Frank Riggs: “If we reduce the number of timber sales on Federal forestlands, we reduce the number of timber sales receipts. That is…”

“If we reduce the number of timber sales on Federal forestlands, we reduce the number of timber sales receipts. That is pretty easy to follow. If we reduce the number of timber sales receipts, we reduce funding for reforestation, salvage, road building purposes, and we reduce the timber yield taxes, which, as the gentleman from Washington just pointed out, go to local counties to help compensate, to help mitigate for the fact that so much of their tax base and land mass is in Federal ownership. That is where the corporate subsidies are coming into play. That is money that is coming from the successful purchases of these timber sales. If we did not have private parties bidding on these sales and purchasing this timber, much of this money would have to be paid for by the taxpayer out of general revenues. That is the point we have been trying to stress all night when we say this is not a net loss program to the taxpayer. It does not involve a taxpayer subsidy.”