Forest Service Too Poor To Pay, Craig Advised

The U.S. Forest Service does not make enough money to pay for agency reforms proposed by Idaho Republican Larry Craig, a congressional investigator said Wednesday.

Ross Gorte, an investigator for the Congressional Research Service, cited a General Accounting Office study which said the Forest Service spent 90 percent of the money it made between 1992 and 1994 on overhead. It put only 10 percent back into the U.S. Treasury, he told Craig during a Senate hearing. In 1996, the Forest Service deposited virtually no money, he said.

“It seems highly unlikely that selffinancing will prove feasible,” he said.

Gorte spoke at the third in a series of five hearings on a draft of Craig’s federal land management reform proposal, which has not been introduced as legislation.

One of the proposal’s authors, Resources Committee staff member Mark Rey, said the GAO may be asked to study how funding formulas can be rewritten to help the Forest Service make more money.

“We will ask the GAO to study different scenarios to make the agency self-funding,” Rey said. Rey said the testimony from Gorte and other panel members concentrated too much on timber funding sources and not enough on geothermal, oil and gas revenues.

Craig is also proposing that the Forest Service chief should be confirmed by the Senate. Gorte acknowledged it has always been a political position. “The chief is, always has been, and probably will be at the nexus between political decision makers in the department and career employees in the Forest Service,” he said.

Of the past 14 Forest Service chiefs, four have been agency outsiders. Present chief Michael Dombeck, who had served as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Under Craig’s proposed rules, not all of the past forest service chiefs would have qualified, Gorte said.

George Leonard, a retired Forest Service executive, supported Senate confirmation, but said Craig’s proposed changes need refinement. The appointment process, for instance, should be limited to one year.

Overall, Leonard said he and other retirees supported Craig’s proposal.

“We are pleased with this comprehensive legislative proposal. We don’t like every feature of the bill and we strongly oppose other aspects, but on the whole, we think it moves in the right direction,” he said.

Testimony will continue today on the proposed transfer of federal lands to state control.

, DataTimes