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RELIEF Bill Vote Could Bring Closure to Lacey Act Controversy
By Karen Koenig | Posted: 07/23/2012 11:45AM
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A House vote this week on H.R.3210, the “Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness” (RELIEF) Act, could give a measure of closure to controversy surrounding the Lacey Act.
On July 17, the RELIEF Act was “committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed” and has been placed on the Union Calendar, No. 439.
Sponsored by U.S. Representatives Jim Cooper (D-TN), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and later modified by an amendment by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), the RELIEF Act exempts wood and plant products harvested before the law was amended in 2008. Other changes would limit the scope of applicable foreign laws to the preservation and conservation of trees and plants, and limit the import declaration requirement to products containing solid wood instead of composites.
The wood products industry, environmental groups, musicians, retailers and others have been divided over the Lacey Act and attempts to amend it. Whether passage of H.R.3210 brings “RELIEF” to this controversial issue will remain to be seen.
Are you for or against the RELIEF Act and why? Share your comments.
Background on Lacey Act controversy and the RELIEF Act:
Lacey Act Amendment Under Vote by House (June 2012)
Lacey Act Battle Heats Up on the Hill (May 2012)
Musicians, Environmental Groups in Tune to Stop Illegal Logging (Jan 2012)
U.S. Reps Call for Lacey Act RELIEF
Battle Lines Drawn for Amending Lacey Act (blog Nov. 2011)
Wood Industry Groups Rally Support for Lacey (Sep. 2011)
Gibson Guitar Raid: The Lacey Act Run Amok (blog Sept. 2011)
Gibson Guitar Petitions Obama to End Investigation (Sept. 2011)
Amended Lacey Act Enforcement Begins Next Phase (April 2010)
About the Author
Karen M. Koenig
Karen M. Koenig has more than 25 years of experience in the woodworking industry, including visits to wood products manufacturing facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. As Editor-in-Chief of Wood & Wood Products, Karen’s primary responsibilities include spearheading the writing, editing and coordinating of the editorial content of the publication, along with the Red Book resource guide and the Red Book online source and supply directory (RedBookOnline.com). She is also a frequent contributor to other Woodworking Network online and print media. She can be reached at kkoenig@woodworkingnetwork.com|
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The Lacy Act was admended 4 years ago to help protect American jobs in our sawmill industry and legally harvested timber grown in the United States. Sawmills here found competing against other lumber producing nations that were buying illegally harvested timber had an unfair competitive advantage selling their lumber due to low raw material costs. This had been a good change to the law and needs to remain in place. This Act has had a big impact on the nations that turned a blind eye to the illegal loggin practices in their countries. For the first time, Europe has actually embraced this Act, and in fact copying it into law in their countries.
If the amended act were specific to the issue's you mention, I'd have no problem with it. But the way it's written is so broad and all encompassing that everyone is potentially a target for confiscation of something they may have owned for decades, even a couple hundred years. Not just big producers/importers such as Gibson, but the average person who may have a antique Mahogany chest or something else that's on the hit list. And last time I checked, rosewood, ebony, and other exotics do not grow in the USA, so the argument about saving sawmill jobs falls on it's face.
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