[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 56 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4315-S4316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. Begich):
  S. 785. A bill to establish a grant program to encourage retooling of 
entities in the timber industry in Alaska, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak about a bill that I 
have introduced, the Southeast Alaska Timber Industry Retooling and 
Restructuring Act, which is intended to stimulate employment in 
Southeast Alaska, by helping firms that have focused on the region's 
timber industry to modernize or branch out into new industries.
  In 1954, the US Department of Agriculture encouraged the development 
of a sawmill and pulp mill timber industry in the Tongass National 
Forest in Southeast Alaska, which at 16.98 million acres is the largest 
national forest in America. From the startup of the pulp mills in 
Ketchikan and in Sitka in 1961 to passage of the Alaska National 
Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980, the Tongass was producing 
about 600 million board feet of timber a year, generating 3,500 direct 
and 2,500 indirect jobs and providing the largest number of year-round 
jobs in the region.
  But following passage of ANILCA that created 14 wilderness areas 
covering about 4.9 million acres and the follow up Tongass Timber 
Reform Act of 1990 that placed another 727,762 acres into protected 
non-roaded status and created another 12 wilderness areas containing 
300,000 acres, the timber harvest and thus timber industry-related 
employment plummeted in the region--an area nearly the size of Maine. 
While the two pulp mills closed in the mid 1990's, sawmills have tried 
to survive on the then anticipated 268 mmbf of allowable timber 
harvest. But a litany of Federal forest policy changes from the 
Clinton-era roadless policy, to changes in Forest Service sale and road 
policies, to sale delays caused by litigation have resulted in harvest 
levels falling to 28 million board feet from Federal lands and less 
than 50 million from private lands in 2008. That harvest level is far 
below the 192 mmbf reached in 2006 and about half of the 144 mmbf of 
2007. Recent years have been drastically down from the 495 million 
board feet harvested from all lands as recently as 1997.
  Year round timber employment, according to U.S. Forest Service in 
2007, the last year of current full data, was 402 jobs, just 13 percent 
of the employment of a decade earlier. The impacts on the region's 
economy have been clearly documented. According to a report by The 
McDowell Group consultants, total timber-related payroll in 2007 hit 
just $17 million, compared to $300 million in 1990. Currently, 
according to the State of Alaska, unemployment in December 2008 has 
reached 16.5 percent on Prince of Wales Island, the resource base for 
traditional southern timber operations, and 24.6 percent in the Hoonah 
and Angoon area, the former resource base for central timber

[[Page S4316]]

operations--three times the rising national average.
  This bill is a measure that calls on the Federal Government to 
finally acknowledge its role in the reduction of economic activity in 
the region. By the act, the Government would on a one-time basis, allow 
the Secretary of Agriculture to provide grants to allow existing timber 
facilities to retool either to adopt new timber production practices 
that can operate profitably on far smaller harvests or to convert 
timber plants to totally new types of manufacturing/business 
operations, leaving timber-dependent work. Firms--sawmills, logging 
companies and road construction companies involved in timber work for 
at least a decade--that seek funding for ``retooling projects'' must 
submit business plans and demonstrate the likelihood of success. More 
importantly they must commit to the ``extent practicable'' to continue 
to employ substantially the same number of employees for a 
``reasonable'' period after completion of a retooling project. To limit 
the impact of the aid, grants may only go to businesses hat operated in 
the Tongass for not less than 10 years prior to Jan. 1, 2009. The 
program sunsets within 2 years with the maximum authorization of aid 
being $40 million subject to appropriation.
  The bill would allow companies that used to build Forest Service 
timber roads, for example, to buy more appropriate equipment to bid on 
Federal highway work and water and sewer line work. It could help firms 
move into sand and gravel operations. It could allow sawmills with 
water access to be converted to marine repair facilities or into wood 
treatment plants. And it might allow some mills to convert to higher 
value-added products requiring less raw materials, like door and window 
sash manufacturing.
  The changes would ease environmental pressures on timber stands, 
while aiding the economy by helping to replace the former year-round 
jobs in a region now nearly solely dependent on fishing and tourism 
income, besides government-sector spending, for employment. In a region 
where non-government jobs are precious, it could stimulate job 
retention and help create new employment. At a time when Congress is 
contemplating spending nearly $1 trillion to stimulate employment, this 
measure is a reasonable expenditure to help potentially transition 
employees to 21st century jobs. The Federal Government was the leading 
advocate for the establishment of a pulp-timber industry in the region 
following World War II. It is more than fitting that it provide more 
assistance to help the region transition to a new era of reduced timber 
harvests--an era prompted by major environmental legislation that this 
Congress passed in 1980 and 1990 that is largely responsible for the 
sharp drop in timber harvests. I hope this body will give fair and 
swift consideration to this measure.
                                 ______