WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources’ Public Lands, Forests, and Mining Subcommittee held a hearing on Senator Ruben Gallego’s (D-AZ) Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act. The bill provides recommendations for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of wildfire mitigation across land ownership boundaries by identifying gaps and opportunities in current federal rules and regulations and supporting increased collaboration.   Watch Senator Gallego’s opening statement at the hearing HERE, and read excerpts below: “This could not come at a more urgent time. This year, Arizona alone saw more than 200,000 acres burn across the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest.

WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and 11 Senate colleagues demanded urgent answers from U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz regarding the agency’s wildfire risk reduction efforts across the West and 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 previous four calendar years.  The Senators wrote to Forest Service Chief Schultz, “You have continued to maintain that the Forest Service has adequate resources and staffing to manage wildfire preparedness and response on federal lands, and that, while the Forest Service is significantly

WASHINGTON – Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) backs the Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction Therapy Services (TREATS) Act, a bipartisan bill that strengthens access to addiction treatment services through telehealth. The legislation would make permanent the telehealth flexibilities that allowed patients to receive life-saving addiction treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The opioid and fentanyl epidemic has devastated Arizona families for far too long,” said Senator Gallego. “In 2023, we lost more than five Arizonans every single day to an opioid overdose, and too many others are still struggling to find help. Addiction treatment shouldn’t depend on a zip code. By making these pandemic-era telehealth tools permanent through the TREATS