A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2022
NATION
House approves bill to help West fight wildfires, drought
BY MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House on
Friday, July 29 approved wide-rang-
ing legislation aimed at helping
communities in the West cope with
increasingly severe wildfires and
drought — fueled by climate change
— that have caused billions of dollars
of damage to homes and businesses
in recent years.
The measure combines 49 separate
bills and would increase firefighter
pay and benefits; boost resiliency and
mitigation projects for communities
affected by climate change; protect
watersheds; and make it easier for
wildfire victims to get federal assis-
tance.
“Across America the impacts of
climate change continue to worsen,
and in this new normal, historic
droughts and record-setting wild-
fires have become all too common,’’
said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., the
bill’s chief co-sponsor. Colorado
has suffered increasingly devastat-
ing wildfires in recent years, includ-
ing the Marshall Fire last year that
caused more than $513 million in
damage and destroyed nearly 1,100
homes and structures in Boulder
County.
“What once were wildfire seasons
are now wildfire years. For families
across the country who have lost
their homes due to these devastating
wildfires and for the neighborhoods
impacted by drought, we know that
we need to apply a whole-of-govern-
ment approach to support commu-
nity recovery and bolster environ-
mental resiliency,” Neguse said. “This
is a bill that we believe meets the mo-
ment for the West.”
The bill was approved, 218-199,
as firefighters in California battled a
blaze that forced evacuation of thou-
sands of people near Yosemite Na-
tional Park and crews in North Texas
sought to contain another fire.
It now goes to the Senate, where
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has
sponsored a similar measure.
Noah Berger/AP file
A firefighter extinguishes flames as the Oak Fire crosses Darrah Road in Mariposa County, California, on July 22, 2022. Crews
were able to stop it from reaching an adjacent home.
Both the House and Senate bills
would permanently boost pay and
benefits for federal wildland fire-
fighters. President Joe Biden signed
a measure last month giving them a
hefty raise for the next two years, a
move that affects more than 16,000
firefighters and comes as much of
the West braces for another difficult
wildfire season.
Pay raises for the federal firefight-
ers had been included in last year’s
$1 trillion infrastructure bill, but the
money was held up as federal agen-
cies studied recruitment and reten-
tion data to decide where to deliver
them. The raise approved by Biden
was retroactive to Oct. 1, 2021, and
expires Sept. 30, 2023.
The House bill would make the
pay raises permanent and sets min-
imum pay for federal wildland fire-
fighters at $20 per hour, or nearly
$42,000 a year. It also raises eligibility
for hazardous-duty pay and boosts
mental health and other services for
firefighters. The bill is named after
smokejumper Tim Hart, who died
fighting a wildfire in New Mexico
last year.
“The West is hot — hotter than
ever — it is dry, and when it is windy,
the West is on fire,’’ said Rep. Kim
Schrier, D-Wash. “And we are see-
ing this every year because of climate
change. That’s why this bill is so im-
portant.’’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., called the bill “a major vic-
tory for Californians — and for the
country.’’ The Oak Fire, the largest
wildfire so far this year, “is ravaging
our state,’’ she said. “At the same time,
countless of our communities reg-
ularly suffer lack of rainfall that can
kill crops and further fuel fires.”
The House bill would deliver “ur-
gently needed resources” to combat
fires and droughts, “which will only
increase in frequency and intensity
due to the climate crisis,’’ Pelosi said.
Republicans denounced the mea-
sure as “political messaging,” noting
that firefighters’ hourly pay has al-
ready been increased above $20 in
most cases. The House bill does not
appropriate additional money for the
Forest Service or other agencies, and
without such an increase, the Forest
Service says it would have to lay off
about 470 wildland firefighters.
Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkan-
sas, the top Republican on the House
Natural Resources Committee, called
it “egregious” that Democrats would
seek to enact provisions that could
lead to firefighter layoffs in the midst
of a devastating wildfire season.
“Democrats are finally waking up
to the wildfire and drought crises,
exacerbated by years of forest mis-
management and a lack of long-term
water storage. Unfortunately, Dem-
ocrats’ proposals are anything but
solutions,’’ Westerman said. He ac-
cused Democrats of failing to follow
science showing the need to manage
forests before fires begin, and said
Democrats “fail to construct the kind
of long-term infrastructure needed
to make communities resilient to
drought’’ while prioritizing ”liberal
talking points” about climate change.
Neguse called that accusation out-
rageous and noted that many of the
bills included in the wildfire/drought
legislation are Republican proposals.
House Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer, D-Md., said the bill was im-
portant to the whole country — not
just the West, where wildfires and
drought are a daily reality.
“We are one nation indivisible and
if one part of us is burning, we are all
burning,” Hoyer said.
Besides boosting firefighter pay,
the bill enhances forest management
projects intended to reduce hazard-
ous fuels such as small trees and un-
derbrush that can make wildfires far
more dangerous. It also establishes
grant programs to help communities
affected by air pollution from wild-
fires and improve watersheds dam-
aged by wildfire.
