Thursday, March 30, 2006
Proposed national forest land sale is a bad idea
From the RoundTable blog
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Bob Goodlatte
Goodlatte, a Republican, represents Roanoke in Congress and is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
The budget submitted by the president to Congress earlier this year included a proposal to sell 304,370 acres of national forests to pay for an extension of the Secure Rural Schools program. Contrary to recent reports, I think this is a bad idea and I would like to set the record straight.
First and foremost, this is simply a proposal at this point in time. It is common for many proposals in the president's budget recommendation to be left out of the actual budget adopted by the Congress, and that will be the case with this massive land sale.
Second, such land sales cannot take place without the explicit approval of Congress. Selling national forest lands would require authorization by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
No legislation has been introduced in the Congress to authorize such a sale. If it is, it will be referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. As the chairman of the committee, I know that it lacks support, and I can assure you this legislation would not be reported out of my committee.
Supporters of the sale proposal suggest that these forest lands are isolated and hard for the U.S. Forest Service to manage. Nevertheless, the idea of selling capital assets to pay for short-term needs sets a bad precedent. As they say in rural America, "you don't sell your seed corn for spending money." Furthermore, these forest lands aren't just any old asset; they are an important part of our nation's heritage.
Suggesting that I feel otherwise ignores reality and my record on this matter. For example, the president's budget proposed the sale of the Catawba tract. I fought long and hard for the agency to keep this tract of land when it was proposed for a land swap in the late 1990s.
Furthermore, legislation to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act does not allow the sale of any forest land. I am working with 92 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors of legislation to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act, including Virginia Congressmen Rick Boucher and Virgil Goode. One of our goals is to find better ways to fund and improve this important program, but this proposal is not an option.
When the president of the United States makes a proposal, I do not dismiss it out of hand. But as the saying goes: "The president proposes, the Congress disposes." This is as true today as it has ever been.
As the chairman of a standing committee of the House, I have the responsibility to carefully review and evaluate the proposals that fall under the jurisdiction of my committee. The administration unveiled this proposal in February, and there has been adequate time to study the details and determine that this proposal just won't work.
