Congress OKs Plan to Cut Wildfire Threat

[dusty64]

Spineless cowards used a voice vote AGAIN to avoid accountability. Between this, the Medicare sham, the elimination of overtime rules, and the expansion of the "patriot act", I am now registering in the Green Party first thing Monday. Thanks Democrats.




By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Ending a three-year impasse on wildfire legislation, Congress approved a compromise bill Friday to reduce the risk of fire in national forests, focusing much of the effort on areas near homes and towns.





Supporters called the bill, the first major forest management legislation in a quarter-century, a landmark step to improve forest health and protect communities near public lands.


Critics called it a giveaway to the timber industry that will limit public participation and leave old-growth trees and remote, roadless areas of forests at risk of logging.


President Bush (news - web sites) welcomed the bill's passage. On his return from a state visit to Britain, he said the legislation "will help us maintain our national treasure, our forests, begin providing a commonsense strategy and making sure that the fire hazards that we've seen over the last couple of summers are mitigated as best as possible."


The bill resembles Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative," which he proposed in August 2002. Both plans would streamline approval of projects to thin overgrown forests, so they can be completed within months rather than years. Much of the president's forest plan has already been implemented through administrative actions.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=703&e=8&u=/ap/20031122/ap_on_go_co/congress_wildfires

[goobergunch]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=233800