[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 13 (Tuesday, February 7, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           ADMINISTRATION CUTS OFF FEDERAL FUNDS TO OSU STUDY

  (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, we have another concern today arising about 
the administration's potential abuse of the scientific process in 
making policy.
  Today, the Associated Press reported that the Bureau of Land 
Management under this administration has suspended funding for the 
final year of a study from Oregon State University on the impact of 
logging in national forests burned by wildfires.
  Findings of these studies were published last month in the magazine 
Science, and they suggested that the administration's stance on salvage 
logging runs counter to the real goals regarding forest regeneration 
and fire prevention. I am concerned in this case that we have seen yet 
another situation where funding may have been frozen to punish 
scientific results legitimately conducted at Oregon State University, 
and that is why I have called on the Interior Department's inspector 
general today to investigate whether or not this in fact has occurred.
  Did Daniel Donato and his research team from OSU lose funding because 
of this cause? Is this another punishment situation? We need to find 
out. We have got to respect science and use it accordingly.

                          ____________________