101ST CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1037 To prohibit the sale for export of unprocessed timber from Federal lands west of the 100th meridian in the contiguous 48 States. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 21, 1989 Mr. WILLIAMS (for himself and Mr. ROBERT F. SMITH) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the Committees on Agriculture, Interior and Insular Affairs, and Foreign Affairs A BILL To prohibit the sale for export of unprocessed timber from Federal lands west of the 100th meridian in the contiguous 48 States. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF UNPROCESSED LOGS 4 5 FOR EXPORT. (a) PROHIBITION.—After the enactment of this Act, no 6 unprocessed timber from Federal lands west of the 100th me7 ridian in the contiguous 48 States may be sold which, if sold, 8 would be exported from the United States or would be used 2 1 as a substitute for timber from private lands which is 2 exported. 3 (b) EXCEPTION.-The prohibition contained in subsec4 tion (a) shall not apply to specific quantities of grades and 5 species of timber which the Secretary of the Interior or the 6 Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to lands administered 7 by such Secretary, determines are surplus to domestic lumber 8 and plywood manufacturing needs. 9 SEC. 2. DEFINITION. 10 As used in this Act, the term "unprocessed timber" has 11 such meaning as the Secretary of the Interior and the Secre12 tary of Agriculture determine in regulations issued by each 13 Secretary with respect to Federal lands administered by that 14 Secretary. HR 1037 IH Mr. VOLKMER. At this time, I would like to recognize the gentleman from Washington. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SID MORRISON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON Mr. MORRISON. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for calling this hearing on short notice, and you're absolutely right in your opening comments that it is a very timely issue, and this is the time to understand it and to take the proper steps. I do have a formal statement I would ask be made a part of the record, Mr. Chairman. Mr. VOLKMER. Without objection, your prepared statement will appear in the record. Mr. MORRISON. The issue is actually divided, in that it does impact timber from Federal lands and changing the rules on substitution, as well as restrictions on logs that are owned by the States involved, so the issue does become rather complex. We have three very special colleagues in the first panel, Mr. Chairman, and I'd like particularly to thank Congressman Al Swift, who has provided leadership for the Washington State delegation on this issue. Not that all of us haven't worked on it, but Al came up with the concept which we are now applying as a compromise on our view from the State of Washington. I think the other thing you will find is that there are a number of different attitudes on this subject, and before we get through the hearing, Mr. Chairman, you will have had a chance to consider the views of a number of people, all of whom we respect, but, as usual, when we get to difficult issues, ultimately we have to decide. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Mr. Morrison follows:] STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SID MORRISON PROPOSALS TO RESTRICT TIMBER EXPORTS MAY 8, 1990 Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for this hearing today to review the various proposals we have before us on the restriction of log exports from the West. This issue is on the front burner because of the timber supply crisis in the Pacific Northwest. While I have only recently become a advocate of restricting log exports, I believe it is helpful to consider the various methods these proposals offer to help relieve the pressure our timber communities are feeling. I would like to welcome my colleagues, Congressman Al Swift, Congressman Les AuCoin and Congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld. Al Swift is our leader on workable export restrictions and was instrumental in writing and working out a compromise that the Northwest Delegation could rally behind. I hope my colleagues on the Subcommittee will keep in mind that ours is a true compromise in that no one is entirely satisfied. We believe our compromise offers relief as well as an equal distribution of pain to all segments of the issue. I am also eager to hear the views of our other witnesses. All have very diverse perspectives on this issue and should prove to illustrate just how complex an issue we have before us. I look forward to hearing from everyone. Thank you Mr. Chairman. 1 Mr. VOLKMER. Thank you. I, too, wish to welcome our colleagues who have worked on this from the Northwest, and our first panel will be made up of the Honorable Jolene Unsoeld, Member of Congress from Washington; the Honorable Les AuCoin from Oregon; and Al Swift from Washington. I know that all of you have worked on this as well as other issues affecting the Northwest and affecting our national forests and timber supplies and other constraints that we have in the area. I want to welcome you here this morning. We're going to begin with Ms. Unsoeld, and then I'm going to leave it up to the other two to decide who's going to be the in between person and who's going to be cleanup. So, Jolene, go ahead. STATEMENT OF HON. JOLENE UNSOELD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON Ms. UNSOELD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak on this topic, because, as you are going to know only too well before this year is over, the Northwest has a timber crisis, and there will be a number of pieces of a package that we hope to put together, but log exports has certainly been one of the first and very controversial, but very important, piece of the legislation to have our timber industry remain stable during this time of shortage. We're faced with the possibility of in the range of about 20,000 jobs that will be lost, direct and indirect, as a result of the timber shortage and caused by the spotted owl issue, in addition to our having overcut in the past. The combination of private and public lands have been overcut. Private lands have gone to other purposes, and that has caused us to have a shrinking timber base. Right now, two-thirds of the Washington State private timber is exported as raw logs. Now, the legislation that was past by the Foreign Affairs Committee, you'll get the details on that from my two colleagues. What is important to also keep in mind is whereas if we are not exporting those raw logs, we are going to be able to have more mill jobs in our districts, and that is important, but we must not lose track of the fact that we want to be exporting finished wood products, and I believe that we need to also have an emphasis on promotion of those finished products. Our mills can produce much more efficiently and at much less cost than the Japanese mills the type of metric standards that they want, if given a chance. We need fair trading agreements to remove the barriers, to remove the tariffs, so that our finished wood products have a fair chance in those markets, so we need to increase our ability to negotiate fair trade for our American workers, we need to promote American products, and we also need to provide incentives to do this processing at home. The legislation that we are discussing affects State lands and a permanent ban on exporting timber off of Federal land. Private land is also a problem. My approach would be to offer a tax incentive for domestic processing. I don't believe that it would be war |