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            This evening an amendment to the FY 2007 Interior Appropriations bill that would prohibit the use of funds for road building for the purposes of timber harvesting in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, was offered on the U.S. House of Representatives floor.

The Tongass National Forest occupies 16.8 million acres in Alaska.  Currently, about 14 million acres are set aside as wilderness, roadless, or as another land use where road building is generally not permitted.  This amendment would ignore local decision making, creating a one size fits all approach for the Tongass National Forest without consideration of the needs of the forest and the communities that rely on the forest.

Congressman Young’s statement as prepared:

“Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment,” said Rep. Don Young, Ranking Member on the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources.

“Let’s be clear about one thing here.  This amendment is not about fiscal responsibility.  It is a give-away to radical environmental groups who want to treat the Tongass and all of Southeast Alaska as their taxpayer subsidized playground.

“The problem with the timber harvest program is that environmental groups have purposefully driven up the costs of managing it by filing multiple, frivolous lawsuits and appeals.  Now that they have successfully created the problem, they’re offering a solution: target a Member of Congress unfamiliar with Alaska and the Tongass; express concern that the Tongass timber program has become uneconomical and should not be funded by the taxpayer; request that they offer an amendment; threaten Members with a negative score on their annual report cards for failing to support the amendment.

“This is like the personal injury lawyer who sues doctors for a living and then complains to Congress about the high costs of medical care. 

“And as long as we’re talking about tax-payer dollars and “fiscal conservatism”, it should be noted that the lawsuits and appeals responsible for the high cost of doing business in the Tongass, are all funded by the American tax-payer under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which says that if you’re an environmental fundraising group in the 9^th Circuit, you file lawsuits by piecework, and get your money back for every one you file.

“This is the “taxpayer waste” we should be discussing here today.  If not for the never-ending onslaught of frivolous, taxpayer-funded lawsuits and appeals, the U.S. Forest Service could be managing the timber program at a net profit. 

“In addition to putting a Federal stamp of approval on these groups’ tactics, a yes vote on this amendment will cripple what’s left of the industry in Southeast Alaska and eliminate several hundred Alaskan Jobs.    

“The timber industry supports the best paying, year-around jobs in Southeast Alaska, and even though environmentalists have already succeeded locking up over 96 percent of the Tongass and eliminating most of these jobs, they’re now after the remaining four percent and the last few hundred jobs.  This is nothing less than economic terrorism.  And what’s worse?  The American taxpayer has been paying for it.

“If supporters of this amendment would like to join me in restricting the frivolous timber appeals and lawsuits filed by environmental trial lawyers against every timber sale and every road in the Tongass, then we can lower the costs of timber harvest and return a profit to the taxpayer.

“The job-killing Andrews/Chabot amendment is not about protecting taxpayers.  It’s about fooling them.  It’s about forcing my constituents out of work and removing people from the Tongass so the environmentalists have a 17 million-acre, taxpayer subsidized playground for themselves. 

“I urge my colleagues to recognize this amendment for what it is and vote NO.”

For more information, access the Committee on Natural Resources’ Minority website at:

http://republicans.resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.shtml