William Bryan: “I am most troubled by the conferees' treatment of the Forest Service purchaser road credit program. During this body's…”

“I am most troubled by the conferees' treatment of the Forest Service purchaser road credit program. During this body's consideration of the Interior appropriations bill, I offered an amendment to eliminate this environmentally destructive subsidy. It failed by a single vote. A similar amendment in the House also failed by a single vote. The purchaser road credit program allows the Forest Service to subsidize the road construction costs of timber companies by granting credits to them equal to the estimated cost of the roads they need to access their timber. Timber purchasers can then use the credit to pay for the timber being harvested. Last year these 'purchaser credits' were valued at nearly $50 million. In the House-passed version of the Interior appropriations bill, a limit of $25 million was placed on the value of purchaser credits that may be offered by the Forest Service in fiscal year 1998. The conference report before us today eliminates this cap entirely.”