[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3747-3755]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THE SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) is recognized 
for 60 minutes.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome my colleagues 
from Oregon who are in the Chamber with me tonight. Congressman DeFazio 
and Congresswoman Darlene Hooley are here with me, and I know we will 
be joined by other members of the Northwest delegation to talk about a 
very, very important issue, the Secure Rural Schools and Community 
Self-Determination Act, H.R. 17, also known as County Payments, that in 
both this Congress and the last has been a strongly bipartisan issue. 
The DeFazio-Walden legislation, H.R. 17, a bill to reauthorize and fund 
the County Payments Program for 7 years to date enjoys the support of 
114 cosponsors in this Congress. The exact same bill last Congress had 
139 cosponsors.
  As I have said in 13 of 18 one-minute floor speeches: the failure of 
Congress, either the last one or this one, to reauthorize the County 
Payments Program amounts to a breach of faith to more than 600 forested 
counties all across America and 4,400 school districts all across this 
country.
  I would like to take a moment to highlight a few of the impacts of 
the rural forested counties and school districts in America without 
these funds: severe cuts in funding for jail beds; sheriffs' patrols 
are being cut sometimes in half; criminal prosecutions and the pursuit 
of meth cooks, all of that being reduced; rural school districts 
foregoing overdue repairs; may not be able to buy textbooks, or face 
significant challenges busing kids to schools. It also means libraries 
will close in places like Jackson County, Oregon.
  I would like to draw your attention to this poster here to my left. 
It is from a young lady, a fifth grader named Alice from Ashland, 
Oregon, who utilizes one of the 15 Jackson County libraries where she 
lives, and they are all scheduled to close in just a couple of months, 
in April, if we don't reauthorize and fund the Secure County Schools 
legislation.
  Alice has resolved to read all the ``Hank the Cowdog'' books, but she 
needs these libraries to stay open. She says: ``Representative Walden, 
I live in Ashland and I go to Bellview School. I am in the fifth grade. 
I use our library a lot. We always use books on tape for car trips. My 
New Year's resolution is to read all the ``Hank the Cowdog'' books, and 
the library has them all. I need the library to stay open so I can 
finish my resolution. I also use a lot of books here for school 
reports. Please help to keep our library system open. Sincerely, 
Alice.''
  Alice is a fifth grader in Ashland, Oregon. She gets it. If Alice can 
get it, this Congress ought to be able to get it, and we ought to be 
able to keep the libraries open in Jackson County.
  Many of you in this Chamber and Americans all across the land will 
remember the heart-wrenching service for the Kim family in southern 
Oregon this winter, lost in the national forest, and the mountain 
climbers who perished on Mount Hood just 45 minutes from my home in 
Hood River. Both of these counties, both of the search and rescue 
operations that took place used funds out of the program that 
Congressman DeFazio and others and I are trying to reauthorize to help 
pay for the equipment and for the search and rescue operations, to go 
on Federal land using county resources to look for

[[Page 3748]]

these people who were lost, some of whom perished.
  These vital county services and rural school programs were once 
funded by timber receipts, but because of virtual elimination of the 
timber harvest on our Federal forests, Congress approved the county 
payments to develop forest health improvement projects on public lands 
and simultaneously stimulate job development in some of our rural 
communities.

