Norman D. Dicks: “All of them are used. When we do reconstruction on those roads, it is to keep those roads available for recreational…”

“All of them are used. When we do reconstruction on those roads, it is to keep those roads available for recreational purposes. The gentleman is taking out a big part of that money. I am surprised that we even have, and I think it is 5 percent, by the way. Look at what we have done to timber harvesting in this country. We have taken it down to here. I know that someone will not rest until it is probably below this line. That is simply not right because we have a responsibility. We can manage these forests on a sustainable basis. This is not James Watt running this place down there. It is Jim Lyons who used to be on the staff here of the Committee on Agriculture, it is Dan Glickman, it is Albert Gore, it is Bill Clinton, it is Bruce Babbitt. These are the people that are managing these forests. All I want to say is that these people are managing this properly. They have also said that the Kennedy-Porter amendment goes too far. We have a letter here today and let me just read a couple of salient paragraphs: ``Small timber business purchasers would be adversely affected because of potential financial troubles they may encounter as they operate timber sales if the purchaser credit program is eliminated. Accordingly, the administration urges Congress to allow the Forest Service to do the purchaser election. The administration also supports reducing the construction of new roads on national forests as reflected in its budget.”