[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16352]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK

  (Mr. ZINKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ZINKE. Mr. Speaker, this week we celebrate National Forest 
Products Week, and I rise to recognize the important contributions of 
our wood products across Montana and the country.
  In my home State alone, we have more than 20 million acres of timber. 
We have 12 sawmills that employ thousands of Montanans; yet, we can't 
cut a tree in Montana. The number of lumber products has gone down 
because we can't figure out in this body how to cut a tree without a 
lawsuit.
  There is a bipartisan bill in the Senate, the Resilient Federal 
Forests Act, that passed out of this body bipartisan, and the Senate is 
not picking it up. We are not going to hear about forest fires from now 
until the end of winter, but they are there, and it is time to act.
  When a bipartisan bill comes out of this House and the Senate refuses 
to pick it up, it has consequences on Montana, and it has consequences 
on hardworking families that just want to make a living in the timber 
industry.

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