William Bryan: “This amendment is not about timber harvesting in the national forests. It does not prevent it. And it does not prevent…”

“This amendment is not about timber harvesting in the national forests. It does not prevent it. And it does not prevent the construction of new roads in the national forests for purposes of timber access. What it does is to eliminate a costly taxpayer subsidy that is part of the Forest Service program, a subsidy that has been roundly denounced, and correctly so, by virtually every taxpayer group in America, such as Citizens Against Government Waste and Taxpayers for Common Sense, because it cannot be justified. Second, this is an important environmental vote, perhaps our most important environmental vote to date because we reduce by $10 million an amount of money that is appropriated for new road construction in the national forests. The amendment does absolutely nothing to reduce or to impede the accounts that are provided for in the maintenance of roads in the National Park System. So Mr. President, I urge support of the Bryan amendment because it is truth in budgeting and makes sense from a fiscal point of view and because environmentally it is sound policy for the Nation.”