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help either small business or the secondary manufacturers. In fact, the Small Business 

 Administration seems to be going out of its way to ensure the Small Business Timber Sale 

 Set-Aside program withers on the vine. During the Reagan Administration, and during 

 much of the Bush Administration, the Small Business Administration had six Industrial 

 Specialists, all foresters, to oversee the set-aside program. They where adequately funded 

 and had adequate support staif to both oversee the program, and to be advocates for small 

 business as they interacted with the Forest Service and BLM to insure small business 

 needs are secured. Today, the SB A has cut staflBng down to just two industrial specialists 

 and has resisted Congressional efforts to force the SBA to fill those positions. 



While the President's promise was artfiiliy stated, 1 am sure his staff would tell you 

 they've completed a study. Many government personnel and private sector people, 

 including me, participated in a year long process to develop and comment on a report 

 which identified opportunities to assist small business primary and secondary 

 manufacturers. To date, nothing has been done. No final report was prepared or 

 released, and to my knowledge, no recommendations were ever forwarded to the 

 President. The President has done nothing to help the small forest industry companies like 

 mine in the last three years. While the SBA program itself may be confusing, it is critically 

 important to small companies like the one my family owns m California. 



We do not own vast land holdings like many of the large forest industry companies. 

 Hi-Ridge Lumber Company and many other small family-owned businesses like ours are 