                              {time}  2100

  This law has been a primary funding mechanism to provide rural 
schools with educational opportunities comparable to suburban and urban 
students. It has also restored programs for students in rural schools 
and prevented the closure of numerous isolated rural schools. It has 
allowed over 600 rural counties to address the severe road maintenance 
backlog.
  Before I get into that, though, I would like to show you total 
Pacific Northwest timber receipts. As you can see here, it has 
fluctuated over the years, but it has never been as low as it is today. 
There were big years of timber harvest, this one up, very large; but 
generally it has been in this framework, and you can see, really, since 
the 1990s it has just gone way down.
  The Federal Government has had a compact with these counties dating 
back to when Teddy Roosevelt was President and created the great forest 
reserves, setting aside huge swaths of land. Upwards to half of my 
district is under Federal management and control, and many of my 
colleagues and some of my counties it is upwards to 70, 75 percent.
  The Federal Government believed in 1908 and again in 1938 that it had 
a responsibility to help these communities surrounded by Federal lands 
because these lands were not going to be on their tax base. That is 
what started this whole program. They used to share timber receipts. As 
you can see, timber harvests went down, the receipts went down.
  You say, what happened to our wood products system? Well, here is 
what happened. See what happened on Federal forest lands. This is 1980 
here, top level, about 11 billion board feet sold. Then it drops way 
down in the red. Where did we get the lumber? Imports. Soft wood lumber 
imports right there, the blue and the yellow.
  So this came along, we said timber receipts are down, so we are going 
to replace it, 6 years ago, now almost 7. We authorized this Secure 
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.
  The country has 7,500 national forests and grasslands covering 192 
million acres. That is the size of Texas, by the way. Our State of 
Oregon has 15 national forests. We are proud of them. You need to know 
they cover 14 million acres, or nearly one-quarter of the State's land 
mass. There are forests in my district that cover nearly 12 million 
acres.
  To put this in perspective, within the Forest Service regions 8 and 
9, which cover 34 States, all States east of the Missouri River, 
Oklahoma and Texas, there are 52 national forests covering 25 million 
acres. My district alone has nearly half that amount of acreage. You 
can see those of us in the rural West are really impacted by what goes 
on in the Federal lands, whether it is search and rescue operations, 
forest fire operations. You name it, it is expensive.
  When the Federal reserves were created, we set up this funding 
mechanism, again going back to 1908 and then coming forward. The 
problem now is promise to rural schools, the promise to rural 
communities, and the promise to rural roads has been broken. It broke 
last year, and it is up to us now in this Congress to keep the faith 
with the school kids of America and rural America, to keep faith with 
the resource advisory committees. They are bringing environmentalists 
and others together to improve forest health and habitat, great 
projects all over the country, to keep faith with basic county services 
that are being provided, funded by this program.
  Folks, last checks went out the end of the year. What is happening 
now is the pink slips are going out. Road departments are being cut in 
half. County sheriffs' departments are being cut in half. School 
teachers getting pink slips, being told, we are not sure we will have 
the money to hire you back next year. This is now a crisis, and it is 
time for Congress to act.
  I would at this point like to yield to my colleague from Oregon, my 
partner in this effort, H.R. 17, to reauthorize the Secure Rural 
Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, Peter DeFazio from 
southern Oregon, the Fourth District.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his 
leadership on this issue and for bringing this both to the attention of 
the House and the American people. Obviously, we don't need to do much 
to communicate the level of concern with people at home and in our 
districts, or even in hundreds of counties scattered across America.
  In fact, across America, over 4,400 rural schools in 40 States will 
lose funding if this legislation is not reauthorized. 4,400 rural 
school districts. You can bet most of those rural school districts are 
already hurting trying to provide the next generation of young 
Americans with a good education. In some counties all the rural schools 
will be closed due to a lack of funding if this legislation is not 
reauthorized.
  My colleague from Oregon already talked earlier about the highly 
publicized search and rescue that went on back at the end of last year, 
the beginning of this year, for the Kim family. You know, this is not, 
this was a difficult search and rescue mission, since we didn't know 
where that family was. They were difficult to locate until later they 
were found by high-tech tech means.
  But the fact is that we will not even have the capability to begin 
those searches in many counties in southern Oregon and, indeed, across 
the West and some other parts of the country if this legislation is not 
reauthorized. Deputy sheriffs are already receiving layoff notices. 
Counties don't have the same fiscal year as they have here in 
Washington D.C.
  For many counties, the money authorized last October is going to run 
out about 3 months into their next fiscal year, so we have to begin now 
to send out layoff notices. We will have hundreds of thousands of 
square miles of the western United States with no rural law 
enforcement. What a mecca for meth dealers, organized crime and other 
criminal elements, potentially even terrorists, if our counties cannot 
support basic rural law enforcement services; 780 rural counties will 
lose funding for roads, roads that provide the movement of the trees to 
the mills that provide the movement of Americans to recreate in their 
great public lands. Those funds would dramatically cut and in some 
cases almost eliminate it.
  Yes, we are talking about a lot of money here, you are right. It is a 
lot of money where I come from. It is a lot of money for most 
Americans: $400 million a year is invested in counties and rural 
schools across America, and the return is many times that.
  Let me talk about an element of something we haven't talked about 
yet. It is not just critical services, not just schools, not just law 
enforcement, not just search and rescue. It is actually benefits to the 
public lands. Here on chart 1, I have before and after photos of 
hazardous fuels reduction near Eureka, California, in an at-risk 
community adjacent to public lands in northern California, obviously 
before, after. That will cut fire fighting costs, it will save lives, 
it will save resources.
  Here we have another that depicts peeled logs that are being used for 
temporary utility poles, actually in the southeastern United States 
after the Katrina disaster. Again, these came out of a watershed 
improvement program, a fuel reduction program, funded by these 
payments.
  Then finally I have here, yes, economic diversification, local 
economic development, small investments in peeling logs and creating 
posts here at the Hayfork South Highway Three Fuels Reduction Project 
in California.
  So these investments benefit the resource. So we are not just talking

[[Page 3749]]

