Norman D. Dicks: “the other point is, we have to import about 30 percent of our saw wood timber today from Canada. And what that means is…”

“the other point is, we have to import about 30 percent of our saw wood timber today from Canada. And what that means is they are going out and harvesting like crazy up in Canada to supply the American market, because we are not harvesting at historic levels off of our Federal lands. I think, frankly, we had to make some reductions in timber harvesting. I am not opposed to that. What I am opposed to is that we have it down now to a level that I think is clearly sustainable, and we are going to have this amendment today that will even take it down further, which is going to drive up the price of lumber. And it is not well thought out. It cuts into road reconstruction money in the name of cutting out money for new roads, and it just misrepresents the facts. I have never seen, in my entire career, and I have seen a lot of distortions in my entire career up here, believe me, but this one, what this amendment says it does and what it actually does, there is more distance between this and anything I have seen. It is not right. I think a lot of Members here have been misled, and if they actually knew the facts they would be voting against this amendment.”