Bryan makes annual run at chopping federal logging budget

Scott Sonner

Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Sen. Richard Bryan has revived his annual attempt to reduce spending on logging of national forests with the same results as before. It was defeated Tuesday by a vote of 42-54.

"This was a disappointing, but not unexpected outcome," Bryan said. "The timber industry is simply trying to protect its cash cow - America's forests.

Bryan, D-Nev., had hoped to stem opposition from other Western senators with a new strategy that would earmark half of the $30 million saved to go toward reducing fire risks and fighting wildland fires on federal lands.

"Having already experienced one of the worst fire seasons in history last summer, in combination with the already extremely dry conditions in much of the West this year, this additional fire management funding could be extremely helpful," Bryan said Monday.

"While the time to reign in the Forest Service's fiscally irresponsible and enviromentally damaging timber program has been long past due, it makes even more sense to use these dollars for this year's expected severe fire season," he said.

Nearly 2 million acres of forest and rangeland burned in Nevada last summer, an area larger than the state of Delaware.

Bryan, who is retiring at the end of this year, has for several years running proposed unsuccessfully significant reductions in the Forest Service's timber sale program.

Bryan's plan would have trimmed trim $30 million from next year's proposed $220 million timber sale budget. Half of the saved revenue would go to fire management and half be returned to the federal treasury for debt reduction.

The move - proposed as an amendent to the Interior Department spending bill - would reduce the Forest Service's overall budget from $1.233 billion to $1.203 billion.

"While we have had remarkable success over the last several years in reforming welfare, we have completely neglected the fact that the timber industry continued to receive their corporate handouts," Bryan said.

He agrees with the conclusion of national enviromental groups as well as the conservative National Taxpayers Union that the federal logging program costs more money than it returns to the federal treasury, resulting in so-called "below cost timber sales."

"Ultimately, the Forest Service should get out of the business of providing government subsidies to the timber industry," Bryan said.

In the past, Bryan has proposed that part of the money be spent on debt reduction and part on environmental restoration efforts.

But most senators from the West, including many Democrats, have opposed to any effort to reduce the timber sale program, partly because logging revenues are used to finance reforestation efforts.