226 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. So take a stab at what expeditiously means in 

 your mind? 



Mr. Unger. In my mind, it would be that the regional forester 

 immediately upon delivery of the SNEP report to the Congress 

 would be briefed on the major findings of the SNEP report and that 

 he would then identify any questions or issues that he believes 

 need further analysis, if any, and then proceed to move in the di- 

 rections that are called for. 



I can't predict how long this would take because I don't know 

 what he will find, but it is our hope that there will be little new 

 information that would require holding this up for an extended pe- 

 riod of time. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Once this process gets going, is it solely up to 

 the regional forester or at any point can any individual or group 

 out there decide to exercise its rights and drag this thing out? 



Mr. Unger. The SNEP report is not a decision document. It is 

 simply a matter of assessment of information. And therefore that 

 information, once it is delivered to Congress, is in the public do- 

 main and people will read it and do with it what they wish. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. I guess what I am asking you is not so much 

 from the perspective of the SNEP report but from the perspective 

 of the CALOWL Environmental Impact Statement, which now we 

 are going to have supposedly new information coming out. 



Can anybody force a lengthy delay to amend the document or 

 conduct further studies? I guess — what is this done pursuant to, 

 NEPA? 



Mr. Unger. The only way that I can see that others might take 

 information that they consider to be significant and that we would 

 not, would be to enter into the appeal process once our decision is 

 announced or to enter into litigation, and those options are avail- 

 able to anybody at the present time. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Thank you. 



Mrs. Chenoweth, 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



When I was here last, I made some comments about the legisla- 

 tion that gave forth this SNEP program. I want to be very specific 

 about the record. 



On September 30, 1992, in the 102nd Congress this was read 

 into the record. It was not passed by this committee or by the Con- 

 gress, and it directs the Secretary of Agriculture to manage this 

 plan until December 31, 1996. In that 4-year interim period, log- 

 ging was virtually totally stopped. 



Let me ask you, Mr. Snyder, do you know — I have had my staff 

 busy running around seeing if there was a follow-up to this, to see 

 if there was any congressional action or action by this committee 

 that may have extended that December 31, 1996 deadline. If that 

 December 31, 1996 deadline is still in effect, which I don't know 

 how it could be when you just read something into the record, but 

 apparently that is how they used to do things, and we are still 

 building on it, and I think that is egregious. 



Do you know if there has been any other action that would ex- 

 tend that December 31, 1996 deadline? 



Mr. Snyder. I don't. I was more concerned about the other ele- 

 ments of that particular sequence of events because originally 



