[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16279]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK RECOGNITION

  (Mr. WESTERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today in recognition of 
National Forest Products Week and the men and women across our country 
that work in this crucial industry. Forest products have been an 
integral part of the North American economy even before our States were 
united.
  From our beginnings, forest products built ships and were the main 
source of fuel. Through our industrialization, forest products became 
the foundation of our vast rail system and the media that fills our 
great libraries. Today so much of everything we get is shipped and 
contained in forest products. Forest products have always been the 
backbone of housing, a critical sector of our economy.
  Forest products are green, renewable, and sequester carbon. We have 
been prolific in perfecting our conversion technologies, developing new 
products, and growing more timber. In fact, we have more trees today in 
America than in 1900.
  To keep our forests healthy and our economy strong, we need to 
develop more markets at home and abroad for our forest products, and we 
need to commit more research to find cost-effective ways to utilize our 
woody biomass, a vast, renewable, carbon-neutral fuel source.

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