[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    LACEY ACT PROTECTS AMERICAN JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last week in a speech before the 
Economic Club of Washington, Speaker Boehner used this tried and true 
Republican applause line: ``Excessive regulations are making it harder 
for our economy to create jobs.'' But then he followed up with a real-
life example. ``Last month, Federal agents raided Gibson Guitar 
factories in Tennessee. Gibson is a well-respected American company 
that employs thousands of people. The company's costs were $2 million 
to $3 million. Why? Because Gibson bought wood overseas to make guitars 
in America. Seriously.''
  Well, seriously, Mr. Speaker, you were seriously--well, not 
necessarily you, I know you can't write all of your speeches, but you 
were done a disservice by your speech writers who could have done a 
little more research about the background of what was happening there. 
The Federal Government was involved with enforcing the Lacey Act which 
actually makes it easier to protect American jobs and manufacture here 
at home.
  In 2008, I was pleased to be part of leading an effort working with 
the Bush administration in a bipartisan fashion to amend the Lacey Act, 
which bars trade in illegally harvested species to include trade in 
illegally harvested timber. Illegal logging threatens some of the 
world's richest and most vulnerable forests, but more important, it 
threatens tens of thousands of jobs right here in the United States. 
Over 50 trade associations, nonprofits, and unions representing the 
entire range of the U.S. economy signed statements supporting this 
amendment to the Lacey Act and its proper implementation.
  This is serious business. People who cheat by knowingly using wood 
products that are bought illegally overseas cost American jobs. The 
estimate was over $1 billion every year in lost opportunities and lower 
prices because of the illegal logging. We wanted to increase American 
jobs here at home, so we created a mechanism so that people would have 
an incentive to stop cheating, to stop competing unfairly against 
American businesses that are following the rules.
  It's interesting to note that in 2009 when Gibson was first brought 
to the attention of the enforcement agencies and a process started, 
because of concerns that they may have taken illegal timber from 
Madagascar, on the floor of the House, over 400 Representatives voted 
in favor of a resolution I had condemning illegal logging in 
Madagascar.
  We find there are people right here in the United States who 
understand this dynamic. The success of the Lacey Act rests on a simple 
principle: rewarding companies that follow the law while shedding light 
on bad actors. It ensures that American business using foreign wood, 
like guitar makers, pay attention to the sources of their wood. We had 
very powerful testimonies of what happens in illegal logging. It 
doesn't just destroy fragile ecosystems and threaten a scarce and 
dwindling supply of rare species of wood, it destabilizes those 
countries. The people who are engaged in the traffic of illegal timber 
threaten, they corrupt, and sometimes they kill. It is possible to 
figure this out. People need to pay attention.
  Guitar makers like C.F. Martin Guitar are strongly supportive of the 
law. I quote: ``I think the Lacey Act is a wonderful thing. I think 
illegal logging is appalling,'' the company's CEO, Chris Martin, said 
in a recent interview. ``It should stop, and if this is what it takes 
to stop unscrupulous operators, I'm all for it.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is serious business. Being able to have protections 
to protect American manufacturers from unfair competition by people who 
skirt the rules, people who cheat, is in everybody's interest. Let's 
let the process ongoing right now work its way out. Let's see if 
there's a problem. But by all means, we ought to protect the integrity 
of the Lacey Act, which is designed to save these tens of thousands of 
jobs here at home and the environment abroad.

                          ____________________