President s budget request is just that. It is a request. It does start the annual budget process and gives us here in congress the opportunity to learn about the administrations priorities and how it carry them out. But ultimately its up to us to determine what kinds of programs to fund and what levels. This years budget request is far from perfect i agree the priority must be on Fire Management and improving the health of our forced. Im encouraged the administration is proposing to invest significantly and hazardous fuel reduction and other active Forest Management activities. We know such investments pays dividends hopefully well see this important work plan and carry it carried out without any disruptions. Thanks to our work on the consolidated preparations after 2018 which provided new Budget Authority to fight wildfires. And this budget request would make use of it for fy 2021. The 2019 fire season was relatively mild in the lower 48 with few notable exceptions, but in alaska, la
Federal officials will testify on the Coronavirus Response before a house subcommittee. Watch that live thursday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Online at cspan. Org, or listen live with the free cspan radio app. U. S. Forest service chief vic Vicki Christiansen testified on if the president s 2021 budget request before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee. During the hearing they discussed forecast management, recreational permits, Sexual Harassment in the workplace, Forest Restoration efforts and Fire Prevention. The meeting will come to order. Okay, first first Budget Hearing in the energy committee. This morning we will consider the president s budget request for the u. S. Forest service for fy 2021. Chief christiansen, its good 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 lea
And what with our research and development, we are going to continue to do our work to be able to understand what we need to do to be able to resort forests and address the insect and disease outbreaks and continue our work to be able to find ways to expand current markets and develop new markets or would to be able to make use of the biomass that has to be removed from the landscapes to restore the healthy forest. We also provide an adequate level of Fire Suppression to deal with fires to suppress fires where we need to come in at the same time be able to manage them in the country. We will have over 21 air tankers in the 300 plus helicopters, over a thousand engines and the hotshot crews. The thing i need to stress, and i appreciate the support from the committee on finding a solution to pay for the cost of Fire Suppression. I appreciate the additional money that was supplied into the account, but i think that we have all seen what happens with the account and whether that will help
Snow. The nats second home game of the year is canceled and tonight a cold one threatening plants to freeze, so lets get right out to first alert meteorologist howard bernstein. It was a crazy day. We had gusts 40 to 50 miles an hour and snow. Check out this video. We had a couple inches of snow in spots like prince frederick. Southern maryland, i saw some pictures in waldorf also where the ground was covered a while. Garrett county got pounded with 8 to 10 inches. Canaan valley had over 16 1 2 inches alone, really was incredible and a couple spots here had just a little bit on the ground. The storm that produced it now is out in the atlantic pulling away. If he still have gusty winds we still have some gusty winds but nothing like earlier with some gusts 2 hour, pax river with north winds 27 miles an hour. Tonight were talking about lower 20s shenandoah valley, mid to upper 20s here in the metro. So freeze warnings are up. They do that when the growing season has started or is still g