During consideration of H.R. 4578, the Fiscal Year 2001 Interior appropriations bill, Representatives David Wu (D-OR), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mark Udall (D-CO) offered an amendment to transfer $14.7 million from the U.S. Forest Service timber sales budget into its fish and wildlife management program.

The House Appropriations Committee had voted to allocate $25 million more than the Forest Service had requested to its timber sales management program and to underfund fish and wildlife management by $14.7 million. The Wu/Smith/Udall amendment would have diverted funds from the environmentally harmful timber sales program that subsidizes destructive logging on public lands to fund urgent programs that protect and restore fish and wildlife in national forests.

On June 14, 2000, the House rejected the amendment 173–249 (House roll call vote 277). YES is the pro-environment vote. A similar vote to cut the timber program budget failed to pass the Senate (Senate vote 5). The Interior conference report passed both houses of Congress in October with the timber sale subsidy intact and was signed by the President.