reasons we must look at carefully look at those issues look at legislation that might be useful but in that time of need we show up and we we reach out our it's one of the last spaces where
▶ 1:11:37we're not partisan where we're just fellow Americans and it would be really sad and tragic if we lost even that uh to the partisan politics of the day well I'm hopeful that we won't uh and because as one of my dear friends calls I think we all should be radical anything else if not with that I yeld back thank you Miss ler Fernandez Mr Scott you're recognized thank you madam chair I'll try to be pretty quick with this but I would just
▶ 1:12:07remind everybody sometimes disaster rate is conditions based farmers who receive a disaster payment are required to purchase crop insurance over the next several years and so we do have conditions on disaster Aid uh in certain circumstances it's not so so let's not pretend that we've never conditioned uh disaster Aid uh I'm I'm going to try to stick to the five minutes I'm just uh
▶ 1:12:37I hope we do get the disaster done that was my district that was hit by the hurricane um and I will tell you I've been supportive of requiring Farmers to purchase the crop insurance after after they receive disaster so sometimes it is condition-based is my my only Point um but um I mean the the whether the smell is or isn't responsible I guess we we could debate but the fact of the matter is The Endangered Species Act has been abused
▶ 1:13:08and now you've got people going in and on the long fin melt it it's not that it is endangered now they're going into area specifics so so even though the long Fin's not endangered they're getting the San San Francisco Bay Geographic geographical area of the long fence melt classified as an endangered species if I'm not correct is that right um I have no idea but okay well
▶ 1:13:38Accord according to the fishery site it is and if you want to talk about the politics of it uh if you look at what fish and wildlife issued on January the 14th right before Trump became president they proposed making vast swaths of the o over the um this other smelt uh a protected area when when so the abuses of The Endangered Species Act are there and they do create problems with getting the forest lands cleaned up whether it's the
▶ 1:14:08smelt or or other abuses of The Endangered Species Act and so I don't I mean I I candidly I think I think it would be reasonable to correct some of the abuses in The Endangered Species Act in in the uh in the disaster package but we we need to get these Forest lands cleaned up we need to stop all of the frivolous litigation in this country uh not just at the federal level but at the state level and uh with that Madam chair I'm going to turn it back over to you and you the remainder of my
▶ 1:14:39time well thank you very much you win today's prize uh Mr Griffith you're recognized thank you madam chair I would ask U Mr Westerman uh if he'd help me with my lottery tickets uh because if I understood the ranking member correctly he thought perhaps that you had uh this bill uh as a distraction to what was going on in California and yet this bill is substantially the same as the bill we voted on sometime last year long before the fire started isn't that
▶ 1:15:09correct that's correct before the the fires in Southern California started right so if that's the case then you must be Clairvoyant if this is just a distraction would you not agree with me that that would be his reasoning well I can promise you I'm not clear so you can't help me with my lottery tickets all right can't help you I will ask you about this though one of the areas that's relatively new or at least what appeared to me to be new in in reading the comparison drafts is the White Oak section and while I'm not a bourbon Drinker
▶ 1:15:39uh I don't drink at all but a lot of my friends drink Bourbon and they're very concerned about the white oak because you really can't get a good bourbon without your white oak can you address what that that section of the bill does so we've got an issue that goes back to Forest management across the country and you talk about White Oaks and bourbon and the the the definition of bourbon says it's you know whiskey that has been aged in a new white oak barrel and when we look at our forest inventory across the the
▶ 1:16:09country where White Oak grows uh we have a lot of older mature white oak but we don't have the the young white oak saplings and so looking out into the future there could be a a great decrease in the amount of white oak available to make white oak barrels uh so white oak is is obviously famous for making barrels but it's also fantastic wildlife habitat and provides many benefits
▶ 1:16:40to the forest uh so the White Oak uh act which is included in the fixer Forest Act is addressing these are forest in the East mainly on how we get more more white oak for the future yeah a lot of White Oaks in my district and in Reading over that section it sounded like what we're trying to do is make sure that there's a natural propagation of of the White Oak so that we have that U asset available not only for wildlife but for those people who do choose to drink bourbon whether they'd be in my district or somewhere else that
▶ 1:17:10Madam chair I you back thank you Mr Griffith Mr Jack well I'm eager to win your prize for the shortest comments today is the freshman in the room but if I may just uh start with chairman Westerman uh you know that 55 Democrats voted for a very similar piece of legislation last Congress and just to affirm I know we talked a little bit about the eaten fire is that in the Angeles National Forest correct so I just find interesting um that one of the members who who left
▶ 1:17:40the last Congress and is no longer a part of this Congress but Tony cardus he voted for that legislation last cycle and I find it interesting that he represents a large chunk of the Angeles National Forest and I just think for the record that should be noted that he represents uh an area that is uh clearly very directly affected by some of the wildfires we've discussed today um the second thing I'd like to ask and and I just note some of the major provisions you walk through on the bill you talk about the a study evaluating locations for a western headquarters
▶ 1:18:10of the US Forest Service um could you expound upon that just a moment I think you're referring to the fire sheds and this is um a new way to look at fire you a watershed is the geographic area where everything's going to drain well with modern technology and AI we can look at Forest cover topography wind patterns and establish what's called a fire shed and we can better predict not only where fires will will start
▶ 1:18:40but also um the best way to address those fires once they start and that that leads back to another discussion we've had about the severity of the the fires in Southern California and the strong winds and you know wind and dry Fuel and fire are obviously a a terrible recipe but I was thinking of Mr Scott and in his state of Georgia there's uh there's something called
▶ 1:19:10Oki phoi swamp which you've probably never heard of the massive fires in the Oki phoi swamp uh because it's not residential neighborhoods bordering the Oki phoi it's private Timberland and and these fires start in the swamp and they're similar to the fires we're seeing in in California with very strong winds in dry conditions driving these fires and the Embers travel out a half mile to a mile ahead of the fire but the private Forest land owners
▶ 1:19:41whose land adjoins it they go in and they they thin the forest they remove the ground cover and it gives them a spot to hopefully put these fires out when they they come out of the swamp it's it's a totally different topography totally different area of the country but it's the same idea that you create a defensible space so that when these fires start you put them out quickly and you put them out before they get into the Wildland Urban interface and if
▶ 1:20:11they happen to get to the Wildland Urban interface that is a defensible area where emergency Personnel can go in and the fire drops down when it runs out of fuel and that's where you can put it out that's a long way of of talking about the fire sheds and the importance they will have on early detection and early response to get to these fires as soon as possible so that they don't turn into infernos thank you Mr chairman I just want to note 55 of our colleagues across the aisle voted for this similar legislation
▶ 1:20:41last Congress I hope more do so this Congress and I yield the remaining balance of my time to the chairwoman thank you thank you Mr Jack Mr Roy you're recognized thank the chairwoman uh Mr Westerman um did uh climate change caused a billion acres to be uh currently under Federal control at high risk of fire I mean the the lack of management on the uh on the forest is what causes the right the risk of fire but
▶ 1:21:11even take take the argument that we're getting more fires because we got drier warmer conditions if if you even accept that argument then you've got to ask a question so what do we do about it and the the answer is you manage those forest for the conditions that you're you're facing and to say we're not going to manage for whatever reason is the thing about with forestry no action is an action if you say we're going to be hands off and we're going to make this
