[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S666-S668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise to draw my colleagues' attention 
to an issue of great importance to our rural communities. If Congress 
does not act, many of our rural counties will face an increasingly dire 
state of affairs in the months to come. Across the United States, 
timber counties are facing local budgets suddenly and deeply in the 
red. This fiscal crisis could mean reduced schooldays, fewer sheriffs, 
more offenders on the street, and cuts to other basic county services.
  Congress has the power to avert this impending disaster, and Congress 
must

[[Page S667]]

utilize that power. So we must act without delay to extend the Secure 
Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act. Secure Rural 
Schools is not an entitlement program; it is a commitment this Nation, 
our Federal Government, made to rural forest counties out of fairness 
and common sense when it determined it would put environmental overlays 
over large blocks of forest land that we dedicated to timber production 
with revenue shared with the local county. This contract between the 
Federal Government and our rural counties has been at the foundation of 
our National Forest System, and we in this Chamber need to honor it. 
Many folks come here and talk about how the Federal Government needs to 
uphold its share of the bargain. Well, this is an explicit contract 
with our rural counties, and we need to uphold that bargain.

  Since 1908--more than 100 years--the Federal Government has 
appropriately shared timber revenues with counties for the 
infrastructure they develop because this timber land is in Federal 
hands and produces no property tax revenue to support that 
infrastructure.
  Let me give some background on what the scale of this issue is for 
States such as Oregon. Oregon has 2.2 million acres of O&C lands. These 
lands were granted to the Oregon and California Railroad in 1866 and 
later reverted to the Federal Government when the railroad failed to 
live up to its terms of the grant. They also included a class of lands 
that originated from a similar situation--the Coos Bay Wagon Road 
lands. These lands make up a large percentage of the acreage in 
southern and western Oregon. Then there are Forest Service lands--
timbered lands owned by the Federal Forest Service--that make up 14 
million additional acres across the State of Oregon. When you add it 
all together, more than half of Oregon's lands are federally owned. 
That means they do not produce a penny of property taxes to support 
infrastructure in our rural counties. The O&C lands and the Wagon Road 
lands were dedicated to timber production, with the counties receiving 
50 percent of all revenues. Counties with national forest lands 
received 25 percent of the timber revenues. This created jobs and a 
source of money to provide counties with that needed infrastructure.
  In the early 1990s timber production began a long decline--a 
precipitous decline. Trends such as automation and trade hit the sector 
hard, as they had so many more sectors. On top of this, there were the 
environmental overlays that dramatically reduced timber harvesting.
  To compensate for the newly imposed Federal structure that changed 
the entire pattern of timber production in our rural counties, our 
National Government developed the Secure Rural Schools Program to 
provide payments to counties based on historic timber harvest levels 
but no longer tied directly to the annual timber harvest.
  This type of arrangement is not unique to Oregon, nor are the 
problems arising from the lapse of the Secure Rural Schools Program. 
There are a great many States, particularly in the West, where much of 
the land is federally owned and counties rely on this program and 
similar programs to support key infrastructure.
  It is no wonder that when the Secure Rural Schools payments lapsed in 
2006, drastic measures had to be taken to adjust to the loss. Let me 
give some sense of what this is like in Oregon.
  In Josephine County--southern Oregon--two-thirds of the county's 
general fund came from county payments. So loss of county payments 
means cutting public safety programs. Overnight, in 2006, patrols were 
cut down to just six individuals to cover an area the size of the State 
of Rhode Island.
  In Lake County, where Federal lands make up 61 percent of the county, 
they cut their Federal road department from 42 individuals to 14--14 
folks for a road department covering a land area equal to the combined 
size of Connecticut and Delaware.
  In Jackson County, where one-third of the general fund comes from 
Federal payments, the county eliminated 117 jobs in parks, human 
services, roads, and public safety, and they closed all of their 
libraries.
  Let me be clear. When the Federal Government fails to uphold the 
contract it has struck with our rural timber counties, the suffering is 
intense. It is an embarrassment that we would permit the Federal 
Government not to fulfill its commitment under this framework.
  This impact is so substantial that the Oregon Legislature, when I was 
serving as speaker, redirected $50 million in transportation funds to 
the rural counties. In the year of 2007, I organized a bipartisan, 
bicameral tour of our most affected counties. We went out to talk to 
the county officials, and when we came back I advocated for and 
supported this $50 million emergency transfer to compensate for the 
fact that the Federal Government was breaking its contract with the 
timber counties in America. Let's not let that happen again.
  Later, Congress restored this contract. But here we are now, 5 years 
later, facing the worst-case scenarios all over again. As Yogi Berra 
said, it is deja vu all over again. Because we failed to pass an 
extension before we left for the holidays, the last payment occurred a 
few weeks ago and timber counties don't know what is going to happen 
now. They would like to think folks in this Chamber will honor and 
support sustaining this Federal contract with our rural timber 
counties, but this Chamber has to act to make that happen.
  The Eugene Register-Guard recently published an editorial about the 
situation in Lane County, stating:

       The emerging picture looks like a multi-car pileup on 
     Interstate 5.

  Lane County is facing a $14 million shortfall. More than half of 
this--$7.2 million--will have to be absorbed by the sheriff's office. 
What does that mean for Lane County? It means the end of 24-hour 
patrol, with coverage limited to just 16 hours a day. It means so few 
officers that they would be unable to respond except ``to the most 
serious of crimes.'' It means parole and probation supervision will be 
eliminated for hundreds of offenders and 130 jail beds would have to be 
closed. In addition, the district attorney's office faces a $1.9 
million reduction in county funding, which would mean the loss of 
between 12 to 20 employees in the criminal division and potential 
shutdown of the county's medical examiner's office. And this is one of 
the counties that is in better shape. Others could go bankrupt as early 
as June of this year. As the Register-Guard newspaper says, it is ``a 
dire predicament, and in desperate need of help from Congress.''
  Rural counties in Oregon and elsewhere deserve to have the Federal 
Government honor its contract and to have the peace of mind that funds 
guaranteed to pay for their infrastructure are there--for the roads, 
for schools, for public safety. In this contract between the Federal 
Government and rural America, the Federal Government must uphold its 
end of the bargain. Rural counties have been on a roller coaster for 
far too long. They have been flying off the tracks. Pick any metaphor 
you want--a pileup on I 5, a roller coaster or a train running off 
the tracks--this is the situation in our rural timber counties. And 
those Members who don't have rural counties have other situations where 
there are vital Federal commitments. This one must be honored by this 
Chamber.

  The first step is to extend the Secure Rural Schools Program as soon 
as possible. President Obama has supported and proposed and included in 
his budget a 5-year reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools and has 
made it mandatory spending. This short-term funding is a critical 
bridge to maintain schools and law enforcement in timber counties while 
we work for a viable long-term, sustainable management solution for 
Federal forests.
  I want to be clear. Timber counties would rather have forest 
practices that allow sustained production of timber, as these lands 
were dedicated to. That creates jobs, it supports the whole supply 
chain, and it provides logs to the independent mills that don't own 
their own forest land. That is the vitality of rural communities.
  My father worked at a sawmill when I was born--Harbor Plywood in 
Riddle, OR, and I lived in the adjoining town of Myrtle Creek.
  Those of us with a timber background understand the essential nature 
of this Federal contract. We must get it done in this Chamber. I urge 
my colleagues to support it.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.

[[Page S668]]

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as 
in morning business for 10 minutes, and I would ask the Chair to please 
let me know when 8 minutes has expired.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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