DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Young, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Obey, as Ranking DEBORAH WEATHERLY, LORETTA BEAUMONT, JOEL KAPLAN, and CHRISTOPHER TOPIK, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida, Chairman RALPH REGULA, Ohio JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois JOE SKEEN, New Mexico FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia RON PACKARD, California SONNY CALLAHAN, Alabama JAMES T. WALSH, New York CHARLES H. TAYLOR, North Carolina ERNEST J. ISTOOK, JR., Oklahoma JOE KNOLLENBERG, Michigan JAY DICKEY, Arkansas JACK KINGSTON, Georgia RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New Jersey GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, JR., Washington ZACH WAMP, Tennessee TOM LATHAM, Iowa ANNE M. NORTHUP, Kentucky JOHN E. PETERSON, Pennsylvania DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin JULIAN C. DIXON, California ALAN B. MOLLOHAN, West Virginia MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio NANCY PELOSI, California PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana NITĄ M. LOWEY, New York JOSE E. SERRANO, New York CARRIE P. MEEK, Florida DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina CHET EDWARDS, Texas ROBERT E. “BUD" CRAMER, JR., Alabama JAMES E. CLYBURN, South Carolina JESSE L. JACKSON, JR., Illinois JAMES W. DYER, Clerk and Staff Director HON. DAN GLICKMAN, SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HON. JIM LYONS, UNDER SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT OPENING REMARKS Mr. REGULA. We will get the committee started. We are happy to welcome you, Mr. Secretary, and your team from the Forest Service. I just have a few comments. I hope that in the course of this hearing you will address the problem of backlog maintenance. I think the matter of campgrounds, bridges and many other facilities is perhaps somewhat neglected. And the second concern I have is forest health. I believe that we need to focus more on that. Thirdly, the wildfire prevention and suppression program is of concern. You are down to 67 percent of the most efficient level. I would be interested in an explanation. And you slashed the Forest Management Program which goes to the question of forest health. Lastly, recreation. Obviously, recreation is a much expanding activity in the Forest Service; it does not appear that you have addressed that. Also, I have some concerns about the state purchases of easements. It seems to me that before we get into buying more land or in another form, in easements, we need to take care of the existing challenges that I just mentioned. As you know we have a National Academy of Public Administration study on your budget structures and procedures so we will wait until we get that to get into it more seriously. Mr. Dicks, would you like to make any comments here? Mr. DICKS. No, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to welcome the Secretary and say how much we want to work with them on these Forest Service issues. Hopefully the roads problem that we have had over the last couple of years is now behind us and we can focus in on the backlog on roads. Secretary Lyons and I tried to do something in ISTEA or TEA-21 to see if that funding could not help us address that backlog and I want to continue those efforts. |