about crucial public services. We are also talking about money that we 
have put back into the resources. We live there. We know how valuable 
these resources are. We want to save them and improve them for future 
generations; but without these funds, some of that investment will be 
put at risk.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I would just like to follow up on something the 
gentleman said. You talked about law enforcement needs on these rural 
lands. Wheeler County, Oregon, population less than 2,000 people, has 
three deputies and a sheriff. Total of four are doing law enforcement. 
They will have to layoff a quarter of their force as a result of the 
loss of this program if we don't reauthorize it.
  Now, I tell you that because they are responsible for patrolling 
1,833 square miles. That is an area 30 times larger than the District 
of Columbia. You are going to have three officers, the sheriff and a 
couple of deputies, over 30 times the size of the district, you have 
got more than that probably standing right out behind us here.
  Now, who are these deputies? One of them rides horseback. He is out 
riding horseback on Federal land, and what does he come across? I don't 
know if you can see this, but he comes across a $19 million marijuana 
grove. These little vertical lines here, horizontal lines here, are a 
marijuana grove, a Mexican drug cartel with illegal nationals doing the 
cultivation.
  It is amazing to me they got it to grow out there, but they did. It 
is a $19 million growth spread over a quarter of a mile of Federal 
lands, and it was one of these sheriff deputies riding horseback that 
spotted this. These are on Federal lands. Why is the Federal Government 
doing this? Well, the Federal Government is helping to pay for some of 
this, but now it is breaking its promise.
  I yield now to our colleague from Oregon (Ms. Hooley), who has been a 
real champion in helping us on this.
  Ms. HOOLEY. I thank my colleague for yielding. I just want to talk a 
little bit about the commitment the Federal Government made. We made 
this commitment, as one of my colleagues said, almost 100 years ago, 
that we were going to help those counties that had a lot of timber. I 
used to be a county commissioner. Over 50 percent of the Clackamas 
County was in Federal forest land, which means we didn't get revenue 
from it.
  When we first started this program, when we cut the timber, then we 
got revenue sharing. It was in lieu of taxes because this was land we 
couldn't tax, couldn't develop, couldn't tax. Then when the forest land 
came along, obviously those numbers were cut.
  The rural counties had a double whammy. They lost good-paying jobs 
and they lost that revenue sharing. Almost 7 years ago, when we 
reauthorized this program to say we are going to help our rural 
communities, they are really important. I mean, rural communities, I 
think, are what keeps us the kind of country we are. I mean, that is 
where so many of our values were started.
  We said we were going to help them, and we were going to help with 
roads, and they have just the number of miles a rural county has, we 
are going to help with roads. We would help with those rural schools so 
that all of our children had a chance to go to school and have a good 
education. We said we would help with law enforcement, so we were 
trying to help those counties make sure they could keep going.
  I want to tell you every county in my district is very frugal. I do 
not see programs that are wasteful. They spend every dollar they have 
as well as they can spend it.
  If this, if we do not get the money for this program, let me talk a 
little bit about what is going to happen to some of my counties. One of 
my counties is Polk County. It is a small rural farming community. It 
is not as big as one of the counties you were talking about. It only 
has 740 square miles.
  The county will essentially go down to five deputies from 18 now; six 
of those are paid by the Grand Ronde Tribe, and they can only patrol a 
small portion, but they will lose at least seven deputies. They have 
started a wonderful program to go after meth and drugs. They have been 
very successful. That program is going to be gone.
  The county jail is going to lose two positions, and let me tell you 
something, they are already at the State minimum on county positions. I 
don't know what they are going to do when they lose two more. I don't 
know how they operate. They have a small district attorney's office. 
They are going to lose a secretary, and they are going to lose a DA, 
but this is just typical of what is happening in every county.
  Now, I know you put up this chart, and I want to put it up one more 
time, because I think it is really important; and this is a chart that 
is what has happened to Federal timber receipts. All you have to do is 
look since 1994, you can see in 1990, it was the highest, or 1988, and 
then it has gone down and down and down. So the counties are no longer 
getting money from the timber receipts.
  The only way we can keep these counties going is through this program 
that allows us to make sure that we can continue our rural communities 
and that we can continue our schools, that we can continue law 
enforcement. You talked a little bit about search and rescue. A couple 
of my counties have had huge cases this year where, and, again, you 
talked about loss of life with the climbers on Mount Hood, we talked 
about the Kim family.
  Search and rescue, when you have a county that has a lot of 
wilderness, you get people that are lost. We all feel badly when 
someone is lost, and none of us will hesitate to go look for that 
person, but it means it takes resources, it takes money to make that 
happen. So the loss of money for these rural counties is just 
devastating to them. We made a promise, and I don't know about you 
guys, but I grew up in a family that said, if you make a promise, you 
keep that promise. We need to keep our promises to our counties.

                              {time}  2115

  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. If I could follow up. You talked about Polk 
County. Klamath County has a total law enforcement operation of 35 
officers to patrol 6,000 square miles. 6,000 square miles. They have to 
cut that by a third. Sheriff Tom Evinger says they may well end up 
having no law enforcement patrols at night, nor do the state police 
patrol at night.
  That is an area 100 times larger than the District of Columbia. And 
when they do patrol they will have no back up. I mean, this is really 
serious stuff, folks. Search and rescue as you mentioned, the loss on 
Mt. Hood, but the loss down in southern Oregon, those are just the two 
that caught the media's attention, and the country and the world's 
attention.
  Let me suggest, as we all know from the northwest, there are many, 
many more search and rescue operations going on all of the time.
  Ms. HOOLEY. They go on almost daily. I just want to mention another 
county. Tillamook County, which is a small coastal community. It is 
county that has struggled. And they struggle with high-paying jobs. 
They have had a terrible year with floods and wind storms. About 
everything bad that can happen to a county has happened to Tillamook 
County especially in this year.
  But they are having to layoff anywhere from 25 to 60 employees, they 
do not know yet. But literally they will reduce their county road fund 
by half. Again, it is a county that has struggled with floods. They 
have had a lot of repairs. I tried to get into Tillamook County to go 
look at the damage from floods.
  I found out, well, actually I couldn't get in from the north, I 
couldn't get in from the east, you had to go clear around and come in 
going south to north to actually get to Tillamook County. So many of 
their roads were just wiped out, and yet they are going to lose a good 
percentage of their county road fund.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I would comment. And certainly the gentleman 
from southern Oregon too, that Lake County, this is 93 percent of their 
road budget. 93 percent of the road budget. I think you can probably 
put the State

