[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1258-E1259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  STATEMENT OF INTRODUCTION OF THE PUBLIC RESOURCES DEBT REDUCTION ACT

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                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 15, 1999

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, Today I am introducing 
the Public Resources Debt Reduction Act to eliminate many wasteful and 
environmentally destructive subsidies. My bill would save taxpayers 
hundreds of billions of dollars per year and end environmentally 
harmful practices that have continued for too long under antiquated 
laws.
  The array of subsidies for mining, timber, irrigation and other 
industries that use natural resources belonging to the America people 
is truly astounding. Multinational mining companies take gold and 
silver from public land without paying the public a dime of the value. 
Each year the taxpayers ante up millions to build roads into previously 
pristine areas of the National Forests so that timber companies can cut 
down the trees. Irrigators will pay back less than half of the cost of 
dams and water projects constructed for their benefit--and that 
repayment takes 50 years with no interest charges.
  These direct subsidies are only the beginning of the support we give 
to natural resource developers. On top of the discount rates for use of 
the public's resources, each of these industries also receives other 
benefits, from tax breaks to farm payments.
  While these corporations profit handsomely from the public's 
resources, they often create environmental damage that the public finds 
itself paying to repair. Abandoned mines litter the West. Unstable 
clear-cuts in the forests have produced dangerous mudslides this year, 
as well as damaging wildlife habitat and harming fishing streams. Dams 
and diversions for irrigation destroy river reaches and wetlands while 
interfering with annual salmon migration.
  Why should the industries that despoil our environment continue to 
receive heavy subsidies from the American people? Why should these 
``corporate welfare'' benefits remain sacrosanct when we have 
eliminated welfare support for many poor people?
  The answer, of course, is that these subsidies should not remain in 
place. We cannot pass up this opportunity to eliminate wasteful 
spending, decrease the deficit and simultaneously reduce environmental 
damage.
  That is why, along with 19 original cosponsors, I have introduced the 
Public Resources Debt Reduction Act. This measure, which was supported 
by nearly 60 co-sponsors in the last Congress, would reduce the 
flagrant waste of billions of dollars in taxpayer money on free 
minerals, cheap timber, subsidized water and other benefits for those 
who use our natural resources.
  The provisions of this bill (some of which have previously been 
adopted by the House of Representatives or House Committees) include:
  Requiring a fair return for oil and gas leases, grazing leases, and 
utility rights of way.
  Establishing that fees for using federal resources recover all the 
costs of making those resources available, with a separate provision 
eliminating timber sales at prices that do not cover administrative 
costs and overhead.
  Halting the give-away of hardrock minerals and sales of mineral lands 
for next to nothing.
  Charging full costs for federal water used to irrigate surplus crops.
  Moving receipts from federal timber sales back ``on budget.''
  Mandating annual budget reporting of the cost of natural resource 
subsidies
  The special deals and subsidies given to natural resource development 
on public lands are relics of another time, a time when the West was 
young and natural resources were seen as the best incentive to settle 
the land. Now the West has long been settled, and we

[[Page E1259]]

can no longer afford the environmental destruction or the loss to the 
Treasury resulting from nineteenth century development policies. In the 
twenty-first century, industry must be required to pay a fair price for 
using public resources.

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