Political Quotes

“I am honored to be a cosponsor of H.R. 2131, which reauthorizes the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998. I want to commend the author of the legislation, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman), and the chairman and ranking Democratic member of the Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), and the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for their leadership in moving consideration of this important measure which facilitates debt reduction in Third World countries by supporting their efforts for conservation of fragile tropical forests. The provisions of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act basically allow less-developed nations that owe loans to the United States to restructure their debt repayment, funneling savings into a tropical rain forest protection fund which provides for the conservation and maintenance of native forest resources in each participating country. According to the World Wildlife Fund, in recent years up to 42 million acres of tropical forests have been devastated annually throughout the world. Indeed, approximately one-half of the planet's tropical forests no longer exist. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, it is estimated that 88 percent of original forest lands have now been destroyed. These careless actions have a dramatic negative impact on the environment that is global in nature.”