WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- Sen. Martin Heinrich issued the following news release:
This week, U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.),Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led nine senators to demand urgent answers from U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz regarding the agency's wildfire risk reduction efforts across the West and the nation.
Their inquiry follows an independent analysis of publicly available data indicating that the Forest Service is approximately 38 percent behind on hazardous fuels reduction work, as compared to the previou...