[[Page 3750]]

of New Hampshire inside Lake County and still have some room to graze 
cattle.
  Ms. HOOLEY. I am sure you could
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. This is so serious to those counties. We have 
got to get this done.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. We have been joined by a couple of other Members, I am 
sure we want to get to those. But just a quick thing. I came from Lane 
County, I was a commissioner in the early 1980s, when we had a drop off 
in timber revenues due to markets and not as catastrophic as this. And 
yet at that time, in a county this size, and we have to relate this to 
our colleagues back here, they cannot understand how big our districts 
are, a county which is just one of my counties, the size of the State 
of Connecticut had no rural law enforcement patrols outside of contract 
deputies and a couple of small communities, a county the size of the 
State of Connecticut. And we are headed back to that point in many 
counties in the western United States.
  Ms. HOOLEY. I just want to remind people too in trying to get our 
colleagues to understand, this is not an Oregon problem, it is not just 
a Washington problem, it is not just a northern California problem, 
this is a problem across the United States. We are hit specifically 
very hard because of the amount of Federal forests that we have in our 
State. But this cuts across, I think it is 4,400 different school 
districts benefit from this program. It is absolutely critical.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I do see we have been joined by a couple other 
of colleagues, Cathy McMorris Rogers from the great State of 
Washington, who has been very active on forest and forest health issues 
when I chaired that subcommittee last session.
  I know Mike Thompson from northern California has joined us as well. 
He has been active in helping us on this. Perhaps we could turn from 
our colleague from Washington State.
  Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Thank you, Mr. Walden and Mr. DeFazio for your 
leadership on this issue, for organizing this time for all of us this 
evening.
  I have the honor of representing a district in eastern Washington. We 
are known for our vast public forests in that area. We have over 2\1/2\ 
million acres of forest lands.
  And these lands and this timber plays a very important role in our 
region's economy. Maintaining healthy forests is essential to those who 
make a living from the land, and for those who use it for other 
purposes.
  Unfortunately there are a number of critical issues that impact the 
health and the economic stability of the forests in our region. As many 
have mentioned this evening, since 1908 the counties that host forest 
lands from which timber is cut receive a share from the Federal 
Government of the timber receipts, about 25 percent.
  This is such important money for these counties and schools, used to 
fund road improvements, fire stations, police protection. And yet as 
the timber sales have declined, funding received by the counties and 
schools have also declined. It is because of that issue that we come 
before you tonight, and that the Secure Rural Schools Fund was 
originally established, and why it is so important that it continues to 
be established.
  It is essential for the livelihood of rural communities in eastern 
Washington. The Federal Government owns the majority of the land in 
many of the counties I represent, like others have mentioned tonight, 
for example Okanogan County, which is one of the largest counties in 
the country, it is 73 percent owned by the Government.
  That means 27 percent of the remaining land that is under private 
ownership is the tax base for a county that is six times the size of 
Rhode Island. That is the funding from those lands that is used to 
support search and rescue. Last year they saved a woman's life. And 
this year they will be forced to cut the special training and equipment 
and the jobs of some of those who work on the team.
  Without revenue from timber receipts, along with the inability to tax 
Federal land, these communities do not have enough money to provide 
essential community services and educational opportunities. I remain 
hopeful that we will be able to find the funding for the 
reauthorization of this program.
  I am hopeful because we do not have another option. In Ferry County, 
the largest employer was Vaagen Brothers Lumber. I say was because they 
had to close in 2003. Ferry County has 18 percent private ownership of 
land. And they too are dependent upon these resources, and we need to 
keep the promise to our rural communities and schools.
  In the State of Washington, half of the money from the secure rural 
schools goes to support schools. It means $21 million for the State of 
Washington, and although I would prefer this money go to the schools 
that are actually timber-dependent schools, nevertheless it is 
important money to our schools.
  For Newport, Washington it means a difference in music or art or 
maybe the difference in a foreign language teacher. Our timber-
dependent schools simply do not have the capacity to make up this kind 
of funding cut. The purpose of this act is to stabilize payments to 
counties that help support roads and schools, provide projects that 
enhance forest ecosystem health, and provide employment opportunities 
among the Federal land management agencies.
  I wanted to point out last year, just one example in my district, we 
had over 200,000 acres burn. Now this is in Okanogan County, this is a 
county that is nearly 75 percent owned by the Federal Government. And 
what we see here is the burn, the brown and the light yellow is where 
over 200,000 acres were burned.
  The pink areas here 1\1/2\ percent of what burned is what is proposed 
to be salvaged. Hopefully soon, although it is in dispute too. This in 
my mind demonstrates part of the challenge that we have, because this 
is a recent example in a county that is desperate for support for 
community services, trees have been lost. In the past I would have 
preferred for us to be able to go in there, even like 10 years ago, and 
be able to harvest some of these trees, create some timber receipts for 
this county rather than facing this situation where we have had 
devastating burns, with now very little of that burn being able to be 
salvaged.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I have here a chart showing wildland acres 
burned over the last several years. The yellow indicates the year 2000, 
the green is 2005, the red is 2006, and the blue indicates a 10-year 
average.
  As you can see, this all starts back in May and ends in November. 
But, again, over several periods of years, last year, we saw record 
amounts of fire on Federal lands. In fact, we spent a billion and a 
half dollars fighting fire. We burned more than 9 million acres. That 
is a record. And it just keeps getting worse and worse. So we have got 
a real problem out in the forest, and that affects our communities and 
our counties, because when you have these fires, what happens? Law 
enforcement has to go out and manage the roads and manager the flow of 
people, and they are doing around-the-clock vigil work on do we have to 
evacuate or not.
  And of course the Forest Service is involved too, but a lot of that 
burden falls on that local community. I have had whole communities 
close for very important times in the summer, because of fires 
approaching. Sisters, Oregon comes to mind. So your comment about 
wildfires is very apropos tonight.
  Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Like many of the counties in Oregon, I would 
say we face a similar situation in Washington State. And these are 
counties that do not want to be dependent on the Federal Government. 
They would prefer for the Forest Service to be managing these lands in 
such a way that would actually produce more timber receipts and result 
in a healthier forest so we do not continue to see these devastating 
fires every year, and they are getting worse every year.
  But, unfortunately, that is not what is happening. In the meantime, 
we really do need to reauthorize the secure rural schools. That is so 
important to our local communities that are surrounded by these 
National forests.

