Re: Congressional Hearing on Wildland Fire Preparedness
Full Committee Oversight Hearing: to consider the preparedness of Federal land management agencies for the 2008 wildfire season (SD-366) Wednesday, June 18, 2008
02:00 PM (Eastern) 01:00 PM (Central) 12:00 PM (Mountain) 11:00 PM (Pacific)
The hearing is at the Dirksen Office Building, Rm. 366. Most (if not all) Forest Service computers have RealPlayer and are able to view. Alternatives for home users are to use RealPlayer or iTunes options for viewing:
www.capitolhearings.org/ (Click Dirksen 366 on the right menu).
If the Forest Service servers can't handle the bandwidth... so be it.... but I disagree with my esteemed friend and colleague when he said,
"You should be able to view the hearing in real time or after the fact; however, you should do so on your own time using your own equipment. Streaming video eats bandwidth and should not be done on govt computers even on your own time. Most govt computers cannot be used to view Congressional webcasts in any case because they lack the software."
Wrong.
This hearing is not a FWFSA action, nor a NFFE action... it is a regular mandated Congressional Oversight Program (hearing) of our wildland fire preparedness program as prescribed under the U.S. Constitution. As such, it is more than appropriate for wildland fire managers and wildland firefighters to view (hog band-width from the "ologists" and their "mission") on government time, as well as use government computers, to be fully educated on the issues that relate directly to our mission; our program delivery; our cost efficiency; our effectiveness; and the overall safety of our firefighters, and the safety of our communities that we all protect.
FSfirefighter
