Business Meeting: Prescribed Fires, Vehicle Derate, Uranium Licensing, GSA

Beautiful day today here in Washington. So I note the president uh the pres- I don't note the president, I note the presence of a quorum and now call this business meeting to order. For the information of the members of the committee, ranking member, White House and I will deliver our opening statements and once we have sufficient attendance we will immediately proceed to the consideration of the legislation and resolutions. After the vote, senators who wish to be exercis or I I'm starting to quit, who wish to be recognized to speak on any legislation o or resolutions may do so. Today we will consider three bills in twenty-one GSA uh prospectuses. First, we will vote on S fifty forty five, the Wildfire Admissions Prevention Act, or WEPA, sponsored by Senators Curtis, Merkley, Padilla, Bozeman, Kelly and me. WEPA will make it easier for states. to use prescribed burns by streamlining the EPA's process to approve exceptional events which is better for our environment, state, and local communities and public health. I'm proud of this committee for continuing its long history of working across the aisle. I know they've worked hard to reach a cons- a consensus here, and look forward to reporting out this bipartisan product. We also consider S thirty one thirty five, the Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act, sponsored by Senators Sullivan, Lummis, Curtis, and Murkowski. At an EPW meeting hearing in March, we heard firsthand the potential consequences when a vehicle's emission systems can limit or even shut down diesel engines or or farm equipment. This event, known as a D rate, can strand truck drivers in isolated frigid environments or drastically impact their har farm harvests. The Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act authorizes manufacturers to override D rates in diesel vehicles and farm equipment, op uh operating in targeted and cold weather environments. I wanna thank Senator Sullivan for his leadership in working to address the unique needs of Alaska and other cold weather states. In response to feedback after the bill's introduction, an amendment in the nature of a substitute will be offered as the base text of the bill for committee action. I support the amendment of this bill and will vote to report it favorably out of committee. We will also be voting on S fifty-two forty-nine the Modernizing Outdated Regulations in to Expand American Fuel Act of Twenty Twenty Six, led by Senators Kelly and Lemus. This bill will eliminate outdated regulations that limit our ability to strengthen and rapidly strengthen America's nuclear fl- fuel supply chain. Two weeks ago, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed a similar bill, uh, to S fifty-two forty-nine. I look forward to passing this bill out of the committee today. and working with our colleagues in the house to build on our history of enacting meaningful bipartisan nuclear legislation. Finally, we'll consider twenty-one prospectuses from the General Services Administration that concern leases from various veteran administration facilities as well as alterations to federal buildings throughout the country. These resolutions will provide the necessary approval for all of the building-specific prospectuses submitted by GSA thus far for fiscal year twenty twenty seven. I look forward to continuing to work with Ranking Member Whitehouse to ensure that GSA prospectuses receive timely approval, while also maintaining the committee's important oversight responsibilities to ensure the best use of taxpayer funds. And with that, I will recognize the Ranking Member, Senator Whitehouse, for his opening statement.

Thank you, uh, Chair Capito, and, um, thank you particularly for the continuing, uh, productive and, uh, good-hearted way that uh we continue to work on permitting reform you and adam and your team um have been terrific and progress continues and i appreciate very much your leadership uh on that um today we have the chance to talk about a couple of important topics including the clean air act and um i will point out that our government is falling dangerously short of its legal and moral obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to assure that Americans breathe un-polluted air. We urgently need real solutions here, to these very real problems. On the matter of wildfires, climate scientists have warned since the very first IPC report back in the early nineties that wildfires would become more destructive. Since then, the science has only become clearer, and the impacts have obviously become worse. My Western colleagues know this too well. Insurance markets, well aware of the science and the impacts, are pulling back coverage in wildfire areas, translating climate risk into rising immense cost and availability problems for families. The great climate insurance collapse, when it happens, will likely prompt a failure cascade, first into insurance, then mortgage markets, than home values than the entire economy. This is widely warned of. Better forest and land management has a role, but to quote Stanford Professor Michael Juarez's remarks in one of my budget committee hearings, while these fixes may help win wildfire battles without addressing climate change, we're going to lose the war. Climate mitigation is essential to address these risks. But, because climate impacts are already here, we must also adapt. Western states are turning to prescribed fires, intentionally set and monitored fires, which can in some environments reduce wildfire intensity. Of course, prescribed fires also produce smoke that may trigger regulation under the Clean Air Act. The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act is intended to facilitate prescribed burns by making it easier for states to obtain exemptions from Clean Air Act requirements, tied to that smoke pollution. I appreciate so many working with us on this bill to address these concerns. The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act represents many months of cooperation between my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I will support this bipartisan bill and appreciate Senator Kelly and Senator Lummis uh having led it. On nuclear, I will support the bipartisan Moore-American Fuel Act, which will help meet fuel demand for today's nuclear fleet and tomorrow's advanced reactors using american fuel as we eliminate our dependence on russian uranium this bill would bring uranium enrichment facilities to parity with other types of nuclear fuel cycle facilities allowing construction to begin after an application is documented at nr c nr c s thorough independent review and approval of the application will still be essential before any facility can begin operation Next, the Cold Weather Diesel Relief Act. Unlike the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act and the more American Fuel Act, this bill did not follow a collegial bipartisan negotiations process to a bipartisan conclusion. With real regret, because I think there may have been a way to cure the overbreath problem, I will oppose it. Perhaps we can keep working towards a bipartisan solution. Last on the agenda are prospectuses submitted by the General Services for repairs and maintenance of buildings across the federal real estate portfolio. This includes a special emphasis program for the judicial capital security program, now in its fourteenth year for security upgrades at federal courthouses nationwide. Secure federal courthouses are the foundation to administering justice, and I support funding of this program as a necessary investment in the safety of our judges, court, personnel, and the public. And I can report from the judiciary committee that this is a vitally important issue uh to our uh colleagues in government in the judicial branch, who are facing a threat environment that is truly unprecedented for them, so bad that it actually in many cases has spilled over to threats to families.