▶ 1:21:41a Wilderness Area and we're going to let nature run its course nature will run its course and it can be very violent when it does it you know we have something in the Hill Country uh Cedar is invasive and uh didn't used to be there used to be live oak trees and we had cattle grazing and then there were some potential some over grazing then we had to manage that they had Cedar comes invasive Cedar forms the basis of a lot of our fires that we have during drought and in SX so a lot of ranchers privately because we have very little government owned land in
▶ 1:22:11Texas thank the Lord and uh so we have ranchers who privately going out and call out call out that stuff so that you don't have as much uh fire issue we still have a ton of it we have to do that but the point is uh Mr Norman reference the stat of uh something like 60 something trees per acre a few centuries back and now 300 trees per acre in California I think the point here is the purpose of this bill is to manage that issue right we can say whatever we don't want about debating about climate change that's the point of the bill the main part correct that's a very good
▶ 1:22:42observation on forestry management uh we know by soil top topography um rainfall all across our country we know how how much growth and of land can support and it's usually stated in basil area which means the the area of the the trees whether you got 300 trees or 30 trees that land can only support so much area and in Forest that traditionally were
▶ 1:23:12like 60 square fet of Basil area per acre or 100 square fet of Basil area per acre we're seeing 300 plus Square ft of Basil area and it's not in a few large lar ly spaced or a few far spaced large trees it's in hundreds of little tiny trees that are growing right up side the side well I appreciate it I'm going to yield my time back I'll just close we talked a little bit about the disaster supplemental stuff we ventured in that lane even though this bill has nothing to do with that um I would just
▶ 1:23:42note that uh I mean it might surprise folks I think California should should get support um uh irrespective of politics but it should be limited into for all states it should be limited to FEMA doing the job job of triage help help end the crisis and then get the hell out of the way but it should not become a blank check that's true for North Carolina Georgia South Carolina Texas California so we should exist we help help solve the problem and then get out of the way but we can't write blank checks because a thousand homes got
▶ 1:24:12destroyed versus three I get house burns down in my district but does that guy get a disaster check right do we get you know is is it the job of the federal government to come step in and do all uh but you know a thousand homes burned down and then suddenly the government's going to get involved from Washington California is the fifth biggest economy in the world Texas is the eighth biggest economy in the world how about we let States and local and private entities go do what they need to do to go step up a back thank you Mr Roy Miss
▶ 1:24:44fishbach I'm sorry I was expecting Miss hin first uh but uh um I'm just going to I'm actually Mr Jack I'm going to bid $1 like on the prices right and I am going to say so I'm going to win that prize but I'm I'm going to uh just thank you for bringing this forward and um you know familiar with the bill from the last time it was here and so I appreciate it and uh with that I yield back thank you very much Miss hin thank you madam chair uh chairman Westerman thanks for coming to the rules committee today and for
▶ 1:25:14uh being here to talk about the fix our forest act uh we've already heard through uh some of the panel questioning uh today and your comments that our current law is hindering Forest management practices we've also heard how had this bill been taken up by the Senate we passed it in the house uh last Congress had this bill been taken up by the Senate and supported by uh President Biden in the White House in the last Congress it could have helped mitigate
▶ 1:25:45at least some of the risk um that we've seen with the wild fires uh particularly in California chairman Westerman you're also the only Forester in Congress con um so you have expertise that really we you know is invaluable for this discussion so I just want to give you the opportunity to uh if you have any additional comments on this bill uh its significance for the health health and the management of our Nations for us any other things you'd like to say before we close out uh this portion of
▶ 1:26:15the hearing thank you representative hin and you know it takes a long time to do Forest management but we we should have started started decades ago and in fact if if you go back and look at fire intensity and the frequency back to the 80s and 90s we've seen an exponential increase in the number of fires and the size of fires so this didn't happen overnight and you're not going to fix it overnight
▶ 1:26:46but and have we had the Senate passed the bill last fall they proably you probably couldn't have gotten the work done but I didn't mentioned the bill we passed several years ago representing M Clint talkx Bill and they did the work at South Lake Tahoe and it was almost like when they said the Project's done a fire came through and it it paid many times over for the work that was done uh again there's 44 million homes in the Wildland Urban interface
▶ 1:27:16we lost 15,000 homes in this fire and we've seen the devastation of it so it's it's time to get this bill passed and not just pass the bill but get the work done I think it goes uh really without saying that uh our goal here with fix our forests and and as we legislate this is to to not have problems like what we've seen in California continue into the future through responsible Forest management practices we we need to do the best that we can do
▶ 1:27:46with with what we've got and this bill gives um our federal land managers the opportunity to do that thank you uh Mr chairman uh thank you madam chair I yield back thank you very much I want to say I was going to bring up the fact that Mr Westerman is the only Forester in the House of Representatives and how lucky we are to have him you've given a master class to the rules committee today about Forest management and
▶ 1:28:17the negative things that happen when these fires occur and I appreciate apprciate you're emphasizing over and over and over again with good management we can minimize these we absolutely can and uh every part of the country is at risk my part of the country where there are a lot of trees and there's a lot of um US Forest land um is very much at risk and so I wholeheartedly support
▶ 1:28:47what you're doing with this bill and I hope we can pass it and get it signed into law so we don't see disasters like we've seen in California I the American people just weep to see that and what we saw in Hawaii so thank you both very much uh the Witnesses are
▶ 1:29:23excused e
▶ 1:30:10second representative mclintoch and ranking member Rasin from the committee on the Judiciary representative mclintoch I welcome your testimony well thank you madam chairman S5 Bears the name of lake and r murdered by one of the more than 7.8 million illegal aliens that Joe Biden and his Democratic supporters deliberately allowed into our country over the last four years in lakan's case the murderer was paroled into this country
▶ 1:30:40through a shocking abuse of this power he was repeatedly arrested for theft and other crimes in sanctuary jurisdictions and each time released back onto our streets just months before he murdered lakan he was arrested for theft but ice couldn't take him into custody because of the Biden Harris administration's policies that Shield such monsters from arrest and deportation this measure first introduced by representative Mike Collins here in the house would require
▶ 1:31:10ice detention for illegal aliens who are charged with arrested for or convicted of any burglary theft larsy or shoplifting offense now the Democrats have argued that mere accusation of committing a crime should not be grounds for detention and besides shoplifting is no big deal they ignore the fact that every illegal alien is required to be detained by current law throughout the pendency of their Asylum claims the Democrats thumb their noses at
▶ 1:31:40this law for the last four years their excuses that they're prioritizing detaining more dangerous offenders well that's exactly what this bill does and yet they still oppose it during his first term president Trump proved that the president on his own authority can secure our borders he's about to prove that again President Biden proved that a president who's determined to make a mockery of our immigration laws can willfully open our borders
▶ 1:32:10to the most violent criminals and terrorists and gangs and cartels on this planet and use the Democrat Sanctuary laws to protect them this National nightmare ended at noon yesterday but what of future presidents this bill assures that what happened to Lake and Riley cannot happen again should another Joe Biden disgrace presidency our Senate colleagues have added to the lake and Riley act parts of Sarah's law introduced by representative
▶ 1:32:40Andy finstra and Senator Joanie Ernst to mandate detention for illegal aliens who commit any offense that involves death or uh serious bodily uh uh injury Sarah's law is was named after Sarah root on January 31st of 2016 as Sarah drove home after celebrating her college graduation an illegal alien who was street racing while drunk slammed into her SUV snapping Sarah's spine and fracturing her skull
