mr. lamalfa: i'm asking you sir, will the army corps and e.p.a. work with the other land management agencies to make their jurisdictional determination so land users have issuesea wrda directives that someone decides that a ermit is needed. mr. lamalfa: what about the concept that the permit wasn't needed to be needed clearly and reinterpretations done by some divisions of the corps that have seen to have gone off on their own tangents. major general spellmon: i'm not familiar with the details but we'll look into this. mr. lamalfa: check it out, sacramento and redding office. for example. you are familiar with disking in agriculture? similar to plowing but it's an implement that is fode behind a tractor that has disks that rotate on it that turns the soil slightly and reincorporates that disking that is used for wetland management and mosquito abatement, protection from nvasive plant speaks yes, sir. but only to very slightly if at all. so we have agency using this as a tool that they need and i'm glad they do, but the corps and attempt say diskin

mr. lamalfa. >> you have another california, mr. chairman. thank you. as we know, farming, agriculture is a major economic activity in the u.s. totaling $100 billion in exports every year and army corps and e. a have been making it very difficult to responsibly use land when they regulate the clean water act the way they have, especially in my district in california. they've been unfairly attacking farmers and legitimate land users by retroactively claiming that ag land is a wetland or that normal farming practices exempt under the clean water act suddenly require permits. otherwise known as previously converted crop land. should someone decide to go along and pursue that permit, it might take three years for them to get it off their desk. three crop years lost for them to move this permit that's already exempt from having under previous converted crop land, et cetera. so what i'm asking you, sir, is will the army corps and epa work with the other land management agencies to make their jurisdictio

mr. lamalfa: hundreds of thousands of acres. the karr fire quickly became one of the -- carr fire quickly became one of the most devastating wildfires in california history. i'm very grateful for their sacrifice and their unwavering efforts in the face of what had to seem nearly impossible odds. after all, when california's poor forest management practices turn our public lands into tinder boxes, containing a wildfire becomes extremely difficult. i spent a lot of time in redding last month to see first-hand the challenges they faced and the great work being done to protect the citizens, their communities and each other. local firefighters, calfire, the hot shot forest service, smoke jumpers, all of them were ready to go and working, participating, putting their lives on the line. we owe all these men and women a great deal of gratitude. we can debate what may cause these catastrophic fires. the fuel load in our forests, and lack of management. but there's no question who puts these fires out. we're very grateful to them. thank y

mr. lamalfa: there were over 14,000 firefighters joining in this effort. the work is brutal, it's hot, iring and few breaks if any. in july, the ferguson took the ves of two, both killed by battling flames. later that month another fire is on record now as the largest wildfire in our state's history burning over 459,000 acres took the life of a battalion chief who died after working on the ranch fire. the karr fire was one of the most severe fires. it devastated 229,000 acres and destroying 1,100 homes and taking the lives of eight people . the fire was so large and hot it created its own weather system including a fire tornado the size of three football fields with winds up to 665 miles per hour leaving with families to find their time. the fast growing flames trapped four residents unable to escape, daniel bush as well as melanie and two great-grandchildren. as the flames continued, more than 5,000 firefighters put their lives on the line battling the fires working 24-hour shifts. many lost some of them lost their own homes in the flames but continued wo

mr. lamalfa: i thank you for leadic the charge tonight on the united states sit sin being detained or arrested falsely. at this point, 59 days into the process, no actual charge has been brought against michael. is this justice or is this some kind of game at the are playing with our citizens but isn't appreciated by our country and certainly as our colleague was mentioning a minute ago or something that continues to happen or continue to re-evaluate our relationship. we have gone delue difficult times. but we have been building on that. we want to build on that and have good relationships on good trade and make our country and positive economics. but with this kind of action, against a united states citizen where this this country we enjoy due process. we foster due process. we encourage that. and those that we trade with and those we want to have relationships with, but we demand that the way our citizens are treated. in california, we have viet tional meese population that have been enterprising and been part of the community and to why would we not want to continue to battle for these site