Wow. Thank you. OK. Uh, to begin I will call up S fifty forty five, the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of twenty twenty six. Does any senator wish to be recognized to offer an amendment? I move that the committee report the bill favorably. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Clerk will call the roll.

Miss Holsabrooks.

Uh, aye by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rochester.

Aye by proxy.

Mister Boseman.

Aye.

Mister Kramer.

Aye.

Aye.

Mister Curtis.

Aye.

Miss Graham. Mister Houston.

Aye.

mister kelly

aye

miss lemus

aye

mister markey

aye by proxy

mister merkeley

aye

mister padilla

aye

mister ricketts

aye

mister sanders

aye by proxy

mister schiff

aye by proxy

mister sullivan

aye

mister whitehouse

aye

mister ricker

aye

madam chairman

The clerk will report the yeas and nays.

Madam Chairman, the yeas are nineteen and the nays are zero.

With that, the legislation is favorably reported, and I note the presence of a quorum. I now call up S thirty one thirty five, the Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act. I call up the substitute amendment pursuant to the noticed agenda for this business meeting. Does any senator wish to be recognized to offer a further amendment? I move that the committee adopt the sum substitute amendment by voice vote. Is there a second?

Second.

All right. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All those opposed say no.

No.

Depending the cheer of the ayes have it, the substitute amendment is adopted. I now move that the committee report the bill as amendment favor favorably. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. The clerk will call the roll.

Miss Altsabrooks.

Aye, by proxy.

Miss Blount-Rochester.

Aye, by proxy.

Mister Bozeman. Yes. Yeah, I was just saying. This is this is good.

Started out good.

Yeah, this is good, this is good, this is better than I thought it would be.

Hang on, I lost track.

Yeah.

OK. Let's, can we restart the vote call?

Yeah.

Missed also Brooks.

Got it. OK, sorry, I lost track.

Are you sure you don't want to

Voice vote was Voice vote was on the substitute um adoption of substitute amendment.

Right.

This is the local vote on the actual vote and also works as no by proxy.

Right. OK.

miss blount rochester

all those are also no by proxy

mister bozeman

aye

mister kramer

aye

mister curtis

aye

miss graham mister houston

aye

mister kelly

no

miss lemus

aye

mister markey

no by proxy

mister merkeley

no

mister padilla

no

mister ricketts

aye

mister sanders

no by proxy

mister schiff

no by proxy

mister sullivan

aye

mister whitehouse

no

mister wicker

what

i always left

it's called a i

madam chairman

aye the clerk will call uh will uh report the a's and the's

Madam Chairman, the yeas are ten and the nays are nine.

Thank you. With that, this legislation as amended is favorably reported. I now call up S fifty two forty nine, modernizing outdated regulations to expand American Fuel Act of twenty twenty six. I call up the Kelly substitute amendment. Does any Senator wish to be recognized to offer an additional amendment? I move that the committee adopt the Kelly substitute by voice vote. Is there a second?

Second.

I have an Second? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Miss Hulsebrooks.

Aye.

By proxy.

Miss Blount-Rochester.

Aye, by proxy.

Mister Boseman.

Aye.

Mister Kramer.

Aye.

Mister Curtis.

Aye.

Miss Graham.

Aye.

mister houston

aye

mister kelly

aye

miss lemus

aye

mister markey

aye by proxy

mister markley

aye

mister padilla

aye

mister ricketts

aye

mister sanders

no by proxy

mister schiff

aye by proxy

mister sullivan

aye

mister whitehouse

oh

Mr. Wicker.