▶ 1:33:11Sarah died days later on February 4th within hours of her death a judge set the illegal aliens Bond at $50,000 because ice refused to Lodge a detainer is the law requireed fires despite A desperate request by local police to do so the administration defended this der elction of Duty quote because the illegal alien had not been convicted of a criminal charge and therefore was not an enforcement priority well S5 closes this loophole by
▶ 1:33:41requiring detention for illegal aliens like Sarah Roots killer who are arrested for charged with admit to or are convicted of any crime that resulted in someone's death or serious bodily injury in addition this bill includes elements of Representative Jeff Van Drew's detain and Deport illegal aliens who assault cops act which passed the house uh uh just last year and applies the same mandate for those who assault law enforcement of officers this bill would also allow states to bring a civil
▶ 1:34:11action against derelict Federal officers who refuse to enforce immigration law this was first introduced by Representatives Dan bishop and ship Roy in the sue for immigration Enforcement Act that bill also passed the house and was also killed by Senate Democrats well whether it is sober reflection or perhaps the sobering results of the November election a handful of Democrats in both houses and the Senate have come
▶ 1:34:41over to support this law and we welcome them we wish them well in convincing the majority of their party that they need to change course if not for the good of our country then at least for the good of themselves well take their support any way we can get it I have every confidence that President Trump will end this Scourge Upon Our Nation during the next four years this law and the others that will follow will assure that no future president will be able to unleash Upon Our Country what Joe Biden and
▶ 1:35:11his Democratic supporters did the Judiciary Committee asked this bill be made in order and brought to the floor as soon as possible I yield back Mr mclin talk Mr Rasin you're recognized chairwoman Fox I'm delighted to see you and congratulations on your new position here in the rules committee thank that's wonderful news and um I suppose the ranking member now is Miss Gamlin uh if Mr McGovern's not present yet um thanks to you and members of the rules committee I suppose
▶ 1:35:41I need to say something on behalf of uh president B Biden because my uh distinguished colleague just said he disgraced the presidency uh the Biden Administration brought us back from the pandemic and econom ecomic crisis under um president Trump in his first term by investing in American workers American manufacturing and American infrastructure uh President Biden's bottomup policies for uplifting the workingclass majority in America instead of the tiny billionaire class worked
▶ 1:36:12today our nation's economic strength is quote the Envy of the world as The Economist magazine put it with an unemployment rate of 4.2% wages Rising Across America the GDP growing at a robust 3.1% moreover the murder rate under Democrats came way down unlawful immigration at the southern border fell below where it was when Donald Trump left office four years ago and the Roaring stock market which is what the billionaire Entourage cares about most
▶ 1:36:42just completed its two strongest back-to-back years in a quarter Century so now's the time that we should be getting together Madam chair to increase the minimum wage to lift children out of poverty to strengthen unions and collective bargaining and to expand the middle class but Donald Trump has assembled an unprecedented billionaire cabinet from the top 0.003% drawn from poolside cocktail hour in maral Lago so
▶ 1:37:12the plutocrats and bolars can plunder an even larger share of government contracts for their giant corporations Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of bringing down the high postco 19 prices of rent groceries consumer goods and health care prices that his billionaire cabinet knows well because they raised them but we haven't seen any legislation about that they don't seem to have any interest in bringing down the cost of living for working people in the country but if they do we Democrats
▶ 1:37:42are ready to work with them after all we dramatically lowered prescription drug prices in Medicare by capping out of pocket monthly expenses at $35 a month and annual total out of pocket expenditures at $2,000 a year um the mega forces who inhabit the Deep Pockets of big Pharma opposed us every step of the way on that legislation but if they have good policy proposals now for lowering inflation which is what they campaigned on
▶ 1:38:12by all means bring them forward we have repeatedly crossed the aisle to agree to bipartisan compromise as we did last year when President Biden and Senate Democrats worked with the second most Conservative Republican senator James lenford to arrive at a tough bipartisan border security deal but you'll recall that President Trump and House Republicans tanked the deal openly preferring the continuation of a border crisis to the development of a border solution all for nakedly political
▶ 1:38:42reasons well today our friends are advancing to the floor for the second time this month not their long awaited policy solution to inflation but another fundamentally empty and opportunistic immigration measure it's not like the compromise they tanked in the last Congress a bill for greater border security or better technology and ports of Entry or for expanding lawful Pathways to immigration and citizenship for millions of people or for addressing huge immigrant Visa backlogs
▶ 1:39:13um much less for addressing the underlying conditions of crime lawlessness and oppression fueling migration from so many countries in the first place now this bill would expand the scope of mandatory immigration detention going from the compulsory Detention of any undocumented immigrant who is convicted of an act of theft serious violent crime larceny or shoplifting to the compulsory Detention of any such person simply charged with or even just
▶ 1:39:43arrested for such an offense even if they are never charged with or convicted of a criminal offense at all this is a huge departure from current law which since 1996 has only required mandatory detention for those who are criminally convicted or who admit to having committed certain crimes that is when criminal guilt is certain it's important to note that the government already as my friend acknowledges has discretionary authority to
▶ 1:40:13detain any and all undocumented immigrants facing deportation so this bill would actually take away the executive's discretion to those who are most dangerous or most likely to flee it seems to me strange Madame chairwoman that the majority party is taking this position many in the majority do not even believe that the criminal justice system can be trusted when a jury unanimously convict someone of 34 different felony
▶ 1:40:43criminal counts who had the best legal representation money can buy in New York state after a painstaking criminal trial with all due process C protections and rights afforded for the majority criminal arrest criminal charges and indictment criminal prosecution with the defendant enjoying right to some of the best lawyers in the world with unlimited possibility of cross-examination and the opportunity to introduce whatever evidence the defendant wants and the requirement of a unanimous jury
▶ 1:41:13verdict on the basis of a Beyond any reasonable doubt standard proof is not even enough to give them confidence in the verdict they still doubt it but if the criminal justice process cannot be trusted to identify a truly guilty person even when that person has been arrested charged indicted prosecuted represented at every stage given every opportunity to cross-examine and to testify personally and then is unanimously convicted by a jury of their peers
▶ 1:41:44Beyond A Reasonable Doubt then how can the criminal justice process be trusted to identify a truly guilty person with a simple arrest with no indictment no prosecution no cross-examination no neutral adjudication under an impartial judge no fact finding no criminal conviction by unanimous 12p person jury Beyond a reasonable doubt doubt their legislation proposes to impose mandatory immigration detention on people who've been arrested but never charged
▶ 1:42:14with prosecuted for or convicted of any crime at all they could be arrested and had their charges dismissed for lack of evidence and still will be subjected to mandatory immigration detention under this bill a young person with DACA or TPS status who falsely accused of shoplift of shoplifting because she's with a group of friends where one person is arrested for it will be subject to mandatory immigration detention this could be a young person who's been in America
▶ 1:42:44lawfully for decades with his or her family is that what we really want to do mandatory detention has long been reserved for people who actually commit serious criminal offenses expanding the requirement to include every person who's been merely accused of or arrested for but then not charged with shoplifting or other offenses collapses the distinction between conviction and simply being charged
