December 5, 2025 6:10 a.m. 

On Thursday, Oregon U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley alongside Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and James Risch, led a bipartisan coalition of 83 lawmakers in sending a letter to House leadership requesting urgent reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Self-Determination Act.

A release from Senators Wyden and Merkley said the bill, which unanimously passed the Senate in June 2025, would reauthorize the program through fiscal year 2026 and provided lapsed payments for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Funding for the SRS program lapsed in September of 2023, with the last payments distributed to counties in early 2024.

The letter said, “…Counties and school districts across 41 states have seen a 63 percent cut in funding. This $177 million loss is devastating for rural communities, leading to school closures, delayed road and bridge maintenance, and reduced public safety services. These are not abstract policy debates; they are tangible consequences for local government and the communities that steward untaxed federal lands”.

The release said the first SRS program co-authored by Wyden was authorized in 2000 with enactment of the SRS and Community Self-Determination Act. This legislation specifically assists counties containing tracts of federally owned land that are tax-exempt. Since the program was not reauthorized, county payments reverted to a 1908 timber sharing law, which represents about an 80 percent cut for some counties, according to Wyden and Merkley.