02/25/1997 01:36 PM House RES

 SJR 8 - PRIMARY MFG OF PUBLICLY OWNED TIMBER                                
                                                                               
 Number 0048                                                                   
                                                                               
 CO-CHAIRMAN HUDSON announced the first order of business was Senate           
 Joint Resolution No. 8, urging the United States Congress to give             
 an affirmative expression of approval to a policy authorizing the             
 state to regulate, restrict, or prohibit the export of unprocessed            
 logs harvested from its land and from the land of its political               
 subdivisions and the University of Alaska.  He noted that Senator             
 Torgerson was the prime sponsor.                                              
                                                                               
 Number 0096                                                                   
                                                                               
 MARY JACKSON, Legislative Assistant to Senator John Torgerson,                
 presented the resolution.  She said SJR 8 is the same as the                  
 previous year's SJR 37, which had passed both the House and Senate            
 unanimously.  Its premise is simple.  At the present time, the                
 State of Alaska does not have the authority to regulate, restrict             
 or prohibit the export of its timber, which resulted from a 1984              
 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.  In 1990, the U.S. Congress had                    
 corrected in part that ruling for 11 western states, but that did             
 not include Alaska.  Ms. Jackson said SJR 8 requests the                      
 congressional delegation to look at that issue again, reopen it and           
 add Alaska to it, so that Alaska can also regulate, restrict or               
 prohibit its timber resources.                                                
                                                                               
 MS. JACKSON said SJR 8 applied to more than just Senator                      
 Torgerson's district.  The issue had also been raised in Seward,              
 where the mill had been shut down.  Those logs were being exported,           
 in one case to another western state that did not even allow its              
 own logs to be exported to Alaska.  Ms. Jackson indicated SJR 8               
 would allow some economic development.  She expressed hope that the           
 congressional delegation would listen and take action on it.                  
                                                                               
 Number 0259                                                                   
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE REGGIE JOULE asked where the logs would be processed           
 and whether Alaska had the facilities to process them.                        
                                                                               
 MS. JACKSON replied, "The premise is that you would have the                  
 ability to restrict or prohibit or regulate.  There may be some               
 areas in Alaska where you want to restrict it.  And there may be              
 some where you just want to regulate it.  Obviously, the ones where           
 you'd want to regulate it are ones where you'd have the ability to            
 process.  The problem and the point right now is we don't have any            
 of that authority, and this asks Congress to give Alaska that                 
 authority."                                                                   
                                                                               
 CO-CHAIRMAN SCOTT OGAN commented that in light of severe cutbacks             
 of timber harvest, especially in the Tongass National Forest, the             
 least they could do was allow value-added primary manufacturing.              
                                                                               
 Number 0378                                                                   
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE JOE GREEN made a motion to move SJR 8 from the                 
 committee with individual recommendations.  There being no                    
 objection, SJR 8 moved from the House Resources Standing Committee.