▶ 1:43:14or arrested for something moreover Congress has never even appropriated enough money to detain all non-citizens who fall under the currently serious mandatory detention categories since passage in the house in earlier this month the Department of Homeland Security estimates that this bill will cost at least $26 billion in the first year alone to enact with the total cost coming at a minimum of $83 billion
▶ 1:43:44for context the current entire DHS budget is 62 billion this is an unfunded mandate for a mass rent Round Up of people without any regard to American due process the bill also seeks to give State government's Authority and control over the federal immigration system by trespassing on the Article 2 executive power in a way that eight Supreme Court Justices completely repudiated just two years ago as a
▶ 1:44:14blatant violation of the separation of powers the idea here is to give State Attorneys General precisely what the Supreme Court denied legal standing to sue the federal government in court for perceived violations of the immigration and nationality act so states can block Federal immigration policies totally capsizing the supremacy clause and expanding judicial power to encroach upon areas of traditionally complete
▶ 1:44:44executive discretion in June of 2023 the Supreme Court in US versus Texas emphatically rejected Ed the alleged standing of states to sue the federal government to alter its immigration arrest policies this bill now attempts a legislative bypass of the decision in US versus Texas written by Justice Cavanaugh and joined by a justices on the court in rejecting the state's standing argument the court
▶ 1:45:15noted among other things that lawsuits alleging insufficient arrests or prosecution run against executive branches exclusive Article 2 authority to enforce the law which includes the discretion to determine enforcement priorities and methods in the face of a chronic lack of resources and shifting Public Safety needs if this bill were to become law both Provisions would have the perverse effect of undermining the government's efforts to prioritize the detention
▶ 1:45:45and deportation of the most dangerous convicted felons with the vastly expanded new statutory scope and new Authority for States to get this standing on steroids the government can be sued by a state for not detaining everyone charged with or even arrest for the pettiest of crimes the Supreme Court has repeatedly noted the importance of standing and upholding our system of separated Powers observing in Reigns versus bird that no principle is a more fundamental of the judiciary's proper
▶ 1:46:15role in our system of government than the Constitutional limitation of federal court jurisdiction to actual cases or controversies this is very Salient in the immigration context where the executive branch must exercise its discretion under authority to enforce immigration law because of limited resources and the consequences such decisions may have on its primary role over foreign policy and commerce yet this bill tries to give State standing to sue for harms as small as a $100
▶ 1:46:45dramatically shifting power from the executive branch to the Judiciary and the federal government to the states in constitutionally dubious ways because this bill now appears to be on a Glide path to passage Steve Bannon is boasting about how he plans to work with magga State Attorneys General to exploit a provision in the bill to sue to stop the federal government from issuing any visas to entire countries deemed uncooperative such as India this could significantly harm our legal immigration system
▶ 1:47:15and will have massive foreign policy implications as you know visas are part and parcel of complex reciprocal relation ships involving trade US citizen access to foreign visas economic exchanges and National Security and intelligence cooperation like many of the immigration related bills the GOP is advancing today this one follows a simple strategy pick a crime any crime then paste it into a template immigration law already covering convicted
▶ 1:47:46criminals but then require detention or Deport of certain persons merely accused of commit committing the crime no no due process required at all Mr Rasin yes you have now spoken for 12 minutes and 20 seconds is there a limit now in the rules committee there is not an official time I'm on my last paragraph but we are urging people please I would like to finish this if you had told me in advance I would have had it down to 5 minutes I cut it down from 25 to 12 so I I didn't know that there were new
▶ 1:48:16time limits and rules well we're we're just urging people so that we can complete our work before we have to go set the rules I will comply with the rules Miss well if you could just we're happy to have your printed uh stat I'm on my last paragraph if you don't mind I I will do that just to round it out today you're asked to vote to advance a constitutionally dubious bill that fails to address any of the real problems of our broken immigration system but requires the mandatory detention and deportation of people
▶ 1:48:47simply accused of a crime just accused of it even if they turn out to be innocent even if the charges are completely dropped and we are procedurally foreclosed from offering any amendments to improve this radical and sloppy product I urge my colleagues to oppose this and I yield back to you madam chair thank you Mr Rasin representative mclin talk thank you for being here today would you like to respond to anything the ranking member said in
▶ 1:49:17his long remarks well let let me mention a couple of things you he he says well this doesn't require uh conviction well he forgets that current law requires every single illegal alien in this country to be detained during the entire pendency of their Asylum claims that is the current law this is the law that they have have studiously ignored for the last four years and now saying ignore the law
▶ 1:49:47even if that illegal alien has been charged with committing other crimes as well let them back on the streets let them continue to pray on innocent Americans like Lake and Riley and if a few innocent teens end up getting raped or murdered along the way that's just too bad um with respect to the the constitutionality of the measure uh this is what the Kavanagh Court actually did um of uh the the standing Provisions
▶ 1:50:18in the lake and Riley act actually give the states the ability to challenge all it in court in future open borders administrations that refuse to follow the law as written by Congress this bill follows the path that was laid out by Justice Kavanaugh in his majority opinion in United States versus Texas in that opinion he stated quote the standing analysis might differ when Congress elevates de facto injuries to the status of Legally uh
▶ 1:50:48cognizable injuries redressable by a federal court for example kavanau continues uh Congress might uh one specifically authorize suits against the executive branch by a defined set of plaintiffs who have suffered concrete harms from executive under enforcement and two specifically authorize the Judiciary to enter appropriate orders requiring additional arrests or prosecutions by the executive branch well that's exactly what this bill does it allows
▶ 1:51:18State officials to sue open border Administration officials for their lack of enforcement of immigration law if those legal violations harm the state or its residents this provision will help ensure that the American people never again have to suffer under the open borders policies like we experienced over the last four years so this bill does exactly what Justice Kavanaugh said Congress needs to do uh in order to to repair this problem thank you Mr
▶ 1:51:49mclintoch can you respond to claims that the leg this legislation would not have prevented the senseless murder of lake and Riley on the contrary U Lake and Riley's killer was arrested multiple times and released multiple times in sanctuary jurisdictions this measure would have put a stop to that and would would uh and lakan Riley and so many other this is a tale that is told over and over again we don't know exactly how many of these
▶ 1:52:19criminals among the 7.8 million this Administration allowed into our country are out there right now unfortunately we're finding out slowly uh uh Tragedy by horrific tragedy and I've asked how many more bills do we have to attach the names of these victims to before the Democrats will actually get uh will join us to protect the American people from the violence that they've Unleashed upon us thank you Mr mclintoch miss scin
▶ 1:52:49you recognized thank you you um you know this is hardly the first time we've considered this bill it seems like it's before us in some form or another every other week but it continues to not do anything to secure our Borders or reform our immigration system what it continues to do is exploit a young woman's tragic death to score cheap and grossly misleading political points it's long been the law in this country
▶ 1:53:19to detain and Deport undocumented immigrants who are convicted of serious crimes including rape and murder but that is not what this bill does this bill says if an undocumented immigrant is ever arrested not convicted just accused not even charged with shoplifting theft or other claim crimes they must be detained or jailed and although this mandatory detention is estimated to cost at least $26 billion in the first year and over $80 billion
