<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Excerpt: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also raised concerns about the cut’s impact on roads, noting cuts could make it tougher for timber purchasers to access the forests.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">H. Sterling Burnett, a research fellow on environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank in Illinois, said the budget cuts are necessary to control spending.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.5em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">He said since cuts to politically popular programs such as defense or entitlements like Medicare are unlikely, agencies like the forest service will have to see their budgets squeezed.</p><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">“[Budget cuts] have to come and they have to be steep,” he said. “You can’t fiddle around the edges.”</span><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article156632089.html" class="">http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article156632089.html</a></div></body></html>