Wait a minute. Mr. Wicker.

I.

I. Record me. I.

Wait a minute.

I record me. Oh. I.

Uh, Mr. Whitehouse.

I.

Mr. Wicker.

I'm the Board Manager. I.

Madam Chairman.

Aye. The clerk will report the yeas and nays.

Madam Chairman, the yeas are eighteen and the nays are one.

With that, the legislation as amended is favorably reported. Finally, the ranking ranking member and I have agreed.

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

All those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. And with that, the resolutions are approved, and I note the presence of a quorum. I now will turn to uh recognize any member who wishes to speak on the legislative

Madam Chair.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, so I'll go to Senator Curtis first, and then Mark Lee.

Thank you.

OK.

I'm very pleased uh that the committee is advancing the Wildfire Admission Prevention Act today. Uh, in Utah and across the West, wildfire season is increasingly becoming a year-round challenge. This year we have had an astonishing half million acres uh burned. These floods, these fires are also fol- fol- followed by devastation. uh making this even worse i've had a chance to sit with the forest service and they will show me where they have proactively done the prescribed burns and clearly they're able to contain the fire within these areas and where they can't contain it is where it escapes these prescribed burns and uh of course this bill uh gives them better tools we've sadly uh penalized uh states uh because of uh the emissions that these prescribed burns cause and Uh, that's not the intention because doing prescribed birds actually can dramatically reduce emissions. And so, um, I'm I'm thankful for the committee's support, and I want to point out we're not looking for a loophole on emissions reporting. And this is the the perfect scenario of a of ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We should not be penalizing states for taking responsible steps to reduce wildfire, protect communities, and improve uh air. I'm grateful for the cosponsors of this bill. And I look forward to getting this across the finish line.

Thank you.

Senator Merkley.

Ah, thank you very much, Madam Chair, and uh it's been a pleasure to work with Senator Curtis on this and we have six members, three Democrats, three Republicans on this committee uh who have sponsored this bill and so much appreciation including the Chair's uh support. It's not that long ago in twenty twenty Labor Day fires in Oregon we had six towns burned out of to the ground.

Oof.

and another six badly scorched. And the increase in fires in Oregon has been nothing short of dramatic. I think we hit a million acre record in twenty twenty, a two million acre record in twenty twenty four, I believe. Uh, this year, two and a half million acres burning. Uh, it is, um, a calamity of longer, hotter summers and - and droughts, uh, more lightning strikes, more wind. All the changes are working, uh, against us. But there is a case where uh a fire that was uh headed towards Sister's Organ uh stopped uh it wa- was stopped by the firefighters, but it was stopped in part because there had been prescribed burns, there had been thinning, there had been mowing, and so that section of forest, the fire really slowed down and the thinner, the thinned out force also enabled the firefighters to get to the front line of the fire, so in all ways it was helpful. So this is in in in we've seen a kind of a change over the last i'd say uh fourteen years um in which it used to be communities would say to me uh i hate prescribed fires uh and just why do we wanna have a couple days of smoke and now it's like community is saying we would love to have a couple days of smoke and reduce the risk of our town burning burning to the ground and this bill also includes the smoke ready communities program So much appreciated. This helps provide grants for uh communities to establish a clean airspace. When we have those smoke days coming from the forest fires, which is so common, we have a lot of folks with asthma ending up in the hospital. So having a clean air place for people to uh uh be able to get the air they need without smoke contamination is is an important factor. So for all these reasons, uh thank you for the good work of the committee. good bipartisan work. I hope we can get through this floor, to through the floor, uh, like immediately. Thank you.

Madam Chair.

