Blumenauer Says Proposed Lacey Act Changes Would Undermine Enforcement
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the Strengthen Wood Product Supply Chains Act (see 2402140043) would "significantly undermine Lacey Act enforcement efforts targeting the illegal trade in timber, wood products, and wildlife."
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Blumenauer made this assertion in a letter, released Feb. 23, to the leaders of the House Natural Resources subcommittee that held a hearing on the bill.
He said when Congress extended the Lacey Act to timber, "Our goal was to protect some of the world’s most biodiverse and vulnerable forests and to offer a more level playing field to U.S. companies that play by the rules. Illegal logging harms lives and livelihoods, both at home where it costs the U.S. forest products industry more than $1 billion every year, and around the world where it is associated with serious human rights violations, including the degradation of indigenous communities."
He said many importers are doing proper due diligence. "Yet the steady caseload of illegal wood products entering the United States demonstrates the very real need for more effective enforcement against those companies that turn a blind eye to illegal sourcing and others who knowingly trade in it. Now is the time to strengthen the Lacey Act amendments, not undermine them."
He said that limiting the time for investigation, allowing importers to move detained goods into bonded warehouses and requiring officials to promptly disclose the justification for detention would impede enforcement.