George Miller: “I just want to clear up a point. The gentleman from New York who was in the well was saying that the Tongass provisions…”

“I just want to clear up a point. The gentleman from New York who was in the well was saying that the Tongass provisions, the rape and ruin of America's only temperate rain forest, have not been corrected. In fact, what they have done under this legislation is put in place a harvest plan for that forest that has already been found to be flawed scientifically, that is unsustainable and will lead to the overcutting of that rain forest, and then they put hurdles in the place of replacing that. So, in fact, they have gone from having a plan for 2 years to having a plan that essentially is in perpetuity that will lead to the overharvesting and the stripping of that forest and its resources. It is the only temperate rain forest that we have in North America, and it ought to be protected, and it ought to be harvested in a scientifically acceptable and understandable fashion. Mr. Speaker, that is not what this legislation does. It overrides the scientists, puts in place a plan that was rejected already by the scientists, and then says that is the method by which we will harvest the Tongass Forest. That is why it continues to be unacceptable to the administration, to the American people, and to those of us who care about reasonable forest practices.”