Frank Riggs: “This comes right out of the GAO report. As we talked about earlier, I also want to point out that one of the reasons…”

“This comes right out of the GAO report. As we talked about earlier, I also want to point out that one of the reasons that we have so-called below cost sales is because we do not salvage or harvest these trees in a timely manner. They begin to lose a lot of their monetary value. This is merchantable timber, but if we do not harvest it when it has a monetary value, then of course we are not getting the best return on that particular timber. One other thing I want to say. I want to ask my colleagues about this. I see that the forest health bill in the other body is now held up over the debate about whether or not we would permit forest health type selective harvesting on Federal forest lands in so-called roadless areas. This amendment prevents us from building any new roads in Federal forest lands. So it is part and parcel of the movement again to turn Federal forest lands into national parklands. The point I want to make in conclusion, Mr. Miller and others, you have joined together in your pork busters coalition or the green scissors coalition, do you support the position of the Sierra Club, which is part of the green scissors coalition, which has come out by a vote of 2 to 1 of its membership in favor of a complete ban on all logging on Federal forest lands, an extreme position to put it mildly, a position that says we are not even going to harvest a dead, dying or diseased tree. Does the gentleman from Florida support that position?”