Experiencing what is known as the icebox. Effect. Where in effect, most looks at the sun. And it gets quite cool. Virtually, all of oregon is now choking on smoke. Thats whether you are inside or outside. Countless thousands of oregonians are under evacuation orders. Any are quite literally fleeing for their lives and abandoning their homes is the flames approach. When i was home this weekend initially thought that a number of my communities had been hit by a wrecking ball. That mr. President really understates the situation. Because usually, you can hit by a wrecking ball, theres a little bit left, its not just ashes. Now thousands of people in my state have lost their homes. Theyve lost their businesses, they have lost lifelong memories. We brought a picture to a family of a loved one. Lovely that they cherished. And it just struck me that is those kinds of memories, losing them, painful in any instances. And of losing houses and businesses and the like. The death toll has been rising. Others are still missing and unaccounted for. And amid all the panic and loss, one of the aspects that left me as a came back to washington with a bit of hope is we lost so much but we did not lose our spirits we didnt lose for we call the neighbors helping the neighbors. Volunteers helping evacuees getting food and water and shelter. Everybody steps up when a crisis arrives and nobody cares about politics. So i have come to the floor today with a specific purpose mr. President. That is to ask United States senate to match the same standard i saw of volunteers, neighbors, oregonians hoping oregonians this weekend. To show the same kind of cando tspirit but that senate needs o act on a different cause. New to this body. Estate a lot of rural terrains. It and im going to be asking him and every member of the senate, all 100 of us. To say, let us make today the day when the senate show chose o finally get serious about the cause of Fire Prevention that is harmed so any these last few weeks. Lets make this the day when the senate chose to take a dilapidated and out of date fire policy and replace it with a modern strategy for the real on the ground conditions that caused fires to magnify the paint that is being felt by millions today. And the reason i am making this request of the senate, that the senate replace the way force policy has been made in the pa past. Those past processes as my colleague already knows, since he has been here now. The senate moves often with glacially flow senate processes. In those processes are now being totally overwhelmed by the massive infernos. That are blanketing our communities and the west. With smoke that is literally up to her eyeballs. I am 6foot 4 inches and thats what iha felt this weekend. I everybodys else, and smoke up to rivals. In the process that the senate has were dealing with these new kinds of forest calamities. Theres no other way to describe it. Those procedures, last the urgency, the speed, they lack frankly month resolution discipline for the incredibly big job that needs to be done and done quickly. So today, i want to begin by offering three policies. That i believe can be supported by every senator, democrats and republicans in the belt around but i saw over the last few days. First is, congress should pass a 21st century civilian conservation. And ive actually seen press actually calling for this kind of approach. Where young people are involved, securing jobs with a pay a living wage. They can go in and shore up these communities threatened by fire. But on emphasize mr. President , that having served on the Energy Committee now for several years, having offered the two major bills in the forestry area, the bill with senator crapo, so that we no longer waste so much money budgeting for fire. The big buyers did not take care of in the disaster fund. Dont short change prevention. And then secure rural schools. Which i s think is also policy e benefits people all of the country and rural forested areas. Andd we need to have these youg people come up with all kinds of new policies. To really ensure that added measure of safety and i will just offer the first. All of it america, there are millions of acres of over stocked timber stands. Their hazardous fuel. And it is urgent, urgent, that we go in there and we can use these hardworking young people to clean out this over stocked stands and reduce the risk of fire. Fire is inevitable. I know of no bill, none. They can abolish fire. The question is, can we take concrete steps to reduce the suffering and the damage of these big fires. I just gave one example of what the 21st century civilian conservation course could do rated in my home state, there are more than 2 million acres thesegged in terms of hazardous fuels the need to be reduced so that you can have the 21st century century, thousands of young people going into every state. And taking action to reduce these risks. A lot of other things that can be done by the 21st century conservation inc. Learned this weekend going to need to deploy new cell phones, activities because a lot of people how have lossless connections. In fact, one of the challenges in trying to determine how any people we have lost is that we believe that a lot of people when the fires had went to a friends house. And then the friends, not able to communicate because they lost cell phone conductivity. So having young people work on communications. Having them clean out hazardous fuel. Having them work on stabilizing soil to prevent massive flooding because make no mistake about it, all the west and oregon, washington and in california. Were going to need this soil stabilizations projects to prevent massive flooding, this spring. Assures