Mr. DUFFY. Today, I rise to talk about jobs in America and jobs in Wisconsin. One of the largest centers of our economy in rural Wisconsin is our forest products industry. And that industry is under assault.
One of the largest portions of our forest is held by the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. In fact, from 1986 to 1992 we harvested 150 million board feet of lumber a year, on average. Now, we harvest 98 million board feet a year. We've reduced that by 50 percent. What does that do? That causes thousands of jobs to be lost in rural Wisconsin.
Let's kick-start our economy. Let's put our loggers back to work. Let's open up our saw mills and paper mills. By opening up those mills, we have to open up our National Forests. Let's make sure our National Forests don't rot and burn but that we actually harvest them. They are a renewable resource and have a direct tie-in to jobs in rural Wisconsin.