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| No. 35 |
FEDERAL SUBSIDY OF
THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST |
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Section 705(a) of the
National Interest Lands Conservation Act P.L. 96-487 states: |
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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.
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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. |
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| Furthermore,
federally-subsidized timber sales compete with timber from private
lands, that of the recently-formed Native Timber Corporations. |
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| 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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