Comments on Below-Cost Timber Bills

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO commented on whether two bills regarding below-cost timber sales on national forests addressed three previous GAO recommendations regarding such sales. GAO noted that both of the bills addressed GAO recommendations that the Forest Service: (1) expand the proposed below-cost sales policy beyond forests as a whole to individual sales; and (2) define the minimum rate for timber sales bids as the cost of timber sale preparation and administration and ensure that the sale process recovers those costs. GAO also noted that neither of the bills addressed the recommendation to amend the timber sale process to include an initial below-cost determination during the sale preparation process in order to avoid unnecessary costs.