Daschle Slips Forest-Thinning
Measure Into Unrelated Bill

WASHINGTON — As comedian Mel Brooks once said while spoofing French monarch Louis XVI, "It’s good to be da king!" And being the top dog in the U.S. Senate has its perks, too. Just ask Tom Daschle.

 The Washington Times reported last week that Senate Majority Leader Daschle, D-S.D., is attempting to have his state — and his state alone — exempted from the tangle of environmental rules that have led to massive forest fires throughout the remainder of the West.

Daschle, the Times revealed, "quietly slipped into a spending bill language exempting his home state of South Dakota from environmental regulations and lawsuits, in order to allow logging in an effort to prevent forest fires."

Daschle had earlier blocked the same measure when it was proposed by a Republican and has routinely supported activist groups that oppose efforts to thin fire-prone forests elsewhere.

The publication said Daschle’s clever move "angered Western legislators whose states were forced to obey those same rules as they battled catastrophic wildfires."

"What's good for the Black Hills should be good for every forest in the United States," said Sen. Larry E. Craig, Idaho Republican and chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.

The Times story said Daschle defended his action as "essential to reduce the timber growth that can fuel wildfires."

"As we have seen in the last several weeks, the fire danger in the Black Hills is high and we need to get crews on the ground as soon as possible to reduce this risk and protect property and lives," Daschle said in a statement late Monday night after a House-Senate conference committee agreed on the language.

The language was hidden inside the defense supplemental spending bill, which passed the House by a 397-32 vote. Daschle’s provision says that "due to extraordinary circumstances," timber activities in the Black Hills will be exempt from the National Forest Management Act and National Environmental Policy Act, are not subject to notice, comment or appeal requirements under the Appeals Reform Act, and are not subject to judicial review by any U.S. court.

The story quotes Republican aides as noting that more than 20 lawsuits, appeals or reviews are blocking timber projects to remove fuel from the Black Hills, "some bottled up in bureaucracy since 1985."

"After hearing all the hand-wringing from environmentalists downplaying the impact of appeals and litigation, it's nice to see that the highest-ranking Democrat in the nation agrees that these frivolous challenges have totally crippled forest managers," said Rep. Scott McInnis, Colorado Republican and chairman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests and forest health.

Mr. Daschle is quoted as saying his measure is the "fastest and most effective way to get the forest thinned.

"To be effective, any piece of legislation must be crafted in a way that avoids more time-consuming litigation, and this deal should meet that critical test," Daschle said.

The Times says House and Senate Republicans have signaled they would try to extend the exemptions to forests in their own states.

"He should expect that and he should support it," Craig is quoted as saying in a thinly veiled challenge to Daschle’s credibility and political integrity.

More than 50,000 fires have torched 3.7 million acres this summer, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

"It will be interesting indeed to find out if what's good for Mr. Daschle's goose is also good for the West's gander. We intend to find out," McInnis said.

Environmental activist groups oppose timber cutting as a form of fire prevention, and Daschle has generally supported the agendas of such groups, which return the favor by throwing their political weight and campaign contributions to Democrats.

The provision to allow logging in the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and Beaver Park was first included in the farm bill by Rep. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson for his seat in November.

It was killed by Daschle and Johnson under pressure from environmental groups, congressional aides said.

"They caved to the national environmental groups during the farm bill and got destroyed back home because of it, so they really didn't have any choice but to join Mr. Thune," one Republican aide said.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, said the process should have been open and the solution available to all states in a "tinderbox situation." His state has lost more than a half-million acres to the sorts of fires that Daschle wants to prevent in South Dakota.

"It certainly can only be described as blatant hypocrisy on behalf of the Senate leader to claim on one hand to be the champion of the environment and then on the other hand to cut a special deal for his home state," Hayworth said.

"What he is proving today is that true environmentalists are willing to have effective forest management. This is a classic case of somebody saying one thing for political posturing, and doing another for public policy," Hayworth added.

"We're trying to rebound from the worst fires in our history — hundreds of homes, thousands of lives shattered. We're on emergency footing in the White Mountains of Arizona trying to rebuild people's lives," he continued.

"Believe me, if we had the option to take advantage of this for Arizona, you better believe we would have."