[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11688-S11689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise to make a few comments regarding the 
Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, or County 
Payments Act as it has been nicknamed.
  As this session comes to an end, I want to express my disappointment 
that this Congress did not act to reauthorize County Payments and to 
publicly reaffirm my commitment to finding resolution for this issue.
  In 2000, the Congress passed Public Law 106-393 to address the needs 
of the forest counties of America. It created a new cooperative 
partnership between citizens in forest counties and our Federal land 
management to develop forest health improvement projects on public 
lands and simultaneously stimulate job development and community 
economic stability.
  The act has been an enormous success, not just achieving but 
surpassing the goals of Congress. This act has restored programs for 
students in rural areas and prevented the closure of numerous isolated 
schools. It has been a primary funding mechanism to provide rural 
school students with educational opportunities comparable to those 
enjoyed by suburban and urban students. More than 4,400 rural schools 
receive funds because of this act.
  Next, the act has allowed rural county road districts and county road 
departments to address the severe maintenance backlog. Snow removal has 
been restored for citizens, tourists, and school buses. Bridges have 
been upgraded and replaced, and culverts that are hazardous to fish 
passage have been upgraded and replaced.
  In addition, over 70 Resource Advisory Committees, or RACs, have been 
formed. These RACs cover our largest 150 forest counties. Nationally, 
these 15-person diverse RAC stakeholder committees have studied and 
approved more than 2,500 projects on Federal forestlands and adjacent 
public and private lands. These projects have addressed a wide variety 
of improvements drastically needed on our national forests. Projects 
have included fuels reduction, habitat improvement, watershed 
restoration, road maintenance and rehabilitation, reforestation, 
campground and trail improvement, and noxious week eradication.
  RACs are a new and powerful partnership between county governments 
and the land management agencies. They are rapidly building the 
capacity for collaborative public land management decisionmaking in 
over 150 of our largest forest counties in America and are reducing the 
gridlock over public land management, community by community.
  The legacy of this act over the last few years is positive and 
substantial. This law should be extended so it can continue to benefit 
the forest counties, their schools, and continue to contribute to 
improving the health of our national forests.
  I could go on and on about the merits of this act, but the truth is 
politics got in the way of funding any extension.
  Some of my colleagues proposed to fund this measure through a 
sweeping new 3-percent withholding on all payments made by Federal, 
State, and local governments. This proposal would impose significant 
burdens on businesses. In most cases, businesses make substantially 
less than a 3-percent profit on their contracts and sometimes turn no 
profit at all. The withholding requirement will effectively withhold 
entire paychecks--interest free--thereby impeding the cash flow of 
small businesses, eliminating funds that can be used for reinvestment 
in the business, and forcing companies to pass on the added costs to 
customers or finance the additional amount. In addition, the cost to 
the Federal, State, and local governments to administer and implement 
the new withholding requirement will be substantial. The Congressional 
Budget Office called the provision an unfunded mandate on State and 
local governments because its expected costs exceed the allowable $50 
million annual threshold. In short, this proposal would hurt many of 
the same people we are trying to help.
  The administration also proposed a few ideas, one being the selling 
of public lands. I have always supported the exchange or sale of small 
parcels of public land that improve land management for wildlife 
habitat, recreation, and access. I oppose selling those public lands 
that are America's treasures such as national parks, wilderness lands, 
or national monuments. I also oppose selling public lands for the sole 
purpose of generating funds for the U.S. Treasury.

  All of the ideas I brought to the working group encouraged 
responsible resource development and further promoted the relationship 
of our resource dependant communities and our public lands. I have 
encouraged the working group to look at expediting oil and gas leases, 
thus generating additional revenue through increased royalty payments. 
Next, I asked that the working group consider streamlining NEPA for 
salvage logging and other timber-related projects. My hope was to build 
on the success of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 and 
reunite our communities with our public lands.
  Let me assure you that these ideas I have just described were only 
the tip of the iceberg. No stone was left unturned, and in many cases 
the rock was flipped several times in hopes of shaking a new idea 
loose. Unfortunately, none of the ideas could garner enough bipartisan 
support. Again, it is upsetting to me to see an issue that has built 
its reputation on nonpartisan success fall victim to partisan politics.
  If we do not work to reauthorize this act, all of the progress of the 
last 6 years will be lost. Schools in timber-dependant communities will 
lose a substantial part of their funding. These school districts will 
have to start making tough budget decisions such as keeping or 
canceling afterschool programs, sports programs, music programs, and 
other programs that serve the basic educational needs of our children. 
In addition, many school districts will have to determine if and how 
many staff members they can retain for the next school year. Next, 
counties will have to reprioritize road maintenance so that only the 
essential services of the county are met because that is all they will 
be able to afford. Since most school districts and counties operate on 
a fiscal year that begins July 1, many of these critical decisions have 
to be made sooner rather than later.
  I have always viewed that this act as a temporary measure to help 
communities transition from historical payments to the reality of 
today. Unfortunately, our communities have not come far enough in the 
last 6 short

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years. I want to work with my colleagues to help counties expedite 
their transitions and feel that the first step is to address how much 
funding is associated with the reauthorization.
  With the beginning of the next Congress, I will encourage my 
colleagues to recall why we are working on this reauthorization, the 
relationship between our public lands, schools, and counties. And I 
will be asking for their commitment in working in a bipartisan fashion 
to address this critical issue expeditiously.

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