[[Page 3751]]

  It provided the funding for schools and roads, and right now is 
ensuring that our rural communities survive these difficult times. I 
thank you for the opportunity to speak.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. We thank you for coming out tonight to share 
your comments with our colleagues and others about the importance of 
trying to get this reauthorized. I would yield now to our distinguished 
colleague, the gentleman from the first district of California, Mike 
Thompson, whose district receives more than $6 million a year to help 
cover the costs of law enforcement, education, and other natural 
resource work that goes on there. So I yield to my colleague from 
California.
  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding. 
I want to thank all of you who have taken time to come to the floor 
tonight to talk about this very, very important issue, an issue that 
impacts all of our districts, and most important the people that live 
within our districts.
  Mr. Speaker, and Members of this House, the Secure Rural Schools and 
Community Self Determination Act was created to provide critical 
education and transportation funding for all of the counties that do 
not receive property tax from lands managed by the National Forest 
Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
  This program was enacted by this Congress to compensate local 
governments for the tax exempt status of these public lands. The law 
authorizing these payments, as you have heard tonight, expired at the 
end of fiscal year 2006.
  And all of the counties that are touched by this issue received their 
last payment on December 2 of 2006. If we do not reauthorize this 
funding by the 15th of March, county school districts will have to fire 
teachers, and reduce critical education programs.
  Counties will be forced to slash their transportation budgets. My 
Congressional district is heavily impacted by this issue, because of 
over 1.2 million acres that are managed by the National Forest Service.
  The National Forest Service acreage in my district is twice the size 
of the State of Rhode Island, and every single acre is exempt from 
property tax. No county in my district will be hurt more than Del Norte 
County. I have a map of Del Norte County, not wanting to be outdone by 
my friends with their visuals, but no county will be hurt more in my 
district than Del Norte County, where nearly 80 percent of the county, 
80 percent of all of the land within the county is owned by our Federal 
Government.
  Jan Moorehouse, the Superintendent of the school district up in Del 
Norte, and she was I think very, very succinct in pointing out the 
problem. I will just tell you what she said. I cannot say it any 
better.
  She said, the loss of funding is heart wrenching and carries an 
enormous impact on our ability to fund critical education programs for 
our youth. This is our future leaders. These are the people that will 
serve in Congress, serve in the State legislature, run the businesses, 
be on the city council, the people that will make the money to generate 
the greatness that our country is known for.

                              {time}  2130

  And we are taking money right out of their education, the things that 
will benefit them the most. Without this funding, the school district 
will have to increase their class size and lay off as many as 25 
teachers. And that may not seem a lot to big city school districts, but 
up here it is nearly 10 percent of the entire teaching faculty. With 
more students and less teachers, this will dramatically reduce the 
student to teacher ratio and shortchange our kids.
  In addition to the loss of faculty, Del Norte County School District 
will have to close their art and music programs, and some of the 
smaller schools in our county will have to close completely because 
they won't have the money to keep the doors open. Now, this is going to 
require that the school district bus students who live far from town 
travel over an hour each way to school on seasonably treacherous rural 
mountain roads.
  Other county school districts in my district will also be hit hard 
and will have to eliminate teachers and staff for early literacy 
programs, special education and arts education. The Klamath-Trinity 
School District on the Hoopa Indian Reservation will have to lay off 
eight teachers, nearly 15 percent of their entire faculty.
  And as I mentioned earlier, the Secure Rural Schools and Community 
Self-Determination Act also provides critical funding for county 
transportation needs. Again, this is because the counties do not 
receive property tax from land managed by the National Forest Service 
and the Bureau of Land Management. Humboldt County in my district has 
over 1,200 miles of county roads. The funding this program provides 
represents a large portion of that county's road maintenance budgets. 
Humboldt County has a maintenance backlog of over $150 million. Many 
other rural counties have similar backlogs, and the loss of this 
funding is going to be devastating.
  Back in Del Norte County, the transportation money from this program 
represents 20 percent of the county road budget. And to add insult to 
injury, 40 percent of the county roads in Del Norte County are within 
the national forest. So the county is responsible for maintaining the 
roads in the very areas that are exempt from property taxes.
  Mr. Speaker and Members, I urge this Congress to reauthorize and to 
fund this very important program as soon as possible. It is 
unconscionable for the Federal Government to walk away from our 
obligation to help these rural counties. Rural counties depend on these 
funds. They have no other option. We made a commitment, and it is up to 
us to follow through on that commitment.
  Again, I thank you for taking the time to put this Special Order 
together and help us convince all of our colleagues how necessary and 
how important this program is and how critically important these funds 
are to a large area within our great country.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Thank you, Congressman Thompson. We appreciate 
your vigilance in our efforts to try and get this reauthorized; and 
your comments tonight, I think, are very powerful in our efforts. You 
talk about roads. Morrow County road department has 19 employees to 
service 850 miles of county roads. They are going to be forced to lay 
off at least seven, perhaps as many as nine.
  Wallowa County, 700 miles, county roads maintained by a staff of 14. 
Soon there will only be seven. That is possibly one person for every 
100 miles of road or the same distance from here to Richmond, Virginia. 
You would have one road maintenance person. This story is repeated over 
and over in my district, Congresswoman Hooley's district, your 
district, Congressman DeFazio's district, Congresswoman McMorris 
Rodgers' district. All over the rural West we are facing this enormous 
problem.
  And people love to come out into their Federal forests. I love to get 
out into our Federal forests. I love to backpack and do all the things 
many of us do. It is a wonderful attraction. But people get lost, they 
get injured, and who is there to pick them up? The local county. The 
county sheriff, the local rescue patrol. And that is why this funding 
is so important so they will have the resources, they will have the 
people when you break a leg or you fall down an ice shaft somewhere. 
There is somebody to come get you. And that is just the rescue part and 
the police part. We have talked a lot about the schools as well.
  I know my friend from Clackamas County, Congresswoman Hooley, did you 
want to comment?
  Ms. HOOLEY. Well, this is a program that has worked well over the 
last 6 years. It has helped bridge that budget gap created due to the 
lack of timber harvested from our forest. And, again, I want to remind 
people this is distributed to over 42 States; 4,400 rural school 
districts receive funding.
  If we want to support our rural communities, if we want to make sure 
that we have roads to drive on, if we believe law enforcement is 
important to every

