Congress passes Smirky's logging bill

[goobergunch]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress approved legislation Friday to reduce the risk of wildfires in national forests by speeding removal of overgrown brush and diseased trees, especially near homes and towns.
The Senate passed the bill by a voice vote less than an hour after the House approved it 286-140. The rapid-fire votes came after a three-year impasse on wildfire legislation.

The final bill, which now goes to President Bush for his signature, resembles the president's "Healthy Forests Initiative" that would streamline approval of projects to thin overgrown forests.

The measure would limit appeals and environmental reviews so that forest-thinning can be completed within months rather than years. The combination of dry underbrush and legal opposition had turned some Western forests into tinderboxes, supporters of the bill said.

more...http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-21-congress-wildfires_x.htm

H.R. 1904, to improve the capacity of the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to plan and conduct hazardous fuels reduction projects on National Forest System lands and Bureau of Land Management lands aimed at protecting communities, watersheds, and certain other at-risk lands from catastrophic wildfire, to enhance efforts to protect watersheds and address threats to forest and rangeland health, including catastrophic wildfire, across the landscape, and for other purposes.

On Agreeing To The Conference Report

H R       1904
            YEAS NAYS PRES NV 
Republican  216     9       3 
Democratic   70   130       5 
Independent         1     
Totals      286   140       8
Time Remaining          0:00

Vote No. 656

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Clear-cutting time....

[La_Serpiente]

1. Our Senators are cowards

they didn't even have recorded votes. And either a Democrat or Republican could have called for one.