[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1557-H1558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ``SO-CALLED'' FOREST RECOVERY BILL

  (Ms. FURSE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about the so-called forest 
recovery bill.
  This bill is bad for the environment and it is bad for the economy. 
The

[[Page H1558]]

sponsors say it will fix environmental problems in the forest. But, in 
fact, it will harm our public forests. And because it is such a bad 
bill, we have a lot of people who are opposing it.
  The League of Conservation Voters have said they will score this as a 
key no vote. Who else is opposing the bill? Quite a lot of people: the 
Methodist Church, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Presbyterian Church, 
Religious Center for Reformed Judaism, The National Audubon Society, 
and the US PIRGs.
  Sure, we do have environmental problems. But we are trying to fix 
those problems at a local level. We have hundreds of private-public 
partnerships working to fix those environmental approximate.
  What this bill is is a fix from Washington, D.C. We do not need a fix 
from Washington, D.C. We need to fix our environmental problems on the 
ground, people who understand, people who know the problems.
  So I say, vote no on H.R. 2515.

                          ____________________