Good morning, i call the meeting of the committee on appropriations to order. Before we begin now house rules require me to remind you that we have set up an email address to which members can send anything they wish to submit in writing at any of our hearings or markups. That email address has been provided to your staff. Our first order of Business Today is consideration of the interior and environment and appropriations bill for fiscal year 2021. I will now recognize miss mccullum to present the bill. Good morning, and thank you, madam chair. I want to thank Ranking Member joyce for his strong collaboration and partnership throughout this entire process. Hes been a great partner from the great lakes and a little geography, being a social studies teacher he borers with the great state of ohio on lake erie and in minnesota we border on lake superior. Id like to thank the subcommittee for all contributions and especially the way in which weve continued our tradition of nonpartisan work
Nice to get started. This morning we will consider the president s budget request for the u. S. Forest service for fy 2021. Chief christiansen, its good to be able to welcome you back to the committee, thank you for being here. We say around here that the president s budget request is just that, it is a request. It does start the annual budget process. It gives us here in congress the opportunity to learn about the administrations priorities and how it would carry them out. But ultimately, it is up to us to determine what programs to fund and what levels. Although this years budget request is far from perfect, i agree that the priority must be on Wildland Fire Management and improving the health of our forests. Im encouraged that the administration is proposing to invest significantly in hazardous fuel reduction and other active Forest Management activities. We know such investments pay dividends in reducing the risk of severe wildfire. Hopefully we will see this important work planned
Live at 2 15 eastern. That on cspan as well. The Senate Energy and National Resources Committee Held a hearing on Wildland Fire Management programs. We hear from officials with the u. S. Forest service and the interior department as well as state officials from california and alaska. Good morning. Committee will come to order. Discuss thetoday to outlook for the 2019 wildfire season. We know it is underway, certainly in my state. I know its underway in washington state, california, most certainly. Westall received virginia, you are ok right now. But if you look at that map, the red in the southwest is something to Pay Attention to as well. Last week, the National Interagency fire center released its potential outlook for june through september and despite relief from the oppressive Drought Conditions this past winter, analysts addict elevated wildfire activity in california, oregon, and washington, among other areas in the country. Some of the some believe the stage is set for fire act
6 00 in the morning, so we have a few groggy members here on the committee. In the heat of he 2016 election, as the russian hacking and dumping operation became apparent, my freedom unanimous concern was that the russians would begin dumping forged documents along with the real ones they stole. It would have been too easy are russia or another malicious actor to seed formed documents among the how then tick onestake toe make almost imfor identify or rebut the fraudulent material. Even if a victim could expose the foreign ricer the damage would be done. Three years later were on the cusp of a technological revolution that could enable even more sipster forms of deception and disinformation by malign actors, foreign or domestic. At vanses in a. I. In Machine Learning let to emergence of advanced digitally doctored types of media, so called deep fakes, that enable malicious actors to foment okay or crisis and disrupt entire campaigns, including that for the presidency. Rapid progress inar
Amy the death toll from the devastating fires on the Hawaiian Island of maui has reached 55 and is expected to rise. The Historic Town of lahaina has been largely destroyed in what is now being described as the largest Natural Disaster in hawaiis history. We will speak to two native hawaiian activists in maui about the fires, the legacy of colonialism, and the Climate Crisis. The fire is a symbol of the terminal point, where it all end s up if you continue down this mode of extraction as a way to live. But it is also it contains the most deep and durable relic of our history. Amy we will also speak to a fire scientist at the university of hawaii about how the Climate Emergency fuels the deadly fires. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In hawaii, the death toll from the historic maui wildfires has reached at least 55 people and decimated the town of lahaina, once the epicenter of the kingdom of hawaii. On