Sept. 14/Administration of George Bush, 1992

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1556 Sept. 14/Administration of George Bush, 1992 withdrawal of forest resources from contrib- uting their full share to the welfare of the people. 9 9 What President Roosevelt had in mind, and what the American people have always wanted, is balance. Not far from here is a timber town called Forks.

Like Colville, Forks supported a mill, and the mill supported a community. Be- cause of a lack of timber, the mill had to close. Today unemployment in Forks is at 20 percent.

The car dealership has closed; the clothing store, gone; the movie theater, shut down. Domestic violence complaints have doubled, just in the past year. Forks is in crisis for a simple reason: The balance that I was talking about, that balance has been lost.

I 9ve come here because we must restore the balance. Listen to Oregon 9s Senator Mark Hat- field, who was a cosponsor of the original Endangered Species Act back in 1972. This year, he wrote, 8 8There is no question that the act is being applied in a manner far beyond what any of us envisioned when we wrote it 20 years ago. 9 9 The Endangered Species Act was intended as a shield for species ... more. less.

against the effects of major con- struction projects like highways and dams, not a sword aimed at jobs and families and communities of the entire regions like the Northwest. But today, when harvesting on Federal timberland is stopped outright by 13 dif- ferent lawsuits, under 7 different statutes, each inconsistent with the other, the bal- ance has been lost. It 9s time to fight for jobs, families, and communities. The time has come to talk sensibly. When hundreds of mills have been shut down, thousands of timber workers thrown out of work, and revenues for schools and other local services have been slashed, the balance has been lost. It 9s time to fight for jobs, families, and communities. So, as I say, we must talk sense about the Endangered Species Act, about the spotted owl, and about the management of our forests, because it is my firm belief that people and their jobs deserve protec- tion, too. Audience member. What about AIDS? Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! The President. Let me digress for one minute. Let me digress. This man has asked a question here. I hadn 9t planned to discuss this. His question is 4if you 9ll listen, sir, I 9ll explain to you what about AIDS. AIDS is a serious problem. Under my administra- tion we 9ve appropriated $4.3 billion, ten times as much per victim as for cancer. We 9ve asked for $4.9 billion. We are the leaders in research, and we 9re going to keep on fighting until we get this thing whipped. Now, let me go back to the Endangered Species Act. And let me be clear. The basic purpose of the Endangered Species Act is good and noble, to save the rare and threat- ened species of this country. But today, the act and other laws are being used by people with extreme views, particularly here in Washington and Oregon, to achieve in the courts what no sane official would ever have voted for, the complete lockup of the most productive forests in the entire United States. The Endangered Species Act, as rigidly interpreted by some courts and as driven by the Congress, has forced an extreme ap- proach and created an unnecessarily tragic situation here in the Northwest. Massive areas of Federal land are being set aside for the owl, virtually ignoring the fact that two-thirds of the Northwest 9s old-growth forests are already designated as parks, wil- derness, or other classifications that prevent harvesting. Each pair of owls 4listen, Amer- ica 4gets 3,500 acres to itself, while jobs, families, and communities are being wiped out in the process. The other side has been talking about a 8 8false choice. 9 9 They claim that this timber crisis is just politics, and the simple fact is this: The false choice is being driven by extremists who are twisting the Endangered Species Act and its application to the north- ern spotted owl. So I came up here to set the record straight. Let 9s do that for the entire country, right here. We have always worked within the parameters of the law to address this problem. But I can tell you this: The law is broken, and it must be fixed. We have asked the United States Con- gress for funds to cut enough timber in this region to keep people employed. But these conflicting laws allow challenge after challenge. So this year we sent Congress an alternative plan, a preservation plan that would save 17,000 jobs compared to the recovery plan required by the act. And VerDate 11-MAY-200007:28 May 21, 2003Jkt 010199PO 00000Frm 00278Fmt 1240Sfmt 1240D:\PAPERS2\92PAP2.024APPS10PsN: 92PAP2

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