October 23, 2019 3:30 a.m.
On Tuesday, U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio was joined by a bipartisan group of 72 members in a letter to House Leadership urging that Congress reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Program for at least two years.
DeFazio said that Congress has an obligation to ensure counties with large swaths of federally-owned, tax-exempt forests and rangelands can adequately provide essential services for their residents. He said the SRS program “is there as a critical safety net for Oregon’s rural communities”. He said it is imperative that members from both parties “come together to reauthorize the SRS program to continue payments that our communities rely on for education and safety”.
The release from DeFazio said SRS has been a critical lifeline to over 775 counties in more than 40 states by helping fund over 4,400 schools, road maintenance, law enforcement and search and rescue operations on federal lands. Historically, the federal government shared with county governments 25 percent of timber sales from federal forest lands and 50 percent of revenues from certain lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The release said due to declining timber sales and county revenues, Congress passed the first SRS in 2000 to provide a measure of compensation for counties containing federal timberland. SRS expired at the end of fiscal year 2018, with the final payments distributed to county governments early in calendar year 2019, according to the release.