Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 3482 - Hurricane Hugo Forestry Restoration Act

(Senate)
(Tallon (D) South Carolina and 6 others)

The Administration is sympathetic and has been responsive to the needs of those affected by Hurricane Hugo. The Administration opposes, however, H.R. 3482, which would require the Secretary of Agriculture to implement a $100 million reforestation program on private timber land damaged by Hurricane Hugo. Program payments would be made from disaster relief funds appropriated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). If H.R. 3482 were presented to the President, his senior advisers would recommend disapproval of the bill.

H.R. 3482 would establish the highly objectionable precedent of using FEMA disaster relief funds to reimburse private profit-making concerns for disaster losses. This unprecedented requirement would expand substantially the historically authorized uses of FEMA disaster relief funds. It would reduce the emergency disaster relief assistance that would otherwise be available to public authorities, and individuals and families for the rebuilding of their lives. Meeting these emergency needs should not be postponed to provide Federal funding for the reforestation of private timber lands. Inevitably, funding for such reforestation would lead to additional demands from other parties for assistance, resulting in a further diversion of funds from priority needs.

FEMA is currently developing a plan, in cooperation with the State of South Carolina and the Department of Agriculture, to address timber salvage and fire hazard reduction needs on public and private lands damaged by Hurricane Hugo.

In providing supplemental appropriations to enable FEMA to respond to the damages inflicted by Hurricane Hugo, both the Administration and the Congress agreed that the funds provided would be considered as "mandatory" rather than "discretionary" spending for purposes of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement. The diversion of these funds to a non-mandatory purpose, as envisioned in H.R. 3482, would result in the funds being treated as discretionary spending.