▶ 1:53:50thereafter the bill doesn't provide any any extra money for enforcement in addition it does open the door to lawsuits by individual State's Attorney General against the federal government to block immigration laws and undermine our federal system the federal courts and even international relations with other countries this is an opportunity that has not received much attention but which our colleague Mr Roy has said is the part of the bill that has the mo most Force stating this bill would lose 90%
▶ 1:54:20of its luster if that were taken out so the lake and Riley Act is just bad legislation it doesn't make Americans safer it doesn't improve enforcement of existing laws and it opens the door to abuse of both our criminal justice system and our federal system it doesn't do what its proponents claim that it does but I submit that is not the real goal of this or any of the other immigration bills that Republicans are championing while they
▶ 1:54:50have control of Congress instead they're prioritizing exploiting the broken immigration system to make political arguments so just to be clear a vote against this bill is not a vote against detention or deportation of people who've committed a serious crime but it is a vote against a radical and expensive bill that doesn't solve the actual problems that we Face Mr Rasin do you have anything to add here I think it's particularly interesting that this piece about the states
▶ 1:55:21being able to block um Federal legislation Federal policies is viewed as the most important part of the bill by some of our conservative colleagues I think you summarized the situation very well congresswoman scanland um to begin with uh this doesn't address any of the immigration problems in the country and to do that would require the kind of bipartisan compromise that we had at the end of the last Congress that Donald Trump blew up and I wish we were getting together on a bipartisan
▶ 1:55:51basis right now to hammer out a serious meaningful compromise at toughening up the border and creating lawful Pathways to citizenship for uh the dreamers for the the DACA kids um that's something that would be meaningful on on the immigration side in terms of Public Safety security side I would love to have that debate with our colleagues because we we have the highest rate of gun violence and gun death in the industrialized world nothing even comes close
▶ 1:56:21and we could name not uh a handful but thousands of bills after all of the victims of uh gun violence from Sandy Hook Connecticut to the margorie Stoneman Douglas School in Florida to El Paso Texas to Buffalo to the Amish School Shooting I mean you name it we could just keep going we could name them after people every day but at that point the reservoir of compassion and emotional concern on the other side of the aisle dries up uh they don't seem to feel it in the same
▶ 1:56:52way way there they want to assert a constitutional principle which the Supreme Court has never found which is that there's somehow a right for uh US citizens to possess weapons of war on the streets of America what we really need is a ban on AR-15s and uh military style assault weapons in America if you want to get serious about saving people's lives and that's um whether the AR-15s are wielded by US citizens or undoc
▶ 1:57:22aliens or people on other kinds of legal immigration status it's the those weapons are a major danger as well as not having a universal violent criminal background check which is supported by more than 90% of the people so if we were serious about Public Safety or immigration we would be addressing those issues in serious ways now as to your final point about standing um the the this legislation's authorization of a cause of action is neither specific nor
▶ 1:57:52does it identify particular plaintiffs as called for by the Supreme Court decision it's the near opposite almost any state or person could sue for nearly any claimed harm at all regardless of whether it's traceable to specific Federal immigration enforcement action or not so this is just basically giving the keys to the federal court and the keys to Federal immigration policy to State Attorneys General because somebody happens to like a few of the attorney generals today
▶ 1:58:23thank you I appreciate that I mean the problem with a lot of these messaging bills is that the devil is in the details it's our job to read the fine print and call it out when that fine print is actually harmful so I appreciate your expertise in this area I yield back thank you Miss scandin Mr Norman you recognized uh Miss lger Fernandez you're recognized thank you madam
▶ 1:58:53chair um uh you know we should absolutely hold accountable immigrants in everybody when they commit a crime especially when it's against a law officer especially when it's against law enforcement officer and we had 140 Capital police end up in the hospital some died because they were in
▶ 1:59:24this building they have now been shame we are concerned about attacks on enforcement we should be denouncing the pardons of those who attacked the people who protect us in this building
▶ 1:59:55did you want to well I I agree very strongly with what you just said um Miss leer Fernandez uh and uh we were I think all of us were here uh on that day where those police officers risked their lives their limbs their um ability to be with their families ever again to save us to save the vice president of the United States as a violent mob chanted hang Mike Pence hang Mike Pence and chased us out of the house chamber
▶ 2:00:25and the Senate chamber I think it's scandalous that people who would smash police officers over the head with baseball bats hockey sticks Confederate battle flags and so on um would be pardoned without any statement that they've been reformed or rehabilitated and no longer constitute a threat to Public Safety and to the members of Congress our staffs and the people who work here so I agree with that completely those are people who had every element of due process
▶ 2:00:55they were indicted they were prosecuted they had the right to introduce evidence they had the right to cross-examine Witnesses they were convicted unanimously by a jury of their peers or in the case of most of them they pled guilty to their offenses because they were caught on tape um oftentimes by other insurrectionists who caught them on tape so um those people were definitely guilty and yet there's still people who say that somehow the criminal justice system is unfair and now I think just to score political points there's an effort
▶ 2:01:26to put legislation through which would not even require that moome of due process leading all the way up to conviction but would simply say if somebody is arrested or charged with a minor offense even if the charges are dropped even if the arrest is nullified I I just I don't understand the discordance in approach to our Criminal Justice System right and with regards to immigrants uh who commit the these crimes just once again restating there is already
▶ 2:01:56a process to hold them accountable to convict them to deport them that's already in the law correct that has been in the law since 1996 it has been a strong bipartisan consensus that anybody who is in the country um as an undocumented or a documented immigrant even someone here with legal status who commits a serious offense uh is subject to mandatory detention and and they should be so that's the law I want to talk a little bit about
▶ 2:02:26some of the UN the maybe intended consequences because this is the second bill that we are seeing here which could have very negative consequences for immigrant women and let me tell you a story uh there was an immigrant woman who showed up an emergency room because she had been beaten so severely by her partner that she ended up in in the hospital but she was terrified because she had been told by
▶ 2:02:56her abuser that if she said anything he would make sure she got deported and under the bill we passed last week which was about the violence against Ren act brought by Republicans who voted against the violence and against women act but they brought a bill with that title that immigrant woman would be subject to deportation looking at this bill here her abuser would have to do nothing more than
▶ 2:03:26accuse her of maybe hitting him back and if she were arrested but never charged and never tried for that crime she could be uh uh incarcerated and deported is that what would happen here that's exactly what would happen and that's why 200 domestic violence groups have written to every member of Congress Republicans and Democrats alike to say please don't do this that bill is going to harm the victims of domestic violence you're doing it in the name of
▶ 2:03:57the victims but you're going to injure them and expose them to more violence and control by their abuser right and these are the concerns it's these consequences that this bill does not consider because that's if it's just an arrest right you go up and this woman who presented she had been beaten so bad that despite her fear and the threats from her abuser she was worried about losing her children she she needed hospital care and this bill
