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as the rigid 4.5 language persists in law, there can be no real change, no 

 fair planning in the TLMP Revision, and no true balanced management of the 

 Tongass for all its multiple uses. 



II. THE TONGASS TIMBER REFORM ACT -- SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT. 



TERMINATING THE 50-YEAR CONTRACTS IS NOT A BREACH OF CONTRACT. The essence of 

 the 50-yealr contracts is the right to monopolize federal timber. S.346 does 

 not take away the rights of the mills to buy federal timber but instead simply 

 changes the procedure by which government supplies that timber. Termination 

 of the contracts does not amount to a property taking since the government is 

 exercising its implicit right to pass laws which alter or even terminate 

 contracts if It serves a legitimate public purpose. Because of this 

 "sovereign act exception," such government termination is not a breach of 

 contract. Just over ten years ago Congress terminated seven timber sales 

 contracts in order to expand Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area 

 Wilderness. A reviewing court found that termination served a legitimate 

 public purpose and was not a breach of those contracts. 



"JUST COMPENSATION" IS A CONGRESSIONAL OPTION -- NOT AN OBLIGATION. Congress 

 may provide, if it chooses, "just compensation" to the pulp mills in 

 accordance with the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. In examining the 

 issues associated with terminating the two 50-year contracts, the 

 Congressional Research Service concluded in a 1987 study that such an action 

 would likely be upheld as a legitimate, non- compensable regulatory action. 

 Should Congress voluntarily decide to compensate the pulp mills, CRS estimated 



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