Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 2, American Energy Solutions For Lower Costs And More American Jobs Act; Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 4, Jobs For America Act; And Providing For Proceedings During The Period From September 22, 2014, Through November 11, 2014

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the Rules Committee has actually read the bills that are in this package and knows that they are much more than what my colleague and friend from Colorado just described. Because actually, the forestry legislation is something that passed this House 363 days ago in a big bipartisan vote, a big portion of which was written by my Democratic friends Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader. That is in this package.

We have another bill coming up later that has twice passed this House unanimously. Those aren't partisan bills that are being put out, as you said, Mr. Polis, to reward donors or anything else. This is about creating jobs in America.

By the way, lots of parts of the world, like my district, need jobs. They need the certainty of jobs. And I don't know about Colorado, but Oregon and California and a lot of places are going up in smoke, choked with smoke because of forest fires.

The legislation in this package that we are going to send back over to the Senate one more time, thanks to this rule and thanks to the leadership of this chairman, would allow us to get people back to work in the woods, address the problems of these fires, produce revenues for schoolteachers, for sheriffs and sheriff's deputies, for search and rescue, for all the basic, fundamental services that matter in rural communities and, I think, matter across the West.

So, if you don't believe in taking care of your forests, then vote ``no'' on this rule.

Mr. Speaker, 363 days ago, the House passed H.R. 1526, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act. Two days short of a year, the Senate has done nothing--nothing. They failed to pass a single active forestry bill--nothing. Our forests are going up in smoke. We are spending taxpayer dollars to fight the fires. We are devastating watersheds. This has to change.

The Federal Government controls over 50 percent of the land in Oregon. In 10 of the 20 counties I represent, they control over half of the land. Over the last 30 years, timber harvests on these lands, these Federal lands, has been decreased by 90 percent--nine-zero. Forests aren't static; they keep growing and they keep dying. We get beetle infestations; we get drought; and then we get fire. Nothing happens after the fire, other than the trees sit there and burn. Then they die; then they rot; then they fall over. There is no productive use. All that needs to change.

Ninety percent reduction in harvest of Federal lands.

Do you know what that means out in our areas where the Federal Government is supposed to be the steward? It means that we have lost 300 mills and 30,000 American jobs--30,000 American jobs. These are jobs bills we are talking about here. These same rural areas that I represent have poverty rates at 20, 25, 30, even as high as 33.9 percent in Josephine County, right down in here, 33.9.

You want to do something about poverty? Create a job. You want to do something about getting America on track? Pass these bills. Get the Senate to pass these bills. We will create jobs. We will generate revenue. We will have positive cash flow in this country for once. It doesn't have to be this way. We can put people back to work. So Chairman Hastings and Chairman Bishop and myself and others worked on the bipartisan forestry legislation.

As I mentioned, we actually have run this bill through an independent evaluation process to say what does this mean for the people of Oregon, because there is a portion here that relates just to the O&C lands which are only in Oregon. Democratic Governor--Democratic Governor--John Kitzhaber, his team took a look at our bipartisan bill, and they concluded that it would create or save 3,000 Oregon jobs. These are real jobs. These are real people. These are real families that have been suffering. Three thousand Oregon jobs.

It would generate $100 million in revenue or thereabouts. That would pay--pay--for basic services, pay for basic services. 500 million board-feet of timber a year would be harvested. It would be predictable. You would have a private sector involvement here.

Twenty-nine Oregon counties, from Klamath, to Hood River, to Wallowa, including all 20 in my district, 29 Oregon counties passed resolutions supporting this bipartisan legislation. We passed it 363 days ago. The Senate, I don't know what they do over there, not much productive. We are going to give them another chance.

Yes, we are repackaging these bills. Yes, the House has passed these bills before. Yes, they passed in a bipartisan manner. We are at the end of our legislative session. It is time, one more time, to make another attempt to pass this into law, to wake up the Senate, to get them to do the right thing.

So support the rule. Let's move forward. We don't need more partisan rhetoric here. We need to help America get on its feet. We need to take better care of our forests. We need to take better care of our watersheds. We need to put people back to work in America. And that is what these bills do.

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