This week, more than a dozen Members of the House and Senate sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting an update on plans to transfer surplus military aircraft to the Forest Service to fight wildfires. The Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act gives the Forest [read more]
Celebrating Arbor Day today and into the future, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA-6th) and co-sponsors Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3rd) and Barbara Lee (D-CA-13) introduced legislation to reduce residential energy consumption and costs through strategically planting trees. The Residential Energy and Economic Savings Act (TREES Act) encourages utility companies to partner with local non-profit tree planting groups to [read more]
This week, Congress passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (HR 933) that will fund federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year. The bill continues funding levels enacted as part of the FY12 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill (including the USDA Forest Service) and does not change current [read more]
This week the U.S. Senate passed its version of the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. Among its many amendments was the reauthorization of the Wildfire Suppression Aircraft Transfer Act. The amendment was sponsored by Senator McCain (R-AZ). In August, NASF sent a letter in to Senators McCain, Feinstein and Nelson, sponsors of the Wildfire [read more]
On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a draft FY13 Interior Appropriations bill funding programs at EPA, DOI and the USDA Forest Service. The Senate draft includes similar funding levels for many NASF priority programs when compared to the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee earlier this summer [read more]
Last Thursday, September 20, House Speaker John Boehner announced that there will not be a vote in the House on an extension or reauthorization of the Farm Bill before the elections. The House has adjourned until in November 13 to allow members to return home to campaign. Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [read more]
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a drought relief package (HR 6233) in response to the dry conditions plaguing many U.S. states. Congress has an impending deadline of September 30, to extend or reauthorize the 2008 Farm Bill. HR 6233 cuts roughly 20 percent in mandatory funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program [read more]
A bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators have introduced a bill that would transfer 14 surplus C-27J Spartan aircraft from the Department of Defense to the U.S. Forest Service to be used as air tankers. The Senators introduced legislation on Wednesday known as the Wildfire Suppression Aircraft Transfer Act of 2012 (S. 3441) ”to help replenish the [read more]
This morning, the House Agriculture Committee voted (35-11) to approve its version of the Farm Bill. The bill includes the forestry-related provisions included in the draft put out late last week. The Committee did not make any changes to the Conservation Title found in the draft, but two additional amendments to the Forestry Title were [read more]
Yesterday afternoon, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson released a discussion draft of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act . The bill is expected to be voted out of the full committee mark-up scheduled for Wednesday, July 11th. The bill includes many similar provisions found in the recently [read more]