▶ 2:04:27all he had to do was the threat M have an arrest made and she'd be gone and that is scary and I think that that's what we need to recognize when we look at these bills and we are worried about what would happen and I know that my uh colleague from uh Pennsylvania would like to speak to this yeah I just wanted to reaffirm what my colleague from New Mexico said having worked with legal aid providers for decades we see this time and time again where the victim of
▶ 2:04:57abuse then becomes Accused by the abuser and ends up with convictions and thus pitchforked into this situation so it's not some rare thing it happens all the time and it's just one of the ways in which the system that's being uh pushed here gets perverted yeah but I I would just add to what you've said is that our criminal justice system and our civil systems like immigration have always
▶ 2:05:28organized around the distinction between a criminal conviction and everything else and I'm sure those I I know my friend chip Roy is somebody who's very attuned to people's constitutional rights we would not want to let this certainly slide over to the realm of citizens that if a citizen is simply arrested or charged with something they can suddenly start losing their rights whether we're talking about voting right rights or gun rights or anything else we've always held very fast to the distinction between what is a criminal conviction
▶ 2:05:58and what is an arrest or charges for the reasons that the gentle ladies are saying which is that people can be charged with a lot of things and people can be arrested for a lot of things but it doesn't necessarily mean that they committed an offense and that's what due process is all about there's a sense of fairness and making sure that when somebody is falsely accused and FAL and then you know an arrest can be made without Mal inent by the law enforcement they are operating on an accusation that was
▶ 2:06:28made will make the arrest we'll realize that there are no grounds for that arrest and they'll be that'll be the end of it well in a lot of places they will have to charge someone if there's an accusation of domestic violence or they routinely will charge someone right and so this so in a lot of these cases the woman slaps the abuser or scratches the abuser or in one case we saw bit the ear of of the uh abuser um and then the abuser files charges with the police or says you know she hit
▶ 2:06:58me she started it she hit me and so now there charges against her and then suddenly she's on the road to deportation right and I think that there are these things and that's why convictions are important that's why the next step is very important you know I think it is also worrisome when we were giving States AGS the right to basically determine our immigration policy uh and determine our uh Visa policy and determine so much of our uh International
▶ 2:07:29policy but um with that unless there's anything else you would like to add uh ranking member Ras and with that I will yield back thank you m leer Fernandez Mr Langworthy you're recognizing thank you very much Madam chairwoman uh representative mcclint you point out an important piece of this bill is the provision that would allow States standing to bring civil cases against the federal government for failure to enforce immigration laws what impact will this have
▶ 2:07:59on possible future open borders uh Administration like the one the American people have just endured that refuses to enforce Federal immigration laws well it'll simply assure that the law is enforced and I might point out the standing Provisions under this bill don't undo the will of Congress they give States the standing to sue the federal government when it refuses to enforce immigration laws that the Congress has mandated by ignoring the
▶ 2:08:29the clear statutory mandates for the Detention of illegal aliens the the the Biden Harris Administration reversed the will of Congress is clearly outlined in in statute this bill simply says that those who are already under current law required to be detained that is every person who has entered the country illegally they have to be detained under current law while their Asylum claim is being heard this bill simply says if you've got an Administration like the last one
▶ 2:09:00that's ignoring this law and that same alien who's supposed to be in custody anyway is then arrested for committing other crimes against the American people or for that matter against the Immigrant Community itself they have to be detained they're end of discussion uh end of excuses and I might also point out that that it is the Immigrant community that is the most at risk uh from these uh from these criminals because
▶ 2:09:30they pray upon the people that that they are associated with uh so so you know to say that somehow this is anti-immigrant quite the contrary that this assures the safety of the Immigrant and Native communities combined by getting dangerous people off the streets who should be in custody anyway well thank you and I agree with with Mr Rasin the the the the the violence in this country is absolutely appalling and I would offer this Modest
▶ 2:10:00Proposal that maybe we ought to remove dangerous criminals from our streets in response to the violence that we're seeing in those streets particularly in uh uh Democratic run cities uh that refuse to um prosecute the criminals in their midst and in fact protect the criminals who are illegal aliens through their Sanctuary laws this bill is a step toward taking back our streets from the violent Predators who have been praying on us here here
▶ 2:10:31um thank you now is the so New Yorker on this day but this is not strange to you Mr mcclinch as a Californian I need to also raise the issue of sanctuary jurisdictions in the serious life-threatening damage that they have done to our communities uh what role have Sanctuary jurisdictions played in shielding Al aliens who commit crimes like the murder of lake and Riley from being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported from our country huge again lakan Riley's killer
▶ 2:11:01was not convicted of theft he was arrested for theft under this law he would have been placed in custody as an illegal alien uh during the dep pendency of his Asylum claims of of that what what the Democrats are arguing is he should have been released that's what the Democrats did they had him released and lak Riley is dead as a result of that decision we need to be clear what the sanctuary laws say
▶ 2:11:32they say that when a when local authorities have a criminal illegal alien in custody where that criminal is is disarmed instead of obeying federal law and notifying I so that they can be kept in custody until removed that criminals instead released right back into our communities that was true of lake and Riley's killer it was true of joshan nar's killer it was true of Sarah Root's killer uh and so many others whose names we haven't attached yet to legislation but who are just as dead and whose deaths
▶ 2:12:02were just as preventable and and now under these Sanctuary laws law enforcement has to confront them when they are uh uh not when they're unarmed uh and in custody but rather when they are armed and at large after committing other heinous crimes this is this is absolutely insane and what mystifies me is that the Democrats would support Sanctuary policies that Shield criminal illegals from Deport deportation and instead release them back into our communities to pray upon not only
▶ 2:12:32Americans but as I said upon the Immigrant communities from which they come they say these Sanctuary laws U uh uh protect uh the Immigrant Community there's no proof of that whatsoever indeed an illegal immigrant family staying at The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City is far more likely to be victimized by these criminals and gangs uh than those who live per perhaps in Scarsdale U Sanctuary laws
▶ 2:13:03do not protect the Immigrant Community they protect those who are most likely to pray upon the Immigrant community and by the way pray upon the rest of us as well and and and I just have to add that lakens killer you know he came to New York because there's the bright Beacon of uh the sanctuary city laws in New York city that has been an attractive to this criminal element uh and because of our ridiculous cashless bail system he walked the streets right after he committed a crime and was able to go
▶ 2:13:33on to Georgia uh and Laken would be alive today if we didn't have uh those laws in place in New York and that that is just a you know just devastating that it is just the wrongheaded policies that have taken us in this direction uh I want to thank you uh repres restive mlto and I'll just finish my time here by reminding my colleagues that the American people voted for change in November and that change included abandoning these Asing life-threatening open borders policies promoted by the Biden Administration
▶ 2:14:04they voted for a president and a congress who would work together to not only uphold our federal immigration laws but to also hold jurisdictions accountable for providing so-called sanctuaries to those who break our laws when they come to our country and to Those who commit horrific crimes while residing here illegally uh I am a proud co-sponsor of this legislation I look forward to sending this bill to the president's desk later this week with the rest of my colleagues and with that Madame chairwoman I yield back