Republicans called the thinning
projects — which also include pre-
scribed burns and removal of vegeta-
tion — meaningless without waivers
of lengthy environmental reviews
that can delay forest treatment by
years.
The White House said in a state-
ment that it supports efforts to ad-
dress climate change, wildfires and
drought, but wants to “work with the
Congress to ensure the many provi-
sions in the (bill) avoid duplication
with existing authorities and admin-
istration efforts.”
House Jan. 6 panel interviews Mnuchin, pursues Trump Cabinet
ple, and is in active talks to
interview former Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo is
likely to appear in the coming
WASHINGTON — The
days, the person said.
House Jan. 6 committee has
The committee had already
interviewed former Treasury
interviewed former acting At-
Secretary Steven Mnuchin and torney General Jeffrey Rosen,
is in negotiations to talk to sev- former Labor Secretary Eu-
eral other former members of
gene Scalia and former acting
Donald Trump’s Cabinet as it
Defense Secretary Christopher
scrutinizes the days after the
Miller as it focuses on Trump
Capitol insurrection and dis-
and what he was doing in the
cussions about whether to try
days before, during and after
and remove the then-president the riot.
from office.
Lawmakers also are in dis-
The negotiations come as
cussions with John Ratcliffe,
the committee was interview-
former director of national
ing Trump’s one-
intelligence, ac-
time chief of staff,
cording to two of
“There is no
Mick Mulvaney,
the people, and
mistaking the
on Thursday. The
are seeking inter-
former South Car-
views with several
impact your
olina congressman
senior intelligence
rhetoric had on the officials who had
held that job until
2020 and later was
with the
situation, and it is contact
special envoy for
White House
Northern Ireland,
the inflection point around that time.
a post he resigned
Ratcliffe deliv-
for me.”
immediately after
ered a classified
the riot on Jan. 6,
briefing on elec-
— Betsy DeVos,
2021.
tion security in late
President Trump’s
The interviews
education secretary, in December 2020
and negotiations
at the request of
her resignation letter
were confirmed by
Jeffrey Clark, a Jus-
three people famil-
tice Department
iar with the committee’s work
official who promoted Trump’s
who were not authorized to
false claims of election fraud.
discuss the developments pub-
A person familiar with the
licly and spoke on condition of matter said Ratcliffe summa-
anonymity.
rized the findings of an election
The committee asked
security report that said intel-
Mnuchin about discussions
ligence agencies had “no indi-
among Cabinet secretaries
cations that any foreign actors
to possibly invoke the consti-
attempted to alter any technical
tutional process in the 25th
aspect of the voting process in
Amendment to remove Trump the 2020 U.S. elections, includ-
after the attack on the Capitol,
ing voter registration, casting
according to one of the peo-
ballots, vote tabulation, or re-
BY MICHAEL BALSAMO,
MARY CLARE JALONICK AND
NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press
porting results.”
Trump and outside advis-
ers who were pushing the false
fraud claims had suggested that
Venezuela had somehow tried
to alter the count through vot-
ing machines.
The focus on the Cabinet is
one of several threads the com-
mittee is pursuing after laying
out much of its evidence in
eight hearings this summer.
After a yearlong investigation
and more than 1,000 inter-
views, committee members say
there is much more they want
to learn.
The committee is expected
to convene additional hearings
in September.
Investigators have also
reached out to former Home-
land Security Secretary Chad
Wolf, who resigned in the days
after the riot, and lawmakers
could call in other Trump Cab-
inet officials.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s ed-
ucation secretary at the time,
previously told USA Today
that she raised with Vice Pres-
ident Mike Pence the question
of whether the Cabinet should
consider invoking the 25th
Amendment, which would
have required the vice presi-
dent and the majority of the
Cabinet to agree that the presi-
dent could no longer fulfill his
duties.
DeVos resigned the day after
the attack, blaming Trump for
inciting the mob.
“There is no mistaking the
impact your rhetoric had on
the situation, and it is the in-
flection point for me,” she
wrote.
At a rally on the morning of
Jan. 6, Trump had told a crowd
of his supporters to “fight like
hell” as Congress met to cer-
tify Joe Biden’s election victory,
and the rioters were repeating
Trump’s false claims as they
broke into the Capitol and vio-
lently pushed past police.
Elaine Chao also quit as
transportation secretary on
Jan. 7. Chao, who is married to
Senate GOP leader Mitch Mc-
Connell of Kentucky, said the
attack had “deeply troubled me
in a way that I simply cannot
set aside.”
Pompeo, who is now consid-
ering a 2024 presidential run,
and Mnuchin were reported to
have discussed the possibility
of invoking the 25th Amend-
ment, according to Jonathan
Karl of ABC News in his book
“Betrayal.”
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