Steve Chabot: “Mr. Chairman, since 1982, the Forest Service has lost nearly $1 billion subsidizing private timber in the Tongass…”

“Mr. Chairman, since 1982, the Forest Service has lost nearly $1 billion subsidizing private timber in the Tongass National Forest. That's a $40 million loss every year. If anyone wonders why our national debt is as large as it is, and it's currently about $8.8 trillion, yes, that's with a ``T,'' trillion, one needs to look no further than taxpayer boondoggles like this one. They add up. There are thousands of miles of roads in the Tongass. The Forest Service acknowledges that existing roads are ``sufficient to satisfy local demand for roaded recreation, substance, and community connectivity needs and demands in most districts.'' Yet year after year, the Forest Service spends millions of tax dollars building roads for private timber companies that, by the Agency's own admission, aren't really necessary. To make matters worse, the Forest Service has a nationwide road and maintenance backlog of about $10 billion, tens of millions of which are in the Tongass. Incredibly, the Forest Service isn't maintaining existing roads, yet they want to build more, even though they admit that there are already enough. Does that make any sense? Of course not. This is a simple, straightforward amendment. It would simply prohibit the Forest Service from building logging roads for timber companies subsidized by the American taxpayer in the Tongass.”