[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 25812-25813]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT DEPENDENCE

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, as the Senator from Oregon is leaving the 
floor, I thank him for the cooperation and bipartisan work he and I 
were able to accomplish this year, through the Forests and Public Land 
Management Subcommittee that I chair on the Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee, by passing and yesterday having the President sign 
the community school district dependent bill that goes a long way 
toward stabilizing our schools and our county governances within the 
rural resource dependent communities of the western public land States.
  Mr. WYDEN. Will the Senator yield briefly?
  Mr. CRAIG. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. WYDEN. I appreciate my colleague yielding. I thank him for the 
extraordinary bipartisan approach he has taken throughout this session.
  I think 18 months ago, when the session began and we were tackling 
the county payments question, particularly rural schools and roads, 
nobody thought we could put together a bipartisan coalition. Two sides 
were completely dug in. One side said we should totally divorce these 
payments from

[[Page 25813]]

any connection to the land; others went the other way and said let's 
try to incentivize a higher cut. I believe the Senator from Idaho, in 
giving me the opportunity that he has as the ranking Democrat on the 
forestry subcommittee, has shown that we can take a fresh approach on 
these natural resources issues--in particular, timber.
  I appreciate my colleague yielding me the time. I am looking forward 
to working with him again next session because it was an exhilarating 
moment to have the first major natural resources bill in decades come 
to the floor of the Senate, as our legislation did.
  I thank my colleague for letting me intrude on his time. I have had a 
chance to be part of a historic effort with my friend from Idaho, and 
it has been a special part of my public service. I thank him for that.
  Mr. CRAIG. I thank the Senator from Oregon. Both he and I have 
learned that when you try to change a law that is actually 92 years 
old, or adjust it a little bit, it is difficult to do. We were able to 
do that. Next year, there will be a good number of challenges on public 
lands and natural resource issues. I look forward to working with 
Senator Wyden.

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