the nightfall of the day. It will be a problem. Using the 21st century core, to deploy folks into the forest and into her wild lands. Urban areas theres a connection, and interface because we have a lot of fires in those areas. In then conservation corps can reduce and prevent catastrophic fires they can do it on a grand scale. In an ideal part of this is one of the reasons that i think this appeals to the democrats and republicans. It is there does not have to be a fight over carrying out our countries environmental loss. As i mentioned, nor again alone, theres more than 2 million acres and is to be treated. That thosere treatmen. The Lightning Strikes carelessly dropped matt, can start yet another inferno. So picture that. After everything that we have had, over the last few days. You have all of these hazardous fuels built up. Any of the Lightning Strike that is carefull. Youve read througs of other acres in a blink of an eye. They badly need this investment. It would really be an updated version of one of the most popular programs the government has ever pursued. They came out of the new deal. They would be a huge economic boost to Rural Communities. See this in the senate. From iowa, Rural Communities if governments left them behind. So that is my first proposal. The first of three. That i believe can help us not only come together as a senate to reduce the devastating toll of these fires that are not your grandfathers fires. The bigger the hotter and more powerful. We can do it together. In the second area that i want to see the senate focus on is addressing the fires means a lot more than spending all of your money on just putting big fires arout. Science has shown that wildfires are part of thehe natural lifecycle of certain parts of the nation. And if all you do is focus on putting out fires all of the time, the destructive cycle and that can lead to bigger fires down the road. When america no longer just manageable national fires, instead we get these huge infernos like the ones with god and oregon. Fires that are hot enough to melt the car. And sterilize the soil. If it is the president senate, to just imagine how hot its gotta be to melt the car. Scientists who have been looking at the various tools for dealing with these horrors. Democrats, republicans, and it basically involves a prescribed fire that can be done safely in the offseason. Say in the winter months. During those months, there is less risk of spread. You can limit the smoke. Civilians, conservation, court workers, working with the scientists at the u. S. Forest service, home land management, the Oregon Forest street and our county can target, target carefully these prescribed fires during the offseason, and help prevent catastrophic fires in the summer and fall by using the concept to clean out the dead and dying undergrowth. Heres the proposition, madame president , if you could use prescribed fires to burn a little when it is safe in the offseason, you can save a whole lot later. A whole lot later on by preventing catastrophe during those hotter months. Of summer and fall. I have got a bill that i have been developing with energy and Natural Resources committee. Thats approach, like the 21st century conservation corps will be ready for cosponsors later this week. And then im going to be all of my colleagues to ask for support for this commonsense approach. For this catastrophic avoidance. The third proposal brings it altogether. Congress must finally kick the aversion to making the longterm budget investment in treatment and Fire Prevention. Managing our force requires an investment that we look to be on the next 36 hours. Or wild fire resilience needs to be approached as a longerterm proposition. One that can make our Community Safer whilebe generating jobs. Improving recreation opportunities and yet this has been an investment the senate has been unwilling to spend. Clearly, not enough has been done to deal with Fire Prevention. And the fact that the congress has constantly been shorting Fire Prevention is contributing to what is being seen in oregon and throughout the west right now. Shorting Fire Prevention is the wrong way to go. And this item, number three, literally a matter of life and death. Somehow this senate can produce hundreds of billions of dollars for tax breaks for special interests. There are outrageous subsidies for fossil fuels that compounded the Climate Crisis. Now, senator crapo and i, my colleague that sets just a few seats away. Republican of idaho. Worked for years in a bipartisan way to end what is called fire borrowing. This is actually the first year when our bill has gone into effect, gone into the point where we needed over 300 citizen groups to pass this bill. Because so often, the big fires were fought with prevention money, borrowed from the prevention accounts, and the fire just got worse. So senator crapo and i both said that is foolish by washington d. C. Standards. We were able to get a special fund for big fires that will be fought from the disaster fund. Even with the beginning that senator crapo and i have made on a bipartisan basis, the fire in prevention is still so, so woefully short. More has to be done to limit the damage from staggering powerful forest fires. In one of the best ways to do it is to Start Building up that Prevention Fund that senator crapo and i started here in the United States senate. We have laid the foundation. But it is clearly not enough. Ive checked actually a couple of days ago. There is 3 billion that is now in the fund for fire suppression. We are sure going to need that because we have scores of fires still burning in oregon. But we are going to need to build up preventive funds