[[Page 3752]]

part of our State, then we have to figure out how to solve this 
problem.
  And I thank you and Representative DeFazio for all the work that you 
have done. But we have a full blown crisis on our hands. That is what 
this is. This is a crisis. And it will take support from our colleagues 
from both sides of the aisle to help our rural communities that are, 
frankly, in dire straits. This is not just a little problem. This is a 
great big huge problem for our rural communities.
  So I would urge my friends to join us in our effort to reauthorize 
this program and pass a 1-year extension to give us a chance to work 
through these difficult issues.
  And, again, I thank you for all the work that you have done on it.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And we appreciate your help on it too. And I 
think we have all signed a letter to the appropriators asking them that 
in the emergency supplemental they fund at least a 1-year extension 
while we work on a longer equitable solution to this problem.
  My colleague from southern Oregon.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. My friend, Representative Hooley, mentioned 
reauthorization. I do want to thank the chairman of the Resources 
Committee, Nick Rahall from West Virginia. And, yes, this touches West 
Virginia too. There are communities at risk there that are working hard 
to help us move the reauthorization bill for the longer-term funding in 
the Resources Committee, hopefully next month.
  And obviously my colleague from southern Oregon, Representative 
Walden, when he was Chair of the Forest Subcommittee of Resources, he 
and I, quite quickly, and I think just about, almost 2 years ago--
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. March of 2005 we moved it out of subcommittee.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Moved the authorization out, but it unfortunately got 
hung up in the process and never did become law although we certainly 
saw more action on this side of the Hill than we did in the Senate.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Would you yield just on one point?
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Yes, sure.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Because you mentioned West Virginia. And Rita 
Griffith from Pocahontas County, she is a commissioner there. She says 
nine full-time teaching positions will be cut and funding for an after-
school forestry education program will be lost. She is from Pocahontas 
County, West Virginia. I have got examples from Alaska and Arizona to 
California and West Virginia, so you are right.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. And just since the gentleman from California had 
referenced Del Norte County, I just want to talk about the county 
immediately to the north of that which would be Curry County, Oregon.
  Now, some people will say, look, why don't these counties just suck 
it up and take care of their own problems, raise the taxes? Well, in 
Oregon, our local property tax structure is dictated by the State 
because of a property tax initiative similar to the one that passed in 
California. The local commissioners do not have any options when it 
comes to that.
  Now, if Curry County was going to grow its way out of this problem, a 
county that today has 12,000 houses valued at about $250,000 each, they 
would have to add 35,000 houses valued at $350,000 each, quadruple the 
size of the county. And, unfortunately, since they are constrained by 
public lands----
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And the ocean.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. And the Pacific Ocean, some of those would have to be 
house boats, I guess.
  Ms. HOOLEY. It is hard to have a house boat in the ocean.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. But it is very serious. And there they are looking at 
the layoff of 16 of the 43 employees in the Curry County Sheriff's 
Office. And the sheriff would just then only be able to supervise the 
jail. There would no longer be a rural law enforcement, which obviously 
jeopardizes the traveling public and, again, raises the potential, as 
the gentleman from southern Oregon who represents also eastern Oregon 
pointed out, of a vacuum into which some of these gangs that are highly 
organized in this country, some of which have come across the border 
from Mexico could infiltrate for methamphetamine production or even 
growing marijuana.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And, in fact, you think about in our State and 
in Northern California how many meth labs have been found on Federal 
lands, found by county sheriffs deputies generally. They are the ones 
out there. Now, there are other law enforcement agencies, but a lot of 
it is that.
  And I showed you the marijuana growing that that lone deputy, by 
himself, no backup, on horseback out riding in the Federal lands, found 
6,000 plants in a Mexican cartel drug trafficking operation. This is 
going on out on Federal lands. And it is not like the Forest Service 
has a huge police force to go patrol their own lands. They don't. And 
so it is a severe problem.
  Ms. HOOLEY. I just want to add to the whole, when you are talking 
about drug problems and meth problems, we were one of the States that 
had, the west coast was hit the hardest with meth. It has now moved 
east. But I was just going to say, it is the rural counties that are 
hit more by meth than are the urban counties because they can go out in 
the forest, they can make meth, cook meth out in the forestlands, grow 
marijuana. But we spend a lot of our time out there looking for drug 
problems, and it is a huge issue in all of our rural counties.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. But of course it ends up in a lot of urban areas, so it 
is their problem, too.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Exactly. We have been joined by our colleague 
from Northern California, Wally Herger, who serves the adjoining area, 
at least to mine. And I don't know if he touches up against your 
district or not. But he does an extraordinarily able job representing 
Northern California and has been very active in forestry issues and 
forest health issues over the years. And we are delighted you could 
join us tonight to talk about the importance of reauthorizing H.R. 17.
  Mr. HERGER. I thank the gentleman, my good friend from Oregon, Mr. 
Walden. And I thank the work that Mr. DeFazio is doing and the others 
in this incredibly, crucially important issue that affects those of us 
in rural areas of the West, particularly, and in these forested areas.
  Like both of you, I have a heavily forested district and I understand 
the challenges that our rural communities face because of the large 
Federal presence in our area.
  Many of our fellow citizens, and even some of the Members of this 
body, do not realize that the presence of Federal lands places a burden 
on nearby communities. I am so pleased to join you tonight in shining 
the light on that fact and reminding our colleagues that the Secure 
Rural Schools program has expired and is in need of reauthorization.
  In my district of Northern California, school boards, county 
officials, and sheriff departments are currently in crisis mode. For 
example, Siskiyou County is looking at a 91 percent loss in school 
funding. In Tehama County, library hours, music, art, and physical 
education classes will be dramatically cut.
  And this crisis extends well beyond education. County road safety 
programs will be decimated as well. Sheriff departments will also bear 
the brunt of these cuts. In total, eight of my 10 counties are 
experiencing drastic budget declines because Congress has not extended 
the Secure Rural Schools program.
  It is important to point out to our friends who represent urban areas 
that this crisis is not the fault of rural counties. It is the fault of 
Federal policies that are out of their control, specifically the 
failure of Congress to address that burden by extending the Secure and 
Rural Schools program.
  In my home State of California, close to half of the land area is 
owned by the Federal Government. And in my district that number is 
considerably larger. In one of my counties, nearly 90 percent of the 
land is under Federal ownership. This large Federal presence has placed 
the counties I represent at a severe economic disadvantage. Acreage

