Timber Law Becomes Entitlement

Item: Timber law becomes vast entitlement /Matthew Daly & Shannon Dininny, Associated Press

More Info: A four-year renewal of the law, passed last year, authorizes an additional $1.6 billion for the program through 2011 and shifts substantial sums to states where the spotted owl never flew. While money initially was based on historic logging levels, now any state with federal forests - even those with no history of logging - is eligible for millions in Forest Service dollars. Doling out all that taxpayer money is based less on logging losses than on the powerful reality of political clout. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among the program’s strongest backers. The biggest winner under the renewal is, in fact, Nevada, where payments jumped by 1,132 percent.

Question: Originally, the timber law shepherded through Congress by Larry Craig and Ron Wyden was invaluable to keep timber communities in rural states like Idaho afloat. Now, it appears to be another pork program used by powerful pols to help their states. Is it time to end the program?