Max Baucus: “This amendment is about harvesting dead and dying timber in an environmentally responsible manner. That is all this…”

“This amendment is about harvesting dead and dying timber in an environmentally responsible manner. That is all this amendment is about. It is not about hurting the timber industry, taking away jobs, or stopping timber harvesting in our national forests. It is not about that at all. Once a person thinks clearly and thoroughly through the actual words of the amendment, particularly as modified by the Senator from Washington, one will see that this is about trying to find an expedited way to salvage and harvest timber in an environmentally responsible way. It is not about taking away jobs, once one reads the amendment, particularly as modified by the Senator from Washington. Mr. President, about once a month I spend a workday in my State as staff. I show up at 8 o'clock in the morning with a sack lunch. I work straight on. Sometimes I bag groceries. I deliver the mail other days. I serve meals to senior citizens. I was once a UPS worker delivering packages. I have done lots of jobs. I have also worked on the green chains in several mills of my State, in the plywood plants, the stud mills at various and different locations working with the mill workers--talking to the mill workers, men and women who work on green chains and work in the mills. And I have a pretty good sense of where people are and what they want. It is trite, but it is true: They want jobs.…”