▶ 2:14:34thank you Mr Langworthy Mr mcover you're recogniz yeah I I um I don't want to take very much time I I just want to say that um I don't want to be lectured about Law and Order from Republicans especially on this day but uh uh Mr Rasin um I I I think wanted to respond uh and I think that's an appropriate thing to do so that this doesn't just turn into a series of sound bites so if I don't if you want have anything to add if you don't that's fine but if you do yeah um thank you Mr McGovern just a couple quick points one
▶ 2:15:05is that um the killer that we're talking about would not be held even under the new law because he was never arrested um he was treated in Georgia under Georgia's law with a citation for misdemeanor shoplifting but he was never arrested and that's why um he there was no ice 287g check done on him he would have been
▶ 2:15:35identified and um likely removed according uh to the Athens Clark County Police Department had that been done but he was never arrested and he wouldn't be arrested under the he would not be covered under this legis ation so it strikes me as just off point but um the the gentleman uh was talking about the dangerous criminals that have been let loose in the land and I think there are more than a thousand dangerous criminals
▶ 2:16:05who were let loose last night who are in Washington DC or around the country I don't know that any of them are non-citizens I think most of them are US citizens but that doesn't make us feel any better so that is a soft on crime soft on violent crime policy that was embarked upon the very first day of the new Administration so I suppose I'm with uh the ranking member and saying uh this is a particularly bad day for anybody on that side of the AL to get up and purport to lecture us
▶ 2:16:36on Public Safety when there are proud boys oathkeepers members of the kuks clan three centers and other Marauders and insurrectionists who've been set loose without any guarantee that they won't engage in violent action again either against public institutions or police officers uh one quick correction to um uh Miss leer Fernandez it was not 140 Capital police officers who were wounded injured and hospitalized it was 80
▶ 2:17:07and then there were 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department and there were police officers from other surrounding jurisdictions including Montgomery County Maryland who came to defend us against the mop attack on January 6 thank you Mr madam staff just gave him something so I'll yield to him to just to correct the record Isis said that Iber was arrested New York City in September 2023 and was charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 any a motor vehicle license violation so he
▶ 2:17:37was arrested we're referring to two different incidents okay okay but but it but for being just let out even though he was endangering the welfare of a child in the state of New York and led to go to Georgia he would have have been detained and under this he would be detained corre thank you and I yell back well if I might respond to you Mr langor I appreciate that um if there are any crimes that are committed violent or otherwise by the more than thousand people who are released from jail yesterday would you then
▶ 2:18:07say that Donald Trump is responsible for what they're doing well that follows from your logic not even absolutely not entering this rhetorical question people that have entered this country illegally and commit crimes should be removed from the country period end of I thought you were talking about release from Criminal custody yeah I would I would just thank you very much I just again I without belaboring this point uh but the the reality is is that the people that were released yesterday I mean
▶ 2:18:37one of them one of the things that they they can now do is go and buy weapons um and one of them uh just tweeted that uh grateful for the parent he's now going out to buy a bunch of effing weapons so um again you you all own this you all own this I back uh Mr Scott you're recognized Madame chair I would just like to give credit to my friend Mike Collins for his work on the legislation and I
▶ 2:19:07would um again you know I hate that I hate that Lake and Riley is not with us I think her parents um in in their grief have found comfort in that um the legacy of their daughter is going to go on and hopefully this won't happen some what happened to her won't happen to some other people and uh I look forward to voting for this piece of
▶ 2:19:37legislation and to be honest with you I wish it went further with that I yield thank you Mr Scott Mr Griffith you recognize let me Echo the comments of Mr Scott he did a nice job Mr Worthy's done a nice job uh I am proud to support this bill and I yield back Mr Roy you're recognized um I'll try to be mindful of time I know we want to try to get get this done and vote um I would
▶ 2:20:07just note uh as one of the original authors of the Su act portion of this bill um it does have specificity with respect to targeting uh parole parole abuses um detention uh releases is pretty specific in what it's trying to Target to ensure that the Attorney General of States like the state of Texas who are faced with a recalcitrant federal government refusing to secure the Border have some recourse and it's pretty actually specific in laying that out and why and
▶ 2:20:38um I would note you know last night I was um able to attend one of the one of the balls and um one of my guests was Alexis nungay and Alexis came with her husband Alexis testified front of the Judiciary Committee last summer um she turned 28 just recently uh she lost her 13-year-old daughter last July um absolutely lovely woman um chose life when she
▶ 2:21:08was 14-year-old um was Raising Joselyn Joselyn was murdered U by members of a Venezuelan gang they were very specifically released into our country by the Biden administ ation there are example after example after example of this so this bill would address that it would address that with respect to the state of Texas having had recourse when the federal government was failing to do its job that's what this bill would do it is a fundamentally important resetting of the balance so that states no
▶ 2:21:38longer will ever have to tolerate what we've been tolerating for the last four years there is no possible way to explain the extent to which the people that I represent the people across this country like Alexis last night who went out there a non-political young woman in her 20s a simple mom of a 13-year-old girl and she went and put her in her bed and then she wasn't there anymore and Alexis got out and started campaigning
▶ 2:22:08went on the stage with Senator Cruz president Trump why because you didn't want that to happen to anybody else Alexis is Hispanic by Heritage parents are uh immigrants um I think Generations back depending on which side of the family you want to talk about um never in her own words sitting at the table in the back conference room at the Judiciary Committee said family never asked for anything never wanted any benefits government programs they just wanted the ability to work in this country
▶ 2:22:39and you know I I was honored to have her with me last night I took her there because I felt bad she couldn't go to the inauguration obviously we had indoors I bring that up because it matters we were sitting there taking it on the chin as the people of the State of Texas and other people around the country was just Texas Maryland Rachel Marin right here in Maryland Lake and Riley here in in Georgia and so this bill would set out to address that problem while also then addressing the problem that we simply want to detain
▶ 2:23:10and to uh the gentleman from Maryland I would say I mean look it it's not shocking that we have situations where American citizens are afforded uh due process but that due process is recognized to me that I can be detained if I'm charged with a crime I can be detained without bail I can be detained and not released as a citizen um as the gentleman knows and as we're all aware um there's nothing Earth shattering about that um I can't recall the the professor will know better than I because
▶ 2:23:40I haven't studied it for a while but uh I think what was it the bail Reform Act or whatever had a couple different you know Provisions in it uh one of which was danger to society the other of which was the likelihood you might not show up and I'm just kind of thinking that maybe the fact that you're here illegally might fit in squarely into the idea that we might not believe you'll show up and that's what you apply to American citizens so from my standpoint the idea that we've got legislation that is simply laying out a process by which we can detain people who are here
▶ 2:24:10illegally and have ice put a detainer on them working with local law enforcement and say you know what there's going to be times in a future Administration when you want to try to not detain them very specifically that we're going to say we're going to detain and provide greater tools and greater uh requirements that we detain people who are here illegally and yes sometimes it's based on charges because at some point in the balancing of interest if you're here illegally and you're charged with a crime and no doubt occasionally someone's charged
▶ 2:24:40with a crime who's here illegally who should not have been that happens but you're charged with a crime I think we should look out for the interest and balance the interest of the citizens who might be at risk particularly when an Administration is so flouted the law and common sense to have released Millions at any one time including yes very dangerous individuals so with that I will yield back to the chair one um thank you Mr Roy Mr Jack you're