Senator Sullivan.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and, uh, fittingly, during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, today's passage of my bill, the Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act, is a huge step forward for truckers, farmers, mechanics, and operators who keep Alaska and our nation moving. For over a decade, Washington has enforced a one-size-fits-all mandate on hard-working Americans, as it relates to their diesel engines, especially Alaskans. EPA regulations required modern diesel engines to run on diesel exhaust fluid, or DEF, and mandated automatic shut-offs that instantly kill engine power if fluid runs low or a sensor glitches to ensure compliance. In the real world, that's a disaster. Death freezes at just twelve degrees Fahrenheit, which is a balmy day in my state. Even with onboard heaters, these systems can't compete with minus forty degree weather, which we often see in Alaska. So when those lines freeze, fully functional engines actually are forced to shut down. Think about a ice road trucker going up to the North Slope. uh keeping the Alaska economy humming. Madam Chair, as you saw during our hearing on this bill, this isn't a one-off occurrence, it's happening all across my state and other states throughout the country. It means Alaskans are left stranded on a remote IC highway with no cell service, not because of any kind of mechanical failure, but because of literally digital red tape that shuts down their engine. every single time working families are left on the hook for a hefty maintenance bill. At that hearing, Madam Chair, you might remember the Commissioner of Transportation for the State of Alaska, Ryan Anderson, testified to this committee that death-related failures cause up to eighty percent of the State of Alaska's fleet maintenance issues. Eighty percent of all trucks driving for the Department of Transportation in Alaska, which is thousands. We heard Alaskans loud and clear. As this issue has gained momentum, we've seen an outpouring of support from folks not just in my state, but literally across the country, how these faulty sensors affect negatively their daily lives. And it's not just trucks and tractors, it's fire trucks, it's school buses, it's airport plow equipment. So my bill, the Diesel Reliability Cold Weather Diesel Reliability Act removes this dangerous compliance trap. It directs the EPA to update its rules to end the automatic shutdown of engines during extreme cold, guaranteeing guaranteeing that zero degrees weather or below zero weather doesn't turn a sensor glitch into a life-threatening emergency. And while it's disappointing, my Democratic colleagues vote against the space-sick safety fix. I do wanna work with Senator Whitehouse and others to try to get a bipartisan uh way forward on this bill. I think the hearing that we had a couple months ago really impacted everybody, every senator in this hearing room, where we saw that this was an issue, not just in Alaska but across America. And I look forward to bringing this bill to the Senate floor soon, and delivering a win for Alaskans, but also americans across the country who keep our economy moving thank you madam chair

for kelly

thank you madam chair and and ranking member white house and my colleagues on the committee for the support to advance the two bipartisan bills uh to address some important challenges in arizona in the west and across the country in arizona wildfires have been catastrophic over uh the last several years uh dragon bravo fire last year burned a hundred and fifty thousand acres in and around the grand canyon and then because of the burn scars resulted in significant flooding this year three lives lost a lot of uh damage to infrastructure that we're now gonna have to come up with a plan to recover from and one of the best tools here are prescribed burns so i wanna thank my colleagues for working with me on this to get this legislation across the finish line. Uh, also on the more American fuel act, which I introduced with Senator Lummis, um, solves a problem that has been around for a while. Uh, we have energy demand growing in Arizona and across the country. We need more reliable and affordable and abundant power if we're gonna try to solve some of our uh, problems, nuclear energy, should be part of that solution um but this isn't an engineering problem we know how to build nuclear power plants we know how to operate them what we don't have is the fuel uh so this legislation goes a long way uh to helping us um acquire uh the fuel we need to operate um expanded nuclear power capacity uh and strengthen our domestic fuel supply and reduce our dependence on foreign sources. So, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Senator Kelly. Senator Padilla.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, we thank, uh, uh, you and your team, uh, for your support throughout this process and, uh, Senator Whitehouse, our ranking member, and his staff for their partnership throughout as well. And especially all the co-chairs, including you, Madam Chair, Senators Curtis, Merkley, Bozeman, and Kelly on the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act. Um. shows that bipartisan work can still be done around here which is encouraging news uh to folks watching at home uh the reason for the bill and the urgency for it is uh pretty clear the western united states is facing a crisis year after year we see larger and more intense and devastating wildfires in both our public lands as well as in our communities and this destruction results not just in the properties lost and lives lost but the massive amount of toxic smoke that quite literally turns our skies black or orange at times uh the health impact of these massive wildfires are also immense and so uh it's um eh incoming upon us to act uh with urgency now there's no silver bullet to solve the wildfire crisis but we do need to prescribe fires are one of the most effective tools available to reduce hazardous fuels and prevent wildfires or help mitigate them when they do happen however while epa regulations have allowed prescribed fires to qualify as exceptional events in twenty sixteen epa has never actually approved a prescribed fire exceptional event demonstration for states like mine where air quality is shaped in large part by geography and topography as well as emissions from mobile sources this means that using prescribed fires to protect communities can pose an unacceptable risk to our emission attainment goals we've worked since twenty sixteen to find a path forward but local air districts and state entities like the california air resources board have communicated that in order to utilize this absolutely critical tool there must be a dedicated pathway for prescribed fires to be permitted and deployed on the landscape also wanna make another thing clear the clean air act is a critical landmark law that protects both the health and the safety of millions of Californians and millions of Americans nationwide. That's why I appreciate this bill's narrow, tailored, and hyper-specific fix, one that allows us to use prescribed fires to protect our constituents from the devastating health impacts of mega-fires. So, thank you again for your partnership, Madam Chair, and Mister, uh, Ranking Member.

Thank you, S- uh, Senator Padilla. I know California's been particularly uh devastated by many fires in the in the past and present so i wanna thank again to all of our members for being here this morning and uh i wanna thank my my buddy and my ranking member senator whitehouse and with that the business meeting is adjourned