[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 125 (Friday, September 20, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         RESTORING HEALTHY FORESTS FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 19, 2013

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1526) to 
     restore employment and educational opportunities in, and 
     improve the economic stability of, counties containing 
     National Forest System land, while also reducing Forest 
     Service management costs, by ensuring that such counties have 
     a dependable source of revenue from National Forest System 
     land, to provide a temporary extension of the Secure Rural 
     Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, and for 
     other purposes:

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chair, this bill is deeply disappointing. It 
takes an issue on which there are areas of agreement and rather than 
working to fulfill those opportunities, it puts forth legislation that 
is deeply harmful both to the process and the policy. I strongly 
support providing long-term fiscal stability for counties who have 
relied on federal timber revenues. This is an important issue for many 
counties in Oregon. I appreciate that this legislation provides another 
year of funding for these counties through the county payments program.
  The rest of this legislation, however, is concerning enough that I am 
forced to vote against it. It removes valuable protections for our 
forests and watersheds and puts in place artificial logging 
requirements that fail to account for local needs, ecological and 
geographic characteristics, or realistic, long-term timber management 
goals. The bill also places more communities at risk from fire or 
erosion danger by opening up areas for development and logging that put 
people closer to high risk wildfire zones and decrease the ecosystem's 
ability to handle flooding.
  Congress should help provide long term fiscal stability to counties 
that are largely made up of federal lands. That is something we can all 
agree on. However, I would hope that we could do so in a way that 
maintains the basic environmental safeguards we depend on to keep our 
forests and our watersheds healthy, that preserves the investments we 
have made in outdoor recreation opportunities, and that helps our 
communities be safe, healthy, and economically secure.

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