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The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 2515, as amended by the Rules
Committee to include the text of H.R. 3530, because the bill would expand
the existing forest restoration program to allow commercial timber
harvesting. If H.R. 2515 is presented to the President in its current
form, the Secretary of Agriculture would recommend that he veto the bill.
Specifically, the bill would transfer to the States 100 percent of the
receipts from such expanded commercial activities. Currently, States
receive 25 percent of comparable Forest Service receipts. H.R. 2515 would
foster a local expectation that more timber receipts would be available
under this program and, in turn, could create an incentive for States to
place pressure on the Forest Service to fund commercial timber sales rather
than invest in non-commercial restoration projects.
Finally, the bill would impose costly and burdensome administrative and
reporting requirements that would make it difficult to respond
expeditiously to threats to forest health and would limit environmental
review.
Pay-As-You-Go Scoring
H.R. 2515 would affect direct spending and, therefore, is subject to the
pay-as-you-go requirements of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1990. The bill does not contain provisions to offset this increase in
outlays. Therefore, if the bill were enacted, its deficit effects could
contribute to a sequester of mandatory programs. OMB's preliminary scoring
of this bill is that it would increase outlays by $3 million during FY 1999
and by $27 million during FYs 2000-2003. Final scoring of this legislation
may differ from these estimates.
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