442 



Taxpayer Savings 



Section 101 of S. 346 repeals section 705(a) of the Alaska 

 National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) . This will 

 remove the entitlement for "at least $40 million annually" to 

 furnish wood mills in Southeast Alaska with timber extracted from 

 the Tongass. In place of the permanent fund, the Forest 

 Service's commercial timber program in Southeast Alaska would be 

 subject to regular annual appropriations, just as in the other 

 national forests. 



This should enable substantial savings for the federal 

 Treasury. A General Accounting Office (GAO) report issued last 

 April found that the agency spent approximately $257 million from 

 the Tongass Timber Supply Fund during fiscal years 1981 through 

 1986. Some $131 million, more than half the total outlays, were 

 completely wasted in the preparation of sales that no one was 

 willing to buy. In today's strained fiscal climate, there is 

 simply no justification for a statutory provision that so 

 arbitrarily flushes taxpayer funds down the drain. 



Even the substantial federal investment in offering Tongass 

 timber that is purchased perpetuates massive financial 

 shortfalls. Because of the forest's remote location and related 



U.S. General Accounting Office, Tongass National Forest: 

 Timber Provision of the Alaska Lands Act Needs Clarification 21 , 

 36 (GAO/RCED-88-54) (April 1988). 



'' Id. at 3-4, 36. 



