00:00The gentleman from Washington, Mr. Newhouse, is recognized for comments on the bill.
00:06Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I sincerely do rise to support this piece of legislation,
00:12this bill today, and very much appreciate the work of the chairman, the ranking member,
00:17all of the staff, as well as the members of the committee for the important work they did to put
00:21this bill together. I want to highlight a couple of things about this bill that
00:25are particularly important to central Washington. First of all, I'm glad to see the prohibition of
00:31the introduction of grizzly bears into central Washington. That's something that the previous
00:37administration was absolutely determined to force onto my constituents, so thank you very much for
00:43that. I also appreciate, and this is something that I want to illustrate to you, is absolutely
00:50critical. But the inclusion of the concerns around the Yakima-Taiatin Irrigation District
00:56in central Washington, which has a canal, a critical artery for bringing important irrigation water to
01:04parts of the Yakima Valley, is literally hanging on the side of a hill because of a wildfire last year,
01:11and now it's in desperate need of attention and repair and replacement. So thank you for the
01:19inclusion of language to support making sure that we can continue to have water flowing and operating
01:26that canal. I also want to highlight all of the chairman's work in this bill around wildfire
01:33readiness and timber production, including highlighting the need in the en bloc to address
01:39the forestry staffing issues within the Bureau of Indian Affairs in south-central Washington, so that
01:46we can all keep our running at full capacity. This bill retains the critical support of the
01:54conservation of our nation's natural resources while exemplifying fiscal responsibility, and I know
02:00that's very difficult for some. I'm very proud to support this bill today. I want to thank you,
02:05Mr. Chairman, and I also want to give special thanks to Ranking Member Pingree for bringing us some of the
02:12very best of the state of Maine to enjoy today. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back to
02:16the
02:27one. I'm going to give a few minutes to give a few minutes to get on this bill. I hope you
02:30have some more questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be getting ready for the
02:32few minutes. I'll have some questions. I'm going to give to you a few minutes. I'm going to take a few minutes to
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