Copyright 2000 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
March 22, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: PREPARED TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 3256 words
HEADLINE:
PREPARED TESTIMONY OF HON. JAMES LYONS UNDER SECRETARY NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ENVIRONMENT UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BEFORE THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND
RELATED AGENCIES
SUBJECT - FOREST SERVICE FISCAL YEAR 2001 BUDGET
BODY:
Chairman Gorton, Senator Byrd, and
members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss the Forest Service's proposed budget for fiscal year 2001.
I would like to present a brief overview of our budget request and
highlight some of the priorities we've identified in three broad areas. Chief
Dombeck will address these and other areas in greater detail. The three areas I
want to highlight are: l) the major Presidential initiatives, as reflected in
the FY 2001 Budget, to promote the long-term sustainability and productivity of
the Nation's forests and grasslands; 2) the strides that have been made in
restoring program and financial accountability within the Forest Service; and 3)
our ongoing efforts to resolve issues of long-standing concern to the public and
the Forest Service as we better prepare the agency to meet the challenges it
will face this next century. Today more than ever, we are involved in important
debates about the future of America's forests. Underlying all of these debates
is a common thread: what we do today will ensure that our forests, grasslands
and river systems retain their health, diversity, resilience and productivity
for future generations. While there are differing approaches, I think that we
would all agree that it is in the best interests of the Forest Service and the
Congress to work together to ensure that we have sustainable communities that
thrive and prosper in ways that promote land health and community well-
being.First, a brief overview. Overall, we are requesting $3.1
billion for Forest Service discretionary spending in fiscal year 2001. This is a
14 percent increase over the fiscal year 2000 appropriation and includes the
funding to do such things as institutionalize accountability and provide the
quality service that the American public expects the Forest Service to provide.
The budget requests a $138.6 million increase in
funding for the National Forest System. This is a 12 percent increase from
fiscal year 2000. In addition, the budget proposes an increase of
$13.3 million to enhance the agency's widely recognized role in
forest and rangeland research, including increased research for better
utilization of small diameter timber and woody material and the relationship of
soil productivity to the carbon cycle. The budget also proposes an increase of
over 22 percent in the State and Private Forestry appropriation that now also
includes International Programs.
BUDGET PRIORITIES OF THE PRESIDENT
Lands Legacy Initiative: Again President Clinton proposed funding for
the Lands Legacy Initiative in the fiscal year 2001 budget to help protect
environmentally sensitive lands from development, preserve great places, and
provide more open, green space for Americans in suburban and urban areas. The
Forest Service has three programs that play a role in this initiative: its land
acquisition program; the Forest Legacy program; and the Urban and Community
Forestry programs. While many in Congress are very familiar with the agency's
valuable land acquisition program for which the President has requested
$130 million, the Forest Legacy and Urban and Community
Forestry programs are just getting the attention and recognition they deserve
from the public as two additional valuable conservations programs.
The
Urban and Community Forestry program provides grants and technical assistance to
thousands of communities and major cites across America helping them to maintain
or expand their "green infrastructure." The program helps them plant trees along
city streets, abandoned lots, parks, as well as understand all of the different
ways trees can help solve environmental problems such as reducing storm water
run off. While many are focused on providing money to build parks, Urban and
Community Forestry funding actually provides the technical assistance to help
decide how and what is planted in those parks. It is a program that complements
such state-side programs like the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery program.
Because the demand for this program has grown so strongly over the last five
years, the President has again requested $40 million for this
program.
The Forest Legacy program is unique in that it provides States
money to acquire easements on private forested lands that are under pressure
from development. Over twenty States are now participating in the Forest Legacy
Program and are requesting nearly $100 million in assistance to
purchase easements. The States utilize these lands for a number of purposes,
including providing public recreation opportunities as well as preserving
habitat for critical wildlife. As a result of this increase in demand, the
President has requested $60 million for fiscal year 2001.
HIRE Proposal: The President's 2001 budget includes the Healthy
Investments in Rural Environments (HIRE) initiative that accomplishes a number
of important goals for the Forest Service including: Creating new private-sector
jobs in rural and forest dependent communities, where jobs for skilled workers
continue to be in dire need;
Providing the Forest Service more
management flexibility to address the growing forest and rangeland health,
ecosystem restoration, and facility, trail, and road maintenance challenges
facing the national forests; Improving the accountability and manageability of
the Forest Service's trust fund system;
Continuing work currently
performed by the Forest Service under the trusts, to address both the priority
work funded by the existing trust funds and support a widescale jobs creation
program.
To achieve these goals, the Forest Service proposes replacing
four permanent and trust fund accounts (the Salvage Sale, Knutson- Vandenberg
(K-V), Reforestation, and Timber Sale Pipeline Restoration (USDA-only) funds)
with a new mandatory appropriation called HIRE.
Under the HIRE proposal,
all timber sale receipts would return to the Treasury. At the same time, the
Forest Service would receive a new mandatory appropriation of more than
$300 million a year. The Forest Service would allocate this
money to the field through the same allocation criteria methods it uses for
discretionary funds and would display its allocations to Congress for greater
accountability.
