Congress in Context

September 9, 2016

State Foresters Lead Forest Health Congressional Briefing

By Emily Bazydlo This week, eight Members of the House Committee on Agriculture and 16 personal and Committee staff attended a forest health briefing organized by the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and sponsored by Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee Chairman Representative Glenn Thompson (R-PA). The meeting began with a warm welcome by the Chairman. Rep. [read more]

July 12, 2016

Support the Timber Innovation Act

The United States Senate, led by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) have introduced the Timber Innovation Act (S. 2892). A House companion bill, H.R. 5628, has also been introduced and was led by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA), Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). Both bills would: Establish [read more]

June 24, 2016

Senate ENR Holds Hearing on Wildfire Funding

By Greg Pilchak On June 23rd, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to receive testimony on the recent discussion draft entitled “Wildfire Budgeting, Response and Forest Management Act of 2016.” The hearing on the bill focused on three main issues: 1) the need to end “fire borrowing”; 2) the growing [read more]

May 27, 2016

Senators Release Draft Bipartisan Legislation on Fire Funding

By Greg Pilchak On Wednesday, May 25th, leaders on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee released draft legislation whose goal is to improve wildfire budgeting and forest management. The bipartisan legislation is the culmination of recent Committee efforts to examine and find solutions to problems such as “fire borrowing,” the speed of environmental reviews, and fire suppression [read more]

May 26, 2016

House Committee Releases Draft FY17 Interior Appropriations Bill

By Greg Pilchak This Tuesday, May 24th, the House Appropriations Committee released the fiscal year 2017 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill (see page 84). This draft legislation includes funding for the USDA Forest Service and various other independent and related agencies. The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee marked up the bill on Wednesday, May 25th. [read more]

April 21, 2016

Working Forests Caucus Convenes on Capitol Hill

By: Jessica Hernandez On Wednesday April 20th, Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) and a bipartisan group of members of Congress launched the Working Forests Caucus. The caucus, which is co-chaired by Rep. Westerman and charter members Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Washington), Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia), and Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) was created to promote the benefits of America’s working [read more]

April 1, 2016

FY 2017 Appropriations: NASF Delivers Written Public Testimonies

The National Association of State Foresters provided written testimony in support of fiscal year 2017 appropriations levels for priority USDA Forest Service State and Private Forestry (S&PF) programs. State and private forests make up more than two thirds of our nation’s forests and provide a host of public benefits including jobs, clean air and water, wildlife habitat, [read more]

October 28, 2015

NASF to Congress: Support the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act

Along with partners, NASF submitted a letter of support to Congressional leaders today urging Congress to implement a solution to fire funding. A solution should allow access to disaster funding, eliminate the negative impacts of transfers address the increasing costs of suppression over time. The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act (WDFA) (S. 235, H.R. 167) is a bipartisan proposal that achieves these three goals. [read more]

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