Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet announced that Colorado will receive $30 million from the U.S. Forest Service to address the impacts of the bark beetle and spruce beetle epidemics and to protect people and property. The funds will be focused in Medicine Bow & Routt, Arapaho & Roosevelt, and White River national forests - which together contain almost 3 million acres of dead lodgepole pine trees. Of that $30 million, $2 million will go to help address spruce beetle and other forest health issues on the Western Slope and in Southern Colorado.

The funding was made available at the urging of Senators Udall and Bennet, who last year wrote U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, asking him to make emergency resources available to help Western states address immediate needs related to the bark beetle epidemic. Secretary Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service, agreed on Dec. 8 to make $40 million available for bark beetle-caused public safety, infrastructure and ecological damage.

Today's announcement provides more details, including that the bulk of the funding will go to Colorado.

'Colorado communities have been at the epicenter of the bark beetle epidemic. We now have millions of acres of dead and dying trees that could threaten people's safety, damage and disrupt infrastructure, or add fuel to wildfires. So this additional funding - which has come at our request - is very good news,' said Senator Udall, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 'I have worked for many years to get additional resources to help keep the public safe from wildfire and falling trees and to improve the overall health of our forests. These funds will help enable communities to better protect property, people and facilities, help keep trails and campsites open, and create and sustain jobs.'

Senator Bennet, a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said: 'The bark beetle epidemic has not only affected the health of our forests and the viability of our water supply - it's also threatened our local economy. I'm delighted that so much of the funding designated to fight this epidemic has come to Colorado to help protect critical infrastructure and communities that are currently at risk. This effort will make it possible for forest health and public safety work to be done, while simultaneously creating jobs and contributing to our economic growth.'

More details are yet to be announced about how the funding will be allocated. However, the resources most likely will be distributed to neediest areas first, including sites where there are fire threats or other threats to public safety, such as dead or weakened trees along trails, roads, campgrounds, or power lines and other infrastructure.

Senators Udall and Bennet have advocated on multiple occasions in the last year for more resources to help Colorado address bark beetle damage.

Additionally, Senator Udall has worked for many years in the U.S. House of Representatives and now in the U.S. Senate to mitigate the impact of the bark beetle. Most recently, he authored the National Forest Insect and Disease Emergency Act of 2009 (S. 2798), which was co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID). The bipartisan bill would designate 'insect emergency areas' to prioritize treatment and compensate individuals for removing dead trees, create incentives to convert the vegetation removed from forests into biofuels, authorize the Forest Service to expedite treatment work in areas full of dead trees, and create 'good neighbor authority,' allowing the Forest Service to contract with state foresters to reduce threats next to homes and private property.

This amendment (#2955), modeled after my bill S. 1628, would address the shortfall of rural physicians by creating a grant program to help expand rural training programs at medical schools. Of Colorado's 47 rural counties, all but three are designated by the federal government as 'health professional shortage areas.' This amendment would train 'home-grown' doctors with a real, personal interest in the health of their communities. A 2008 study found that if all medical schools enrolled just 10 students per class in a program like this, we could double the number of graduating rural doctors.

This amendment (#2953) would expand a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that creates a new Community Transformation Grant (CTG) program to help prevent and reduce chronic disease in communities around the country. In order to ensure that big cities are not getting a disproportionate share of this important funding, my amendment requires that these grants be distributed equitably between both rural and urban areas.

This amendment, which I offered as part of a package (#3119) drafted by 11 freshman Democratic Senators, expands the scope of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (formerly called the Independent Medicare Advisory Board). My amendment directs the board to examine not just Medicare but the entire health care system to find ways to slow the growth of health costs - including steps the private sector could take voluntarily. The provision is based on comments I've heard from groups in Colorado and around the country, ranging from AARP to business to labor organizations, as well as suggestions from the Congressional Budget Office on how best to contain costs.

In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has focused its efforts on the development of 'blockbuster' drugs for conditions like hypertension or high cholesterol that will be assured a large market once they are approved. But not all treatments can be 'blockbuster drugs' in terms of their lucrative profit potential, and we need to make sure we're incentivizing the development of life-saving treatments for diseases and conditions that can improve and preserve the lives of all Americans. To help push us in that direction, I co-sponsored an amendment (#2866) authored by Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, designed to set up a new public-private program at the National Institutes of Health, which would provide grants to encourage companies to develop drugs and treatments that may not be huge money-makers.

In Colorado, much like the rest of the nation, minorities have higher incidences of diabetes, childhood obesity, dental disease, childhood asthma, and other ailments. Many face obstacles to care, including geographic, cultural and language barriers, racial bias, and poverty. This amendment (#2878), which I co-sponsored with Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, strengthens and codifies into law the Offices of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. These offices are critical to monitoring health care trends and quality of care among minority patients in order to evaluate the success of minority health programs and initiatives.

I co-sponsored this critical amendment (#2923) offered by the Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, which reauthorizes and modernizes the Indian Health Service. This amendment, among other important provisions, would modernize health care delivery systems, address the shortage of medical professionals in Indian Country, promote disease prevention and wellness efforts, provide resources to address mental health disparities, and work to reverse the increasing rate of Indian youth suicide.

On January 26, 2010, I sent a letter to the President with 16 other Senators urging him to work with Congress this year on clean energy and climate legislation that would help create new clean energy jobs and expand new clean energy industries. I believe we must act now to jumpstart the American clean energy revolution and create American jobs - before other countries beat us to the punch.

I introduced S.2052, the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2009, to explore new ways to make nuclear energy as cost-efficient, safe and secure as possible. This bipartisan bill authorizes the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct research into modular and small-scale reactors, enhanced proliferation controls, and cost-efficient manufacturing.

I believe that developing efficient and economically feasible energy storage technology is a critical step if America is to lead the world in the clean energy revolution. This technology will help us make wind and solar power more efficient and provide additional backup capability for the electric grid, reducing blackouts for homes and businesses. At my request, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a December 10, 2009, hearing on this topic. You can find information about the hearing here: http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=df36b718-e767-4437-7703-c8dfb3ea58cd