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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (502975)	12/3/2003 2:20:19 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769670

Bush Signs Healthy Forests Initiative Wednesday, December 03, 2003 URL:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104704,00.html WASHINGTON — President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that he said would help prevent "sudden and needless destruction" from wildfires like the California blazes that destroyed thousands of homes. "With the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (search), we will help to prevent catastrophic wildfires," Bush said in a signing ceremony at the Agriculture Department. He was joined by firefighters who fought the Western blazes. "We're proud to be standing with them up here," the president said. He said wildfires had destroyed 11 million acres over the last two years, and killed 22 people in Southern California this year alone. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., who sponsored the House version of the legislation, compared the measure to President Theodore Roosevelt's call for the establishment of the National Forest system (search) 99 years ago this week. Critics, however, decried it as a payback to the timber industry, which will get greater access to pristine stands of old-growth trees. "This law will not prevent every fire but it is an important step forward," the president said. Decrying what he said has been a "misguided forest policy," Bush said that "a lot of people have been well intentioned. They saved the trees. But they lost the forest. We want to save the forest." "We'll help save lives and property and we'll help protect our forests from sudden and needless destruction," Bush said. The Senate passed the bill by voice vote on Nov. 21 less than an hour after the House approved it, 286-140. For three years, a deadlock in the Senate had prevented the passage of legislation intended to speed forest treatment. But 15 raging fires driven by Santa Ana winds (search) through Southern California prompted Democrats to compromise on the bill. The wildfires burned more than 750,000 acres, destroyed 3,640 homes, 33 businesses and 1,141 other structures. Even after the California fires, 2003 was slightly below average in terms of acres burned and nowhere near the severity of the 2000 and 2002 fire seasons. In the past year, 3.8 million acres have burned across the country. Twenty-eight firefighters died battling the blazes, according to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation (search). The bill -- the first major forest management legislation in a quarter-century -- is similar to Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative," which he proposed while touring a charred forest in Oregon in August 2002. The measure streamlines the approval process for projects to cut excess trees out of thick, overgrown forests or stands of trees killed by insect infestation. Other elements of the president's proposal had already been enacted through administrative actions. The Bush administration estimates roughly 190 million acres are at risk for a severe fire, an area the size of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming combined. Sean Cosgrove, a forest expert with the Sierra Club (search), said some good may come from the increased spending on forest treatment, but there is bound to be unnecessary logging in roadless areas and wildlife habitat as the timber companies try to harvest valuable old-growth trees. "The timber industry fought real hard for this bill for a reason and it's not because they want to remove brush and chaparral," Cosgrove said. "Through and through this thing is about increasing commercial logging with less environmental oversight." Since 1999, the timber industry has contributed $14.1 million to political campaigns, 80 percent of it going to Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Bush has received $519,350 from the industry in that period. The timber industry also spent $23.8 million on lobbying efforts since 2000, according to figures compiled by Political Money Line (search). The measure would authorize $760 million a year for thinning projects on 20 million acres of federal land, a $340 million increase. At least half of all money spent on those projects must be near homes and communities. The bill also creates a major change in the way that federal courts consider legal challenges of tree-cutting projects. Judges would have to weigh the environmental consequences of inaction and the risk of fire in cases involving thinning projects. Any court order blocking such projects would have to be reconsidered every 60 days.

To: calgal who wrote (502975)	12/3/2003 2:20:30 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Dean Debating Whether to Open Vermont Records Wednesday, December 03, 2003 MONTPELIER, Vt. — Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean (search), facing criticism from his rivals about sealed records from his 11 years as governor, is looking at ways to open up some of the documents, the campaign said Wednesday. "He's looking into the options," campaign spokesman Jay Carson said of Dean, "what options there might be to balance transparency with the legitimate privacy rights of others." The former Vermont governor has come under increasing pressure from his Democratic rivals and some Republicans to open about 145 boxes of sealed correspondence and other records from the time he held the state's top job. Dean served as governor from 1991 to this past January. Democratic candidate Joe Lieberman criticized Dean on Monday, arguing that sealing the gubernatorial records (search) does not fit with Dean's efforts to present himself as a straight talker. "That's not the way to build public trust - especially after three years of secret-keeping and information-blocking by George W. Bush," Lieberman said. Another Dean rival, John Kerry, said: "As president, openness will be the hallmark of my administration, not some talking point." Carson said "the vast majority" of Dean's records are open for public viewing in the Vermont state archives (search). But some have been sealed for 10 years, under an agreement negotiated between Dean, the Vermont secretary of state's office and the attorney general. Previous governors sealed their private papers for six years, but Dean's papers are to be sealed for 10 years under the agreement he reached before leaving office. Dean told a network newscast on Monday: "You don't actually get to seal the majority of records, just those sensitive parts that apply to other people. President Bush sort of takes the cake for his sealing. He actually had his sent, as I understand it, to his father's presidential library, where there's a 50-year seal." Dean said: "I'll unseal mine if he'll unseal his." Bush's gubernatorial documents are in the custody of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (search) and most of them are open under Texas public record laws. After Bush's term as governor ended, the documents were sent to his father's presidential library at Texas A&M University. The documents were moved back to archive them. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, in a trip to Vermont Tuesday in which he criticized Dean on military issues, challenged the Democrat to open the one-third of his gubernatorial papers that are under seal. "I'm sure that when Dr. Dean learns that President Bush's public papers as governor are now unsealed, he will be good to his word and unseal the papers of his governorship as well," Gillespie said. foxnews.com