House approves bill to help West fight wildfires, drought
The House has approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the West cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought โ fueled by climate change โ that have caused billions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses in recent years.
Democratic-led House makes conservation push with lands bill
Republicans said the wilderness area designations would restrict use of those lands and make them more susceptible to catastrophic forest fires. It is one of the largest land-protection packages Congress has ever considered and covers almost 3 million acres of public lands, overwhelmingly in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona. The ideological split over the bill was evident as the congressional delegation from Colorado debated the measure on the House floor. The legislation encompassed bills from Rep. Joe Neguse and DeGette that would affect more than 1 million acres of public lands in the state. โI prefer public lands with many uses," he said.