Dashcle exempts South Dakota while Western States burn

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 19, 2002 | by John Berlau, | Jennifer G. Hickey

More often than not the only precedents set in appropriations bills are those related to overspending on pork-barrel projects. However, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) managed to start a small fire by including a provision in the defense supplemental appropriations bill which would exempt his home state of South Dakota from environmental regulations limiting timber activities.

Daschle's justification for his request to be freed from constraints imposed by the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act was "due to extraordinary circumstances" in South Dakota's Black Hills, where he explained that expedited logging was needed to prevent the spread of wildfires.

After an article in the Washington Times exposed the exemption neatly tucked away in the supplemental bill, there soon were demands for equivalent exemptions spreading across several other Western states whose fire-prevention efforts have been hampered by those same regulations.

Believing what is good for Daschle's state is good for all states, Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-Mont.) announced on July 25 the introduction of HR 5214, which would authorize the secretary of agriculture to take any actions needed to address fire risks in the National Forest System lands. The measure to extend the exemptions nationwide immediately garnered 25 cosponsors, but it likely will not be addressed until the House returns from its August recess.