House Republican leadership on Wednesday cancelled a vote on H.R. 3210: the Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act, or RELIEF Act. The Hardwood Federation, a wood products industry lobbying group of which the NWFA is a part, has maintained the act would have hurt the industry by lowering fines and weakening enforcement.
House Republican leadership on Wednesday cancelled a vote on H.R. 3210: the Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act, or RELIEF Act. The Hardwood Federation, a wood products industry lobbying group of which the NWFA is a part, has maintained the act would have hurt the industry by lowering fines and weakening enforcement.
The bill was prompted by the federal raids on Gibson Guitars and introduced in October 2011. The cancellation was welcomed by a large segment of the wood products industry, labor and environmental groups.
"The U.S. hardwood industry applauds Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor for recognizing the serious concerns we've raised that the proposed changes to the Lacey Act could result in significant job losses and undercut progress in curbing illegal logging," Brad Thompson, CEO of Columbia Forest Products and president of the Hardwood Federation, said in a press release distributed by Climate Advisers. "We are committed to working together with Congress to do what is best for U.S. forestry jobs and forests worldwide."
On the other hand, the International Wood Products Association (IWPA), which represents U.S. importers, decried the cancellation.
"Unfortunately, it appears as though H.R. 3210, The RELIEF Act, has fallen victim to extreme rhetoric from our opposition, who have stated that any changes to the Lacey Act would destroy U.S. jobs," the group wrote on its website. "As all of you know, any argument that cites U.S. jobs lost-especially in an election year-is a hard argument to overcome, no matter how incorrect it is."
If eventually signed into law, the RELIEF Act would have limited Lacey's declaration requirement to solid wood items imported only for commerce; reduced the penalty for an unknowing, first-time offense to $250 (regardless of whether the offender is a corporation or person); and changed the law so that goods possessed by an "innocent owner" were not subject to automatic forfeiture.
A vote on the RELIEF Act could still be scheduled for later this year; however, the IWPA said it is "unsure" whether that would happen.
In an email to members after news of the cancellation broke, the Hardwood Federation gave credit to Mike and Donna Millard of McMinnville Manufacturing Co. (McMinnville, Tenn.). In days leading up to the cancellation, they garnered wide media attention in an effort to defeat the RELIEF Act on Capitol Hill. First, the company was featured in a local CBS report (below), in which they said the RELIEF Act would hurt wood products industry jobs. Then, Donna made a similar case in an opinion piece published Friday by The Tennessean, a leading daily newspaper in Nashville, Tenn., where Gibson Guitar has its headquarters.
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