John W. Olver: “in my part of the country we depend upon things like the Economic Action Plan, the Forest Stewardship, the Forest Legacy…”

“in my part of the country we depend upon things like the Economic Action Plan, the Forest Stewardship, the Forest Legacy Program, and yet each year, especially this year, the chairman and the ranking member have to struggle very hard to find ways to fund those programs and to keep them running, based upon sound industry practices to promote economic development and natural resources protection. But each of them is being squeezed down over time and, instead, we are doing something which is a major subsidy to the industry by all indications from how it has operated and what the GAO says and what the Forest Service says about the net cost of the program in this instance there. There are other costs involved in such a program. We would expect it to cost both in tourism and fishing, as I have already mentioned. And here we are, while we are trying to get other countries to protect their rain forests and actually paying, in some cases putting money into that, here we are with our taxpayers being sent a bill to cut down our own last remaining or major remaining temperate rain forest. So with all of those thoughts under consideration, I would urge that Members of this body support the Miller amendment when it comes up for a vote tomorrow.”