▶ 2:25:10recognized I'll just first uh applaud Mr Roy for sharing that story I'm very familiar with that story I'm glad it's entered into the record and I just want to also concur with Mr Scott the dean of our delegation uh in applauding Mr Collins for sponsoring this legislation his father uh served in Congress and represented my congressional district many years ago and I think that he does great um Justice to Lake and Riley and all of the people in Georgia in our country by advancing this legislation and earning significant bipartisan
▶ 2:25:41support for this bill in our house and likewise as we've seen in the Senate with that I yield back thank you very much Miss fishbo thank you mam chair I I just want to associate myself with the uh with the remarks of of this side of the uh Das uh I appreciate the passion and um information and uh it is I I'm a co-sponsor of this bill and it is just critical that we do this to protect
▶ 2:26:11um our women our children our society and our individuals because crime is is uh out of control and this is one thing that we can do to help to get um to uh make sure that those people responsible are being sent out of our country and uh so I appreciate that and I just I did um I I'm not asking the question I is simply a rhetorical question but as we talk about uh president Trump's
▶ 2:26:41pardon of the j6 individuals what about the thousands of criminals that Mr Biden uh pardoned on his way out the door we're not talking about those um and and is he going to be responsible for every sing if one of them reoffend the your your question to uh Mr Langworthy and I think are you asking me no I said it was rhetorical I was very very very clear and
▶ 2:27:11I I just you know let's let's actually talk about the facts instead of the sound bites that I hear from the other side and with that I I yield back Madam chair thank you everyone um I am about to close the hearing portion of the and uh the chair will be in receipt of a motion pardon
▶ 2:27:48yeah okay this closes the hearing portion the chair will be in the receipt of a motion from the gentleman from Georgia Mr Scott Madam chair I move the committee Grant HR 471 the fix our farest act to structured rule the rule waves All Points of order against consideration of the bill the rule provides one hour of General debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on natural resources or their respective designes the rule provides that the bill shall be considered as read the rule waves All Points
▶ 2:28:18of order against Provisions in the bill the rule makes an order only those amendments printed in the rules committee report each Amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report may be offered only by a member designated in the report shall be considered as read shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent shall not be subject to Amendment and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question all points of order against this the Amendments printed in the report or wave the rule provides one motion to recommit the rule further
▶ 2:28:48provides for consideration of S5 the lake and Riley act under a closed rule the rule waves All Points of order against consideration of the bill the rule provides that the bill shall be considered as read the rule waves All Points of order against Provisions in the bill the rule provides one hour of General debate equally divided and control by the chair and ranking minority members member of the committee on the Judiciary or the respective designes finally the rule provides one motion to commit thank you very much you've
▶ 2:29:18now heard the motion is there any discussion or Amendment to the rule yes Madam chair um Madam chairwoman I have an amendment to the rule uh I move the committee make an order amendment number two to HR 471 offered by Mr ngus of Colorado which inserts the updated text of the Tim Hart wildland firefighter classification and pay parody act to improve pay and benefits for the uh Federal Wildland firefighters
▶ 2:29:50do anyone else wish to speak on Mr Amendment hearing no comments the questions on the amendment all those in favor say signify by saying I I I all those opposed no no the amendment is not I ask for a roll call because I believe they deserve this the cour will call the rooll Mrs fishbach no Mrs fishbach no Mr Norman Mr Norman no Mr Roy no Mr Roy no Mrs hin no Mrs hin
▶ 2:30:21no Mr Langworthy no Mr Langworthy no Mr Scott no Mr Scott no Mr Griffith no Mr Griffith no Mr Jack no Mr Jack no Mr McGovern I Mr McGovern I miss ganin I miss ganin I Mr nus Miss leer Fernandez I miss leer Fernandez I Madam Madam chair no Madam chair no the clerk will report the total Three A's nine Nays the NOS have it the amendment is not agreed to are there other amendments
▶ 2:30:51Madam chair Miss leer Fernandez Madame chairwoman I have an amendment to the rule I move the committee Mak an order amendment number 7 to HR 471 offered by myself amendment number 7 would insert authorizations for Appropriations for activities in various sections of the bill it just doesn't make sense to recognize all of the work some of which I agree with in fix our Force but not provide even an authorization for the money it would take to actually fix our forest
▶ 2:31:22it takes people to manage a forest which means you have to pay those people so it's not because of community input or endangered CES that we are not treating the Acres that need to be treated it's because the forest service simply does not have the resources it needs to meet its Forest management goals I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of my Amendment so that the forest service has the resources it needs to keep our community safe and with that I yield
▶ 2:31:53back does anyone else wish to speak on the amendment by m leer Fernandez hearing no other further comments the questions on the amendment all those in favor signified by saying I I those oppos no no no in the opinion of chair the NOS have it the Amendments not agreed to Madam chairwoman I request you uh record to vote the clerk will call the role Mrs fish no Mrs fishbach no Mr Norman no Mr Norman
▶ 2:32:23no Mr Roy no Mr Roy no Mrs howchin no Mrs hin no Mr Langworthy no Mr Langworthy no Mr Scott no Mr Scott no Mr Griffith no Mr Griffith no Mr Jack no Mr Jack no Mr McGovern Mr McGovern I miss ganin I miss ganin I Mr nus Miss leer Fernandez I miss leer Fernandez I Madam chair no Madam chair no the the clerk will report the total Three A's nine Nays the
▶ 2:32:53NOS have it the amendment is not agreed to Madam chair yes ma Madam chairwoman I have an amendment to the rule and move the committee Mak an order amendment number 8 to HR 471 offered by myself amendment number 8 would actually uh include in the bill the seedlings for sustainable habitat restoration which passed by unanimous consent out of the house natural resources committee last Congress similar to representative Goose's uh Bill there were many amendments to this bill
▶ 2:33:23that were actually or that could have been included in here which were bipartisan approved by the committee the idea of having closed rules where we are not able to offer amendments that are bipartisan and could pass the floor I think is misplaced it would be great to have the debate on the floor on these wide range of amendments and with that I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of my Amendment and I yell back thank you does anyone else wish to speak on the
▶ 2:33:55amendment if not the question is on the amendment all those in favor signify by saying I I I those oppos say nay no nay in the opinion chair that NOS have it the amendment is not agreed toest the G woman requests a recorded vote clerk will call the rooll Mrs fishbach no Mrs fishbach no Mr Norman no Mr Norman no Mr Roy no Mr Roy no Mrs howchin Mrs hin no Mr Langworthy
▶ 2:34:25Mr Langworthy no Mr Scott Mr Scott no Mr Griffith Mr Griffith no Mr Jack no Mr Jack no Mr McGovern I Mr McGovern I miss ganin miss ganin I Mr nus Miss lger Fernandez Miss ler Fernandez I Madam chair no Madam chair no the clerk will report the total three y's nine Nays the NOS have it the amendment is not not agreed to are there amendments
▶ 2:34:55hearing no further discussion the question is on the motion from the gentleman from Georgia all those in favor signify by saying I I those opposed say no no any opinion chair the eyes have it the motion is agreed to for a roll call Madam chair a recorded vote has been requested the clerk will call the rooll Mrs fishbach yes Mrs fishbach I Mr Norman I Mr Norman I Mr Roy I Mr Roy I Mrs hin I Mrs hin I Mr Langworthy I Mr
▶ 2:35:25Langworthy I Mr Scott I Mr Scott I Mr Griffith I Mr Griffith I Mr Jack I Mr Jack I Mr McGovern no Mr McGovern no Miss ganin no Miss scanlin no Mr ngus Miss leer Fernandez no Miss lger Fernandez no Madam chair I Madam chair I the clerk will report the total nine gay three Nays and the eyes have it the motion report is agreed to accordingly Mr
▶ 2:35:56Scott will be managing this rule for the majority and I will do it for the minority thank you Mr McGovern and I thank everyone for coming today with had great attendance and great attention to the time so I appreciate that very much without objection the committee is
▶ 2:36:48e e