WASHINGTON, DC Idaho Senator Larry Craig, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, held a hearing yesterday on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of the Clinton-Gore Administration's proposed roadless initiative. The hearing uncovered numerous statutory violations regarding the proposal.

"While the Clinton-Gore Administration is trying to use this rule-making as an attempt to build a legacy, I see it reflecting something very different," Craig said. " It is a nearly perfect illustration of the arrogance of power that prevents this Administration from working collaboratively with people of different views to achieve meaningful and lasting results. The only legacy will be the heavy caseload of pending lawsuits over their efforts."

The hearing today uncovered a number of statutory violations, some which are already being vetted through the courts. "What is alarming and disheartening about this rule- making is that each hearing uncovers new evidence of political manipulations and statutory violations by the Clinton-Gore Administration," Craig said.

For example, under questioning by Craig, Furnish had no response to a speech by Vice President Gore last May before the League of Conservation Voters in which he stated that not only would he eliminate all road building, he would also prohibit all timber harvests in roadless areas as well.

"In effect, the Vice President announced the selection of the final alternative at the beginning of the public comment period," Craig said. "At that point in time, this rule-making descended from the tragedy of good intentions gone awry, to the farce of purporting to conduct an unbiased proceeding against the back-drop of a transparent, political exercise in pandering to radical environmental groups."

Furnish also testified that the Forest Service does not even keep records of the use of the national forests by disabled Americans. Craig commented that, "On the tenth anniversary of the signing of the ADA the Forest Service concedes that they have no clue as to the impacts of their proposals on disabled Americans."

In addition, while numerous violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) have been uncovered during previous hearings, the Administration's testimony today opened the door to an entirely new set of legal deficiencies. Furnish conceded today that the draft EIS does not contain adequate information to allow the public to comment knowledgeably on individual roadless areas of interest to them. The courts have long held that such information must be provided by federal agencies to comply with NEPA.

Craig is still evaluating the need for legislative action pending the outcome of current court challenges.