[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16078]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              JOB CREATION

  (Mr. BENISHEK asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, last week, instead of making campaign bus 
stops and touting more stimulus spending, President Obama may have been 
better served coming to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, for a conference on 
jobs in the timber industry.
  At the conference, Representatives Cravaack, Duffy, Ribble, and 
myself, along with Chief Tidwell of the U.S. Forest Service, met with 
loggers, mill operators, and forestry experts. And the consensus was 
clear: Bureaucratic roadblocks and lack of direction are preventing the 
responsible harvest of Federal timberlands and killing jobs.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not about clear-cutting our Nation's forests. 
Responsible timber harvests make for healthier forests. They also 
create real jobs and grow the economy. As it stands, timber in the 
forests of the Great Lakes and across America is literally rotting on 
the stump and the Federal Government's bureaucratic snares are allowing 
it to happen. This cannot continue.
  It is time President Obama and Congress recognize that the simplest 
and quickest way to create jobs is to release the handcuffs of 
overregulation and red tape.

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