Today, the full House of Representatives will vote on the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act (H.R. 1526), a forest health package that includes Rep. Gosar’s bipartisan wildfire legislation, the Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act (H.R. 1345). The Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act, which H.R. 1526 will implement, creates much needed rural jobs, reduces red tape and provides land management agencies a variety of tools to conduct smaller projects in high-risk areas that need immediate attention.
House Vote on Rep.
September 18, 2013
Background:
Due to redistricting, Rep. Gosar has represented nearly all of rural Arizona over two and a half years in Congress. This area contains nearly forty-eight thousand square miles of U.S. Forest Service land and many of the areas devastated by recent wildfires.
These wildfires include the Wallow Fire – the largest fire in Arizona state history – the Sunflower, Gladiator, Poco, and Bull Flat fires of 2012, and the horrific Yarnell Hill Fire, which claimed the lives of 19 elite firefighters.
On July 31st, the Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention Act was incorporated into a larger forest health package, Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, by the House Natural Resources Committee.
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