May 1, 2006
Dear Representative:
Taxpayers for Common Sense Action (TCS Action) strongly urges you to oppose H.R. 4200, the Emergency Recovery and Research Act. This legislation threatens to cost taxpayers millions by expediting the already mismanaged and wasteful Forest Service Salvage Sale program.
Salvage sales are little more than just another hand-out to the logging industry, and H.R. 4200 will do little more than make these giveaways more frequent and more costly to the taxpayer.
Salvage sales routinely receive one or no bids, demonstrating little industry demand. Moreover, this means taxpayers are being forced to spend money on presale planning for timber sales that never happen. When sales are completed, they regularly produce harvests far smaller than initial Forest Service estimates. For example, post-fire logging in the
According to two separate GAO investigations, Forest Service mismanagement and misdirection is so pervasive it fails to maintain proper accounting and expenditure practices for its current salvage sale operations. Moreover, a 2005 GAO report on the salvage sale program confirms this poor track record, concluding that the Forest Service lacks basic data “…sufficiently reliable to accurately quantify the agency’s specific needs, establish priorities, or estimate a budget.”
Expediting the Forest Service’s faulty planning process will only exacerbate these accountability shortfalls and fiscal mismanagement resulting in even greater taxpayer losses. The Forest Service needs to prove it can fix its current problems and prove itself a responsible steward of public dollars before Congress relinquishes full oversight. Again, we urge you to vote to protect our public dollars and oppose H.R. 4200 the Emergency Recovery and Research Act.
Sincerely,
Jill Lancelot
President and Co-founder
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