Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLEGO. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman (Mr. Blumenauer), my friend, for introducing this amendment.

Earlier this year, I introduced a bill to codify the Roadless Rule across the country. For nearly two decades, the Roadless Rule has been an important tool for preserving pristine forests, clean water, and wildlife. It has also protected taxpayers from subsidizing even more costly road building in national forests.

No roadless place is more in need of this protection than Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Tongass National Forest is home to some of the most undisturbed, temperate, old-growth rainforests in the world.

These 16 million acres of beautiful landscape are also a critical carbon sequestration tool and a resource for climate change mitigation.

Despite these facts and the opposition of many Alaska Native communities, as well as the concerns of the Alaska tourism and sportsmen industries, the State of Alaska has proposed to strip this forest of full Roadless protection.

Stripping Roadless Rule protections from Tongass National Forest will allow millions of taxpayer dollars to be funneled into incredibly expensive road-building projects in one of the most remote, wild parts of our country.

This amendment does not end discussion of how and where the Roadless Rule should be applied in Alaska and other States. It is much simpler than that. All this amendment does is prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize more old-growth logging in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill to construct environmentally harmful roads for the logging industry in this pristine place. This is the exact sort of fiscally responsible amendment my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should support. That is why I strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in protecting Tongass National Forest and American taxpayers by supporting this amendment.

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