John Thune: “Mr. Chairman, the proponents of the Kennedy-Porter amendment make it sound very simple. If it sounds too good to be…”

“Mr. Chairman, the proponents of the Kennedy-Porter amendment make it sound very simple. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The fact of the matter is that the Federal Government gets paid for the timber. I think we all know that the agenda by those who oppose logging is to eliminate all timber sales on Federal lands. If that happens, the Federal Government gets no revenue. Let CBO score that. Plus you will have killed a part of an industry that is predominantly small businesses. When we talk about some parts of the country, I can tell my colleagues for a fact that the people who are in the logging business in South Dakota are small businesses. Small logging businesses will be out of business. Furthermore, it is the local governments who will suffer. Sixteen percent of the land in South Dakota is Federal lands. That is 16 percent that is off the tax rolls. Timber sales help offset that loss of tax revenue. The proponents think they are helping the taxpayer. They are just sticking it to the taxpayer in another way, because all we are simply doing here is having a taxpayer pay the Government but they are paying it in a different government pocket. The taxpayer is supposed to feel good about this amendment.”