and still prevention as of today, september 2020 is woefully underfunded. The Forest Service has a technical tools it needs to improve forest health. To reduce the risk of fire. As i mentioned, the 2 millionacre backlog just in oregon, multiply that all over the west. All over the country where there are forest that are under the jurisdiction of the federal government. And it is pretty clear. America has got to decide it is urgent business to build up the budget for Fire Prevention. By allowing the Fire Preventions backlog, congress is just racking up more debt. Dangerous debt. The devastation and the smoke in oregon and across the west toda today, is a debt coming due. For those of us in the west who fear it is going to be impossible to pay the enormous bill that we have been handed through a combination of lousy forest three science and a dis interest in real policies that reduce Climate Change. We know the job is going to be hard. But we can and must do it by coming together like i saw oregonians do just this last weekend. Now before ie wrap up paired i want to mention there have been some misguided priorities on all sides of the political spectrum. On one side from the timber industry, the management to pursue of the environmental laws but on the other side misguided non management priorities it beat every attempt to manage our forest based on science. Now, add to that ridiculous new lies and delusions are seeing online about the causes of these fires and you have a recipe for distraction on how the senate must move forward. Just today, visiting california, the president was asked about Climate Change and fires. And he said, no problem. The president said and i quote, it will start getting cooler. And then he blamed, and i quote, explosive trees. Sending that kind of nonsense across the land is cold comfort to the families morning the loved ones they have lost in the fires or the thousands of oregonians who barely made it out before their homet and family went up in flames. The senate has obligation to act. An obligation to act because around this country and its not just in my state, but across the west, neighbors, animal lovers, local uhaul businesses, teachers retirees, all are stepping up and pitching in. They are bringing food and clothes and towels. There helping with Mental Health services. I particularly once, before i wrap up to thank the incredible firefighters. The firefighters who are working on hardly any sleep. In the first responders, the people, police, and others who are doing so much. They are helping with cell phones and service, my staff and others in the delegation have been working with these folks and i see my friend from virginia who knows a lot about what it takes to maintain communications that works and that is what we are working on this afternoon. One problem that has come up there is network equipment. Theres a major strain on the resources for people on the front line fighting the inferno. For example the repeater that i can amplify a signal and keep our firefighters connected. So i am hearing that this country doesnt have enough repeaters. Its got to begin to address such w a crisis but the west is experiencing. It is another example of what happens when you ignore year after year, the urgent need for serious Fire Prevention. And i told some friends before i left, oregon, is going to come back. At that im going to try to bring the senate together around prior mission Fire Prevention. Semi said youre going to be mr. Fire prevention pretty said no thats not how it works. I would like to make this the senate that is known for Fire Prevention. The senate does have between there and here are 100 United States senators. We have differences of opinion. Lowered knows that is the case. Im just going to mention one. But i also offered concrete proposals in the 21st century conservation for prescribed burning, changes in the budget. The democrats into the republicans can come together. There is and i say that is because theyve already done it. That is how senator crapo and i have been fire borrowing. So i am going to close with thi this. What i saw this weekend was heartbreaking. Thousands of families morning unthinkable loss. Trying to figure out how to move forward when their homes and their possessions have been reduced as. But when you talk to them, they will tell you that they also know that the problem is not going to get better all by itself. And that is, and i know there are senators who want to debate this. Is because because the Climate Crisis is here. Right now today uncomfortably airconditioned buildings in the west my state is on fire. Hold neighborhoods, whole communities are being reduced to ashes the air quality is a dubious recognition of the past couple of days of eades summing the worst in the world. The Climate Crisis is happening now. To us, to our kids and america on the senate ignores it at our peril. I brought today three proposals, three concrete proposals that i think make a serious contribution to reducing the pain and suffering that has been seen across oregon, the last couple of days. I want this to be the day the senate get serious about Fire Prevention as part of a comprehensive effort to fight the climate. The ideas i haveht outlined, the three major proposals ought to become lost in. If they have bipartisan support. The polys will protect our communities, and the families that live in them, protect jobs, protected businesses, and they sure are a lot cheaper, a lot cheaper because they will prevent fires rather than force ald bigger price tag to rebuild communities out of the ashes. Presently yield the floor. Scenic my address a situation in the middle east, it is often to discuss