Payments to States: The Administration has also been
working diligently to stabilize county payments for education and road
maintenance that have previously been linked to timber sale levels. Faced with
declining timber sales on our National Forests, we have put forth proposals that
would instead provide a more reliable stream of funding. Our proposal has
evolved a great deal and we are now working with Congress to craft legislation
that would stabilize payments, maintain healthy ecosystems, and restore a closer
working relationship between rural counties and the Forest Service.
Clean Water Action Plan: The President's Clean Water Action Plan
emphasizes targeting priority watersheds to improve water quality.
Several actions in the plan are related to management of national
forests and grasslands, including restoration of stream corridors and riparian
areas, inventory and monitoring, cleanup of abandoned mine lands and hazardous
material sites, decommissioning/maintenance of roads; and improved rangeland
vegetation and grazing management. The fiscal year 2001 budget includes an
increase of $84 million for this initiative compared to
fiscal year 2000. This funding is critical to meeting the requirements of the
Clean Water Act, among other State and Federal laws.
Watershed Health
and Restoration: Forest Service lands also serve as the headwaters for many
major river systems and aquifers that are essential for the nation's water
supply, and contain valuable riparian, wetland, and coastal areas. Although
there have been significant improvements in water quality since the Clean Water
Act of 1972, 40 to 50 percent of our watersheds are still in need of restoration
and protection. For this reason, the President is requesting
$487.7 million for fiscal year 2001 for these activities, which
is a 9 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
With this money, the
Forest Service hopes to continue investing in twelve large-scale watershed
restoration projects begun in fiscal year 2000. The main purpose of this effort
is to develop an agency-wide strategy that focuses resource actions on
significant portions of land to enhance its clean water, wetlands, migratory
birds, fisheries, riparian areas, and watersheds as well as provide other goods
and services to communities.
Recreation: Americans cherish the national
forests and grasslands for the values they provide--clean water, clean air,
natural scenic beauty, important natural resources, protection of rare species,
majestic forests, wilderness, a connection with their history, and opportunities
for unparalleled outdoor adventure. In an increasingly urbanized society,
outdoor recreation provides most Americans with an opportunity to reconnect to
the lands and waters that sustain them. Recreation visitors expect a great deal
from the Forest Service in terms of settings, experiences, facilities and
services; and they will expect even more in the future. Recreation is the
fastest growing use on the national forests and grasslands.
The Forest
Service will finalize its new recreation strategy this year with the help and
input of the public. Our recreation strategy will be founded more on quality
customer service, based on a complete understanding of customers' wants and
needs. The strategy will help sustain ecosystems, highlight special places and
stimulate rural economies. We pride ourselves in innovative partnerships and
collaborative relationships to accomplish the recreation job, all while ensuring
that recreation opportunities take place within the ecological sideboards
necessary to maintain land health. We strive to serve new constituencies, urban
populations, the underserved and low- income people to maintain the relevancy of
national forests for future generations.
The fiscal year 2001 funding
request includes $30' million proposed for developing tourism;
reengineering the special use permitting process; and developing trails,
recreational facilities and attractions targeted toward lower income and
resource-dependent areas adjacent to National Forests, where there are excellent
tourism opportunities. The fiscal year 2001 proposed funding for the recreation
component of the Natural Resource Agenda totals $397.4 million,
a 13 percent increase over fiscal year 2000.
OTHER ADMINISTRATION
PRIORITIES:
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to make you aware of a few
other initiatives that are being undertaken by the Administration:
Roadless Area Initiative: In October 1999, President
Clinton asked the Forest Service to begin an open public process to address how
roadless areas within the national forest system would be
managed in the future. Roadless areas have typically remained
without roads because of inaccessibility, rugged terrain, low timber values,
environmental concerns and high costs associated with litigation. In fact,
historically, Forest Service entry into roadless areas has a
fifty percent failure rate due to the reasons stated above.
Understandably, Forest Service managers often choose to invest resources
in projects that have broader public support, less cost, and fewer environmental
impacts than building roads in roadless areas.
So, in
response to the President's announcement, the Forest Service released a notice
of intent (NOI) to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on October
19,1999, and proposed a two part process to determine how the public would
prefer. Part one would address restriction of certain activities, such as new
road construction, in inventoried roadless areas. Part two
would establish national direction for managing inventoried roadless
areas, and for determining whether and to what extent similar
protections should be extended to un-inventoried roadless
areas. Part two would be implemented through local forest planning.
Both part one and part two would be implemented with extensive public
involvement.
On December 20, 1999, the Forest Service concluded a
comment period on the scope of the proposal. During this comment period, the
agency: Hosted an unprecedented 190 regional and local public meetings; Received
more than 500,000 comments.
The Forest Service is now preparing a draft
environmental impact statement (DEIS) that will detail the agency's proposed
action and its likely effects. The agency plans to conduct another comment
period and an equal number of public meetings when it releases the draft
environmental impact statement and a proposed rule in spring 2000. The agency
plans to release a final environmental impact statement and regulation before
the end of 2000.
