Robert Smith: “this issue has been hovering around the debate on this bill for some time. It has been very controversial. It is the…”

“this issue has been hovering around the debate on this bill for some time. It has been very controversial. It is the question in two parts, one, of whether or not this involves roadless areas which the chief of the Forest Service has placed a moratorium on. It does not. Then there was this effort to discuss permanent roads, new roads. We heard the gentleman from New York discuss that earlier. There was some debate about whether this allowed roads, did not allow roads, and whatever. What I have done with this amendment is simply to lift the whole question of roads out of this bill, so that the decision as to whether or not recovery projects will be involved with roads will be finally decided by the scientists who propose these programs as well as by the Secretary of Agriculture as well as by those forest managers on the ground. Let me make the point that the gentleman from Minnesota just made, and that is simply that the meager amounts of money in the road and trails fund certainly are not enough to take care of the health problems in this country.”