February 26, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 35 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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Nomination of Eric D. Miller (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 35
(Senate - February 26, 2019)
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[Pages S1457-S1458] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Nomination of Eric D. Miller Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to a nomination we are going to be vote on very soon--the confirmation of Eric Miller to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. As a U.S. Senator, I take my obligation to advise and consent on judicial nominations very seriously, and I believe Mr. Miller's confirmation process has gone against longstanding Senate tradition and norms and limited our role to advise and consent on his nomination. This nomination has proceeded over the objection of both myself and my colleague from Washington, Senator Murray. For more than 100 years, conferring with Senators and allowing them to advise and consent on judicial nominees in their home State has been our process. Since 1936, only eight judges have been confirmed when one home State Senator objected. In every case, confirmed nominees have been supported by at least one Senator from the nominee's State, and to this day no circuit court judge has ever been confirmed despite opposition from their home State Senators. All that would change if Mr. Miller is confirmed. His confirmation hearing was held during a recess last Congress, when the vast majority of Senators were back in their States. In fact, only two Members of the U.S. Senate were present at the hearing, and neither one of them were Democrats. Mr. Miller was questioned for less than 5 minutes--5 minutes--and when the Judiciary Committee Democrats requested another hearing, that request was rejected. Confirming Mr. Miller without a full vetting by both Democrats and Republicans is the wrong way to proceed on a lifetime appointment. Moreover, confirming Mr. Miller without approval from Senator Murray and I would set a damaging precedent. I do have concerns about Eric Miller's record. He has spent much of his career fighting against the interests of Tribal governments and Tribal sovereignty. He has argued cases opposing Tribal fishing rights, challenging Tribal sovereignty, and fighting against the protection of Native American religious and traditional practices, so it is no surprise that organizations representing all 573 Tribal nations around the United States, including the National Congress of American Indians, oppose Mr. Miller's confirmation. I urge my colleagues to stop this process and oppose Mr. Miller's confirmation to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. S. 47 Mr. President, I also want to comment on upcoming action in the House, where they are scheduled to take up S. 47, the Murkowski- Cantwell lands package later this afternoon, which received 92 votes in the Senate earlier this month. It is my hope that the House will approve this bill with the same overwhelming that it received in the Senate, and send this legislation quickly to President Trump's desk. I want to take a moment to emphasize four important provisions of this legislation as we prepare for this year's upcoming fire season. This legislation includes four provisions that will help firefighters improve their safety and effectiveness and bring state-of-the-art technology to combating wildfires. These provisions will help firefighters and communities, and we need to do everything we can as we face longer fire seasons having more catastrophic events. We need to give communities and firefighters every tool possible. First, this legislation allows for the use of drones to create real- time fire mapping, as well as GPS to track firefighter crews. These advances will help enable real-time tracking and location of both the fire and the firefighters. Why is this so important? It is because our firefighters need real- time data to do their job more safely and effectively. The combination of real-time mapping and GPS locaters has been referred to by the industry as the ``Holy Grail of Wildland Firefighter Safety.'' Last month's report on the devastating Mendocino Complex fire shows why this is the case. According to this report, one of the challenges frontline firefighters had to face was the fact that they weren't sure exactly where the fire was. The safety officers didn't always know where the firefighters are. In one case, no one knew where six entrapped firefighters were. The result was that all six suffered injuries because it took quite a while to locate and rescue them. Under this legislation that will be voted on by the House today, we will have more drones orbiting high over the fires, constantly updating fire maps and doing it more than just once a day, which has been the standard until now. These drones employ infrared cameras that can penetrate through thick smoke and better identify hotspots. Air tankers will be able to more accurately drop their fuel retardants, and we can tell firefighters on the frontlines how to steer away from areas that are just too dangerous to tackle. When I heard the stories of brave firefighters who battled fire that raged in many parts of my State, I knew we needed to do more to protect these unbelievable heroes. Whether it is in Eastern Washington or Central Washington--in the Okanagon and Wenatchee forests or around Spokane--we have to do more to help those communities and firefighters who are putting themselves on the line for us. This legislation also allows the Forest Service to access NASA's mapping technology to help prevent mudslides that are all too common after these horrific fires. We all know erosion can happen shortly after the devastation of vegetation, and that creates more damage in the community. The fact that we will be getting NASA access, we will then be able to come up with strategies to prevent erosion, cutting the time significantly from where it is today. The fourth provision is improving smoke forecasting by assigning meteorologists to every large fire. I know some people are thinking this probably has already been done. Believe me, we haven't given the Forest Service every tool it needs. Over the last few years, summers in the Puget Sound region have suffered as fires have blanketed our normally pristine air with smoke and unhealthy air. We know this is becoming a new normal. As the Western United States continues to become hotter and drier, fires become more and more likely, and as the fuels get drier, the number of fires increase and get even bigger. This isn't just an Eastern Washington problem. Our Washington State Department of Natural Resources responded to 1,800 fires last year, and 40 [[Page S1458]] percent of those were in Western Washington. According to researchers at the University of Washington, just 20 years from now, we will see the median annual burned area in the Northwest double from what we have seen in the last 50 years. We know we need more tools to combat these challenges, and the legislation we have already passed in the Senate and that is before the House today will provide these new technology and training tools to empower the Forest Service to help our communities and our firefighters: real-time fire mapping, more drone technology to give us real-time information about the fires, using NASA data to help us plan post-fires, and giving us more smoke forecasting information to better help our communities and to deal with those who are impacted by heavy smoke. I hope our colleagues will act expeditiously on this legislation. We know that wildland fire funding, as we increased it in an agreement last year, was so important, but we need to keep working on this problem. I thank my colleague from Colorado for helping to sponsor the inclusion of this legislation and hope that the President will sign this legislation very quickly so that tools can be put in place for this upcoming fire season. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. LANKFORD. I yield the floor. ____________________
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