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Today, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a legislative hearing on H.R. 1208, the “Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act” – bipartisan legislation by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04), Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (TN-03), and Congressman Ben Luján (NM-03) that would establish a Manhattan Project… Read more »

Today at the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation legislative hearing, Republican Members stressed the need for the U.S. Forest Service to resume active forest management and discussed several proposals to improve forest health. A lack of forest management has deprived rural counties of revenue needed to fund schools, emergency services and infrastructure projects;… Read more »

Today, the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held a legislative hearing on several pieces of legislation to restore active and healthy management of our national forests in order to provide a stable revenue stream for rural schools and counties and prevent devastating wildfires. The Subcommittee heard testimony on the “Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy… Read more »

Last year, wildfires burned 9.3 million acres, while the U.S. Forest Service only harvested approximately 200,000 acres.  This means that 44 times as many acres burned as were responsibility harvested.  The burned areas were not allowed to be salvaged. Read more »

H. Rept. 113-29 Read more »

H. Rept. 113-28 Read more »

H. Rept. 113-26 Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) today unveiled a draft proposal to address the expiration of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program. The draft proposal, Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, renews the federal government’s commitment to manage forest resources for the benefit of rural schools and counties by allowing active forest… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) and a bipartisan group of 30 Members of Congress sent a letter today to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Office of Management and Budget Director Jeffrey Zients questioning why the Obama Administration is retroactively subjecting Secure Rural School (SRS) payments, which were made to counties in… Read more »