Rep. McClintock responds to editorial on fighting wildfires

What a through-the-looking-glass world The Bee editorial board lives in! It rightly raises alarm in its July 6 editorial over the practice of raiding fire prevention funds to fight fires. But then it attacks my support for the Resilient Federal Forests Act – which comprehensively fixes this problem – because it has “gained little traction.”

Really? This act passed committee in June and will be voted by the House of Representatives this month. Last session it passed on a bipartisan vote, only to be blocked by a handful of Senate Democrats. Ironically, the bill touted by The Bee has never moved out of committee in either house due to strong fiscal opposition.

The Resilient Federal Forests Act forbids raiding prevention funds and opens natural disaster funding for forest fire fighting. More importantly, it overhauls the bureaucratic laws that have made it impossible for us to manage our forests to keep them resistant to disease, pestilence, drought and ultimately, catastrophic wildfire.

This story was originally published July 8, 2017 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Rep. McClintock responds to editorial on fighting wildfires."