[[Page 3753]]

that would normally be privately owned and, therefore, generating tax 
revenue to help fund essential local services, is, instead, locked away 
by the Federal Government.
  President Teddy Roosevelt and our predecessors who served in the 60th 
Congress recognized this problem and addressed it with a promise which 
was enshrined in the law in 1908, that the Federal Government would pay 
its fair share of local costs by sending a percentage of national 
forest revenues to the counties that are home to Federal lands.
  This promise acknowledged that the rural counties we represent would 
not be able to fund vital services like rural education, road 
maintenance and emergency care as long as enormous tracts of land 
within their boundaries were locked away under Federal control.
  We need to be very clear about the nature of the promise that was 
struck between Congress and rural forested counties. These funds were 
not designed to be a handout, and they are not part of any federally 
sponsored rural development program. They are an obligation. They are 
part of a compact between the Federal Government and the people of 
rural America in recognition of the difficulties created by large 
Federal ownership. This compact must be honored by the 110th Congress 
that we are currently in.

                              {time}  2145

  The rural counties I represent, and I know this is true in other 
areas throughout the West, have sacrificed a great deal playing host to 
America's national forests. I don't think it is too much to ask for 
this Congress to set aside a fraction of our $2.9 trillion budget in 
order to keep our word to rural America. We need to act immediately to 
extend the Secure Rural Schools safety net so our rural counties can 
get out of crisis mode, and then we can all get back to working on a 
long-term solution to our forest health problems.
  Again, I would like to thank my colleagues here tonight for your 
efforts to extend the Secure Rural Schools program. I am committed to 
working with each of you until we are successful, and I ask other 
Members of the House to recognize the incredible hardships that will 
result if this legislation is not renewed.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the 
Second District California.
  We appreciate your great work on forest health issues and your 
support of this effort. You mentioned this was just a fraction of what 
we spend federally for the Federal Government to keep its word. As you 
recall, we tried to get an amendment on the floor during the debate 
over the continuing resolution a week or so ago and we would have paid 
for that by just taking a fraction of what is spent for the whole 
government. That fraction was .00086 percent of the Federal budget that 
would pay for this; but not just pay for it, it would keep the 
commitment of this government to the people out West and elsewhere 
where there are forests that have been there for up until now 100 years 
basically, 99 years. So it doesn't take a lot to keep your word, and we 
need to keep the promise regarding forest health and schools and roads 
and other things.
  So we appreciate your work on this, Congressman Herger. Thanks for 
your leadership.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, let me just mention two other counties. I 
have got a list here. I see another gentleman from Washington that we 
want to hear from him. But the most heavily impacted county in my 
district will be Josephine County, and their general fund revenues have 
dropped 69 percent. Again, a dramatic loss of public safety.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. That is a county we share.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Right. And road services. And then in Coos County, more 
than half the general fund. Layoff notices have already gone out to 100 
out of a 430-person workforce. Again, the deepest cuts, because it is 
the largest proportion of the budget, public safety, again, the loss of 
patrol deputies. It is going to be a very, very difficult time when 
tourists from all across America come to southwest Oregon this summer. 
If they are in an accident or have other problems in rural areas across 
large swaths of our State, there will be no immediate help for them.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Most of the States this side of the Mississippi 
have less than 7 or 8 percent Federal ownership. In my district, much 
like like yours, Deschutes County is 79 percent federally controlled. 
Lake is 78; Harney is 78; Malheur is 76; Hood River is 72; Grant is 61; 
Wallowa is 58; and Baker is 53 percent of the land masses under Federal 
ownership and control. That is why this is so important that the 
Federal Government keep its word.
  I would like now to yield to our good friend and colleague from the 
Fourth District of Washington, the Honorable Doc Hastings, whose 
district receives $8.8 million a year to help with roads and schools in 
a very federally dominated area.
  Doc, you have been a terrific leader in this effort, and we 
appreciate your coming down tonight.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  And I want to thank you and I want to thank Mr. DeFazio, both, for 
your work on this not only in this Congress, but your yeomen's work at 
the end of the last Congress to try to get this problem resolved. And I 
apologize for coming down late. I wanted to participate more fully, but 
the Rules Committee is meeting, as we are speaking, on the Iraq issue. 
