Senate Ag Committee Passed FOFA 18–5

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry held a markup of the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) today in which they considered amendments and voted on whether to advance the bill to the Senate floor. The committee voted 18–5 in favor of advancing the bill. You can watch the hearing recording and look at the considered amendments here.

18 votes in favor: All 12 Republican committee members plus 6 Democrats (Luján, Klobuchar, Fetterman, Warnock, Welch, Slotkin).

5 votes opposed: Schiff, Durbin, Bennet, Booker, Smith

All of the Democratic committee members who voted No introduced amendments, so it was great to see constructive engagement on FOFA even if they didn't all feel comfortable voting in favor. It appeared that several Democratic members' No votes especially hinged on two issues and amendments that were voted down on a 12–11 partisan divide.

One was to further increase public and tribal collaboration in fireshed management projects. A second was to strike the bill's 150-day statute of limitations on project lawsuits. I think a failing in this second amendment was that they didn't introduce any alternative compromise limitation like 1 year, for example, so it would have just maintained the status quo of a 6 year statute of limitations. A third amendment that was also defeated 12–11 would have appropriated funding to implement FOFA, which is a good idea, but funding appropriations are a sensitive topic, especially right now. It didn't seem like any votes hinged on this third amendment.

Other amendments did pass. It's difficult to determine exactly which ones – I think we may need to wait until Congress.gov is updated. But they mentioned that four of Senator Luján's amendments were adopted, which included the establishment of regional wildland fire research centers, ecosystem restoration activities grants, and preference for local contractors in hazardous fuel reductions projects. These amendments helped bring Senator Luján on board with a yes vote. I'll update this thread when we get more information about all of the new amendments that were added.

We heard feedback from many of these offices that CCL's engagement actions were impactful, and in particular our op-eds and LTEs, so great work to all of our volunteers for your meaningful efforts in moving FOFA forward 🥳

Next the Senate will look for a vehicle in which FOFA can be included in a floor vote, because they rarely vote on standalone bills. We'll be lobbying on this in our November virtual meetings. Keep an eye out for more information in tomorrow's Weekly Briefing too 🤓

4 Replies

@Dana Nuccitelli
Thanks for the update, Dana. You indicated that we would be including FOFA in our November lobbying, and elsewhere it was indicated that we would be lobbying on permitting reform. Are we doing both? I know it is difficult to answer questions about the lobbying agenda in the current political environment, but we are being asked to invite trusted messengers to attend lobby meetings. These people are often local officials we have built relationships with over a long period of time, and they will want to know what they are getting into. It would be nice to have something definite to tell them about the subject of the lobby meeting.

Hi @Deirdre Henderson. Yes we'll be lobbying on permitting reform and FOFA. I'm not sure if there will be anything else, but those will be the major asks.

@Dana Nuccitelli
Dana, a strong objection to FOFA from one of our chapter members deeply involved in forest issues:

To reply directly to Diana Leis Delker, click here: Reply.

Bruce,

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment in CCL. Has CCL thoroughly read this bill? It will open up forests to extreme logging, thereby not only destroying countless thousands of trees, but destroying the habitats for wildlife. Look at the Sierra Club’s position on the issue.

I chair the Tree Committee for my town. I was excited when CCL added the preservation of trees to its mission. But they need to remove this if they are endorsing this bill. If not not, then please send out an urgent appeal to reverse CCL’s support!

Protect trees and wildlife,

Diana Leis Delker
Albany (Greater Capital Region Chapter in NY)

Hi @Bruce Frishkoff, see this discussion thread about Sierra Club's misinformation on FOFA.

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