[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 71 (Thursday, May 1, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H2953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REAUTHORIZE COUNTY PAYMENTS

  (Mr. WALDEN of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Madam Speaker, of all of the counties in the 
Second Congressional District, perhaps none has been more profoundly 
impacted by Congress' refusal to reauthorize county payments than 
Josephine County.
  Nearly half of the county workforce has been cut in recent years. 
Public safety has been hardest hit. Overnight patrols by the Josephine 
County Sheriff's Office are down to one 10-hour shift split among six 
deputies who cover 1,640 square miles. That's six deputies patrolling 
an area the size of the State of Rhode Island.
  Maybe you remember the frantic search after Thanksgiving of 2006 for 
the James Kim family in the Federal forests off southern Oregon. The 
search-and-rescue funds for that operation came from this very program 
that Congress has refused to reauthorize.
  Why won't the Democrat leadership bring a vote on H.R. 3058? It's a 
bipartisan, 4-year reauthorization bill for county payments. It has 
been 3 months since the committees of jurisdiction have sent it to the 
full House, and yet no votes have been scheduled.
  So I again call on the Democratic leadership to do the right thing. 
Keep the commitment to the timbered communities of this country and 
pass a reauthorization or attach it to a vehicle that's moving. Restore 
faith with rural counties all across America. Keep the Federal 
commitment to the people of timbered counties like Josephine.

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