Articles

Amendment to House Farm Bill protects rural forested communities from further burdensome regulation; plan unanimously passed by the U.S. House

June 19, 2013

Click here or on the image below to watch Rep. Walden’s remarks

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) today delivered remarks in the U.S. House of Representatives in support of a bipartisan amendment to the House Farm Bill that would prevent costly new federal regulations and permit requirements for forest roads. It was later passed unanimously by the House. Below is a transcript of Walden’s remarks:

“I thank my colleagues from Washington and Oregon for their work on this legislation. This is very important to the men and women who work in the woods in the Northwest.

“For nearly four decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has said that driving down a forest road is not the same as pumping raw sewage into a river.  They’re much different activities! This amendment would prevent the federal government from subjecting forested communities and business to further costly permits for everyday activities, like driving down a road.

“Rural forested communities in the Northwest have been hurting for a very long time.  Those who live there, we know all about the high unemployment rates. We know all about the high poverty rates. We know about the percentage of kids on free and reduced lunch because of burdensome federal regulations that have shut down activity on our federal forests. Now lawsuits have threatened to do this on our private forests as well.

“The last thing they need is more costly and lawsuit-prone regulations that will further impact rural communities and the people who live there that simply want the opportunity to work in the woods, raise their families, and grow their communities.  

“Passing this bipartisan amendment will provide some certainty moving forward for rural forested communities, forest managers, and the people who work in the woods. I urge my colleagues to stand for jobs, stand for rural America and vote for this bipartisan amendment.”

This bipartisan plan would maintain the status quo of how forest roads are currently regulated by the EPA, which is in line with the state of Oregon’s standards. It preserves the EPA’s position that forest roads should not be regulated as pollution sources under the Clean Water Act and would prevent further determinations in the future by the federal government that costly permits be required for everyday activities, such as reforestation, thinning, and pest and fire control, that occur across the country on public, private, state and tribal forest roads.