SJR 37 - PRIMARY MFG OF PUBLICLY OWNED TIMBER Number 2414 CO-CHAIRMAN WILLIAMS accepted the gavel from Co-Chairman Green and announced his intent to move SJR 37 from committee today. Number 2425 SENATOR JOHN TORGERSON introduced SJR 37 stating that its purpose asks Alaska's Congressional delegation to exempt Alaska from the commerce clause which prohibits primary manufacture in the state on publicly owned timber. SENATOR TORGERSON said, "In 1990, Congress did adopt the Forest Resources Conservation and Shortage Relief Act, which gave 11 of our western states the exemption from the Commerce Clause, but for whatever reason, Alaska was not included in that piece of legislation." SENATOR TORGERSON explained, "The spinoff of this is, Mr. Chairman that's happened in my district, the state has just recently sold a timber sale there which was purchased by an outfit from Oregon. We also had a sawmill that was shut down recently because of lack of resource coming out of both the state and the Chugach National Forests We lost 140 jobs because of that and the consequences are with this company from ... (CHANGE TAPE) TAPE 96-57, SIDE B Number 001 SENATOR TORGERSON ... "should have been directed toward, or at least, the opportunity of having it go toward the mill for primary manufacture." SENATOR TORGERSON stated, "In 1984, Mr. Chairman, the Supreme Court -- we used to have a primary manufacture law and the Supreme Court struck that down as being unconstitutional because of this commerce clause. We also know that there are pieces of legislation pending before Congress, amendments to the budget bill, etc., that would grant this relief from the commerce clause as it reflects to state owned timber. This resolution asks for the inclusion of municipal lands and also the University of Alaska lands." SENATOR TORGERSON said, "The three key words in this piece of legislation are regulate, restrict or prohibit. It doesn't actually ask for the straight prohibition, it is asking that the state of Alaska have the leeway in the municipality or the university to do one of the three. It could be that they would go ahead and export some or regulate it somehow or restrict it or whatever." Number 053 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES asked why it took us so long to get to this point. He said he couldn't support this more strongly. Number 061 SENATOR TORGERSON related that his office had been surprised to find this issue had never been addressed before, through a resolution. RON LONG, Seward Port and Commerce Advisory Board, testified from Seward that the organization strongly supports SJR 37. He said, "The exemption that was granted may have made sense at that time but we feel, at this time, that it no longer does. We should have a policy that conforms with the rest of the western states, and we ask the House to go along with the Senate in asking our Congressional delegation to support this." Number 124 ANTHONY CRUPI, Volunteer, Alaska Environmental Lobby, appreciated the opportunity to testify. He said, "The Alaska Environmental Lobby strongly supports Senator Torgerson's resolution. When timber is harvested on state lands, it makes sense to maximize the number of jobs from each tree cut. Exporting logs in the round sends jobs out of our state and hurts the future of sustainable timber industry in Alaska. We strongly support this. We respectfully ask one minor addition. In addition to the state lands, municipal lands and University of Alaska lands, we would like to see `other trust lands' included in this resolution. We hope this resolution is passed in a timely manner, and we urge Alaska's Congressional delegation to assist in passing appropriate legislation in Congress." REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES moved that SJR 37 move from the House Resources Committee with individual recommendations. Hearing no objection, it was so ordered.