Free Republic

While Congress debates legislation to speed up thinning of fire-prone forests, officials who oversee the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies are crafting administrative changes aimed at conveying portions of President Bush's controversial forest management plan. Some possible changes in regulations could be unveiled this month, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said in a recent telephone interview, including a "categorical exclusion" that would allow "certain categories of relatively minor fuels reduction activities" without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement."And we're working on such a categorical exclusion right now," he said. Rey oversees the Forest Service and is also...

WASHINGTON DC -- Around midday Friday, Senator Harry Reid (D NV), as Senate Majority Whip, announced the Senate schedule for Monday, September 23. The late afternoon's events, he said, are to include a vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the Byrd Amendment to the Interior Department funding bill. The very same motion, actually aimed not against the Byrd Amendment but the Bush Healthy Forests Initiative, was voted down September 17. But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)then saved his vote until last, and when it was clear the Democrat-favored motion would not attract the necessary 60 votes,...