Forest Service Roads Policy: On the other side of the
coin, the proposed Forest Service Roads Policy would revise how the Forest
Service manages the more than 380,000 miles of existing roads already in the
national forest transportation system.The Forest Service currently has a
deferred maintenance backlog of more than $8.4 billion dollars
and only receives about 20 percent of the funding it needs annually to maintain
its existing road system to safety and environmental standards.
The
proposed policy is an attempt to: Make the existing forest road system more
safe, responsive to public needs, environmentally sound, affordable, and
efficient to manage; Implement a public involvement process and scientific
analysis procedure at the local level to: Help land managers and the public
identify heavily used roads that the agency should prioritize in terms of its
limited maintenance and reconstruction spending; Help land managers and the
public identify roads that are unused or environmentally damaging that can be
decommissioned; and Place a new emphasis on maintaining and reconstructing
existing roads rather than building new roads.
A draft rule and
procedures were released for public review on March 2, 2000.
Forest
Service Planning Regulations: All of these proposals would be implemented in the
context of the new forest planning regulations. The proposed planning rule would
rewrite the existing Forest Service regulations implementing the National Forest
Management Act of 1976. The proposed rule is based on the recommendations of a
Committee of Scientists and 20 years of experience implementing forest planning.
The proposed rule would: Base forest and grassland planning on
the principles of ecological, economic, and social sustainability; Require the
Forest Service to actively engage the public and our other federal, state,
local, and tribal partners in the management of our national forests and
grasslands; Integrate science and scientists into the planning process and
requires the Forest Service to focus on managing entire ecosystems rather than
single species or outcomes; and, Integrate planning and management activities
more closely so that the Forest Service can respond to new information and
opportunities in a timely manner.
Last fall the Forest Service hosted a
series of 23 town meetings across the country to discuss the proposed planning
rule. The planning rule would provide the overarching framework for implementing
the roadless area and road management initiatives, if the three
initiatives are adopted. All of these initiatives seek to provide for long-term
sustainability, ensure collaboration with the public, integrate science more
effectively in the planning process, and incorporate new information and
opportunities.
ACCOUNTABILITY ACTIONS
I think that we would all
agree that the debate about the management of our national forests has been
clouded in recent years with issues of accountability. In the past ten years the
Forest Service has been the subject of more than 315 audits by the General
Accounting Office and the Office of the Inspector General. And the agency as
well as the Department of Agriculture has yet to receive a clean financial
opinion since they were first required of governmental agencies.
Under
the capable direction of Chief Dombeck, the agency has worked very closely with
my office, other parts of the Department of Agriculture and the Secretary to
implement the needed financial and programmatic reforms.
These changes
were made to position the Forest Service to achieve an unqualified audit opinion
on its fiscal year 2000 financial statements. The agency knows, however, a clean
audit opinion by itself will not restore the agency's credibility with Congress
and the American people. A change in agency culture must occur- a change based
on the knowledge that the Forest Service cannot be effective resource managers
if they are not first accountable for the taxpayers' money and for their own
actions on the landscape. The Forest Service has presented its fiscal year 2001
budget in a performance-based manner that allows it to accomplish its
conservation mission based upon performance measures that fully display
on-the-ground outcomes of its management practices and services to the public.
This budget presents a program that is not simply based on a set of
funding requests. Rather, the budget justification presents the President's
budget in terms of direct on the ground accomplishment of work. Mr. Chairman,
with the implementation of significantly improved accountability measures, we
can refocus the debate about the Forest Service where it should be, on natural
resource management policy.
I can vouch for the fact that Chief Dombeck
is committed to making the necessary changes. Some of the more significant
accomplishments include implementing a new accounting system, developing a
simplified budget structure for the National Forest System, submitting a
performance-based fiscal year 2001 budget, developing an integrated set of land
health and service to people performance measures, and publishing its draft
Strategic Plan (2000 Revision).
In addition, for the first time in many
years, all leadership positions have been filled. Chief Dombeck has established
the offices of the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer to
take leadership responsibility for improved program analysis and the linking of
budget processes to agency performance and strategic planning.
Mr.
Chairman, I do not think that there should be any doubt that these bold,
decisive actions demonstrate leadership commitment to correct the Forest
Service's program and financial accountability deficiencies.
IN
CONCLUSION:
I am proud to say that during my tenure, the Forest Service
has made significant progress in restoring accountability while refocusing the
agency's attention to its multiple use mandate. In so doing, we have placed a
new priority on maintaining and restoring the health of the land while ensuring
the sustainability of goods and services produced on our National Forests. We
have renewed our commitment to re-greening our communities both urban and rural
- and sought ways to improve the economies of forest dependent communities by
broadening their economic base. We are emphasizing collaboration in working with
our public and private partners, and encouraging innovative solutions to our
resource management challenges.
I'm proud of the progress we've made and
look forward to the opportunities ahead. Thank you. I would be pleased to answer
any questions that you may have.
END
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March 24, 2000 
