Sponsor Statement for SJR 17

SJR 17 was introduced to call national attention to the callousness of the Clinton administration in asking the people of Southeast Alaska to provide Christmas trees from the Tongass National Forest to decorate the federal Capital.

This resolution recognizes that what would normally be an honor is instead an affront to the working people of Southern Southeast, thousands of whom have been made jobless by the anti-timber policies of the Clinton administration.

To further compound this insult, the Clinton/Gore administration is asking school kids, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, timber-dependent communities and their elected leaders to pay the cost of participating in what can only be termed an insensitive farce.

This is the same administration that ignored the efforts of the Alaska congressional delegation and the Alaska State Legislature to protect the livelihoods of the workers, families and towns of the Tongass.

This is the same administration whose policies led to the closure of the region's two pulp mills and largest saw mill, costing thousands of jobs.

The three US Forest Service supervisors of the Tongass National Forest say the opportunity to provide trees to decorate the nation's Capital "a great moment for Alaska".

SJR 17 makes it clear the Twentieth Alaska State Legislature considers this "opportunity" to be insensitive, callous and insulting. It calls upon President Clinton and Vice President Gore to find another source for its 1998 Christmas decorations.