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FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS







No. 35
FEDERAL SUBSIDY OF THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST
                
Section 705(a) of the National Interest Lands Conservation Act P.L. 96-487 states:
                    
The Congress authorizes and directs that the Secretary of the Treasury shall make available to the Secretary of Agriculture the sum of at least $40,000,000 annually or as much as the Secretary of Agriculture finds necessary to maintain the timber supply from the Tongass National Forest to dependent industry as a rate of four billion five hundred million board feet per decade.  Such sums will be drawn from receipts from oil, gas, timber, coal, and other natural resources collected by the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior notwithstanding any other law providing for the distribution of such receipts:  Provided, that the funds shall not be subject to deferral or rescission under the Budget Impoundment and Control Act of 1974 and such funds shall not be subject to annual appropriation.
                                    
                    
This subsidy makes a mockery of present efforts to reduce the federal budget.  It contrasts sharply with recent cuts and with the elimination of vital and needed programs.

The subsidy is used largely to enable two large corporations, Louisania-Pacific and Alaska Lumber and Pulp (Japanese owned) to maintain their control of the timber industry in Southeast Alaska.  It puts the federal government in the position of subsidizing the sale of timber for export.

Furthermore, federally-subsidized timber sales compete with timber from private lands, that of the recently-formed Native Timber Corporations.

Therefore, the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs urges the Congress to repeal Section 705(a) of Public Law 96-487 to eliminate this mandated waste of federal funds that undermines congressional and administrative budgetary controls.

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