Tax Extenders Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise this evening to speak about a simple amendment that would go a long way to save a lot of jobs in our timber industry and our forested communities.

To give a little bit of background, the collapse of the housing market has devastated the timber industry and the many rural communities that depend on it, resulting in major job losses. Because of a fate tied to the housing industry, the timber industry is one of the hardest hit by the current recession, with timber prices at a record low. That precipitous drop in timber prices has created a unique and very threatening problem for companies that harvest timber on federally owned lands. Specifically, a lot of companies bid for contracts to harvest timber and they did so right before the housing market and then the timber market collapsed. So those companies bid. Some won contracts, and those that won those contracts won them at a very high price for the timber. They could make a profit selling that timber when they harvested it, but by the time the process was completed, the timber prices had fallen through the floor. At the current record-low timber prices, harvesting under contract would cost more than the timber is worth. So the companies would lose money by going forward, resulting in major losses and leading to layoffs and lost jobs.

This takes us to an interesting point where there are two possibilities: one is a contract with the Forest Service, and one is a contract with the BLM, Bureau of Land Management. If a company is fortunate enough to have a contract with the Forest Service, they can apply for and receive an extension, giving them more time to act on the contract and harvest the timber. Given the unique circumstances we find ourselves in, that is of great value. It makes sense. It is a simple way to save jobs. But, unfortunately, if your contract is with the Bureau of Land Management--and that Bureau manages 69 million acres of forested land across our Western States, much of it prime timberland--the same rules are not set up for companies that happen to do business with the BLM rather than the Forest Service. Their only alternative is harvesting timber at a loss and to lose the contract and lose the business altogether. This makes no sense as a policy. In Western States such as Oregon where Forest Service and BLM lands are side by side, you can find yourselves on the Forest Service land one moment and BLM land the next. It is practically arbitrary whether a company is working with an agency that can give them a commonsense extension, as the Forest Service can, or an agency that cannot give them that commonsense extension, which is the BLM.

My amendment is simple. It allows companies to apply for a contract extension and authorizes the BLM to review and grant those applications so we can save those jobs. It applies the same rules to the BLM that the Forest Service already has in place. Indeed, the language of the amendment is identical to a companion bill that has already passed the House. Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office has determined there is no significant financial impact for this bill.

I have spoken to many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and I haven't found anyone who has an objection to this amendment. This is one of those commonsense opportunities to cut a little bit of redtape; a commonsense opportunity to assist companies that were caught in an unexpected trap; a commonsense opportunity to strengthen our rural resource-based companies and the jobs that go with them.

So I put forward this amendment, and, as I noted, everyone I have spoken to on both sides of the aisle says it makes a lot of sense, but some objection has been placed anonymously. So I simply wish to ask that any colleague who has an objection to this effort to help the timber companies, to help our rural resource-based communities, to please come and talk with me because I am sure that whatever concern you have, I should be able to get a good answer for your concern.

We have in this Chamber the opportunity to help some of the hardest hit communities with a simple amendment such as this. I hope we can seize that opportunity. That is the type of bipartisan problem-solving Americans are hoping to see in the Senate.

Thank you. Thank you to my colleagues who have been so helpful in reviewing this amendment on both sides of the aisle. Thank you to my colleagues who will be helpful as we try to put this commonsense amendment in place.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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