So I was up there and didn't have a chance to come down.
  But let me make a couple of points here. This really is about keeping 
a commitment that was made by the Federal Government to the counties. 
And you just made the point there that States with counties in the 
western part of the United States have a lot of Federal ownership. I 
have two counties that I just want to talk about in my district where 
over 80 percent of their land is owned by the Federal Government. Now, 
by definition that means that 80 percent of the taxable land that the 
county commission would have is not subject to taxation.
  The decision was made over 100 years ago for these national 
forestlands, which is principally in my area. I know you have some 
development lands in yours. But since they don't have taxation, they 
said okay. Deals were worked out many years ago that you can have the 
revenue from harvesting the timber, which worked out very, very well. 
So that is the Federal policy that was made. The Federal Government 
owns the land in these counties; so, therefore, they can't tax it. It 
is Federal policy. In the early 1990s, another Federal policy or 
interpretation, I should probably say, of a Federal policy has led to a 
decline in timber receipts, as you can see here by the chart.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. This chart here shows it very clearly.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. When President Clinton, to his credit, 
tried to come up with a forest plan, the current level at that time of 
timber harvest was 4\1/2\ billion board-feet, and the promise was that 
you could at least harvest 1.1 billion, 25 percent of it. We are not 
even close to that. We are not even close to that because the 
interpretation of that law and the ensuing lawsuits have kept any 
activity in these multipurpose areas. And I should make this point: 
This is national forestland. National forests were created to be 
multipurpose, including commercial activity. If you want to lock it up 
and not have any activity at all, the way to do that is put it in a 
wilderness area. This is not wilderness. Some de facto policies, 
unfortunately, in the past have led to sometimes this being treated as 
wilderness areas but it is not. So as a result of this, as a result of 
the timber receipts going down, these counties who relied on the 
Federal receipts from timber because they couldn't tax land now are 
facing huge, huge cuts.
  Chelan County in my district, one of the counties that has 80 percent 
ownership by the Federal Government, will have severe cuts in 
education, road maintenance, search and rescue, and this is a big 
tourist area up there, and the forestry education programs. Skamania 
County, a small county in

[[Page 3754]]

the southern part of my district, loses 40 percent of its school 
budget. Forty percent of its school budget. And here we are and that 40 
percent starts at the end of last year and they have to get through the 
end of the year.
  So this is something that needs to be resolved, and I really 
appreciate your allowing me to come down to participate in this. Both 
of you have been really champions on getting this through. And, 
hopefully, we will be successful sooner rather than later, because 
these counties and these communities in our States simply can't wait.
  Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues here this evening to urge this 
Congress to take action now and extend the Secure Rural Schools and 
Community Self-Determination Act, commonly referred to as the county 
payments bill. This bill is an essential lifeline of support for rural 
communities throughout the country that are impacted by federal forest 
land ownership.
  I thank my colleagues, Greg Walden and Peter DeFazio, for their 
steadfast efforts to address this problem.
  What we are talking about here tonight is keeping a promise--a 
promise made to county governments a century ago in what was then still 
the early years of the National Forest system. County governments, of 
course, cannot tax the Federal Government. However, they still must 
provide for schools, roads, and emergency services. The Congress 
recognized this reality when it promised these communities that they 
would get a fair share of revenue produced from federal forest lands as 
compensation for the tax exempt status of federal forest lands. This 
revenue sharing, which Congress made permanent in 1908, served all 
parties well and was for many years an equitable solution to the 
problem.
  Unfortunately, since the early 90s, special interest groups that 
oppose federal timber sales have used the Endangered Species Act to 
bring harvest activities in the Pacific Northwest to a standstill. The 
Clinton administration attempted to resolve the crisis by brokering the 
Northwest Forest Plan in 1994, which called for setting aside 80 
percent of the federal forests in the Northwest and allowing for a 
modest level of continued harvest on some of what remained. This was 
supposed to produce a steady and reliable level of timber to help meet 
the growing U.S. demand for building materials and wood products.
  However, even this compromise was not good enough for the radical 
environmentalists that have continuously used litigation to sharply 
limit federal harvest levels. What resulted is the closure of hundreds 
of mills throughout the Northwest--leaving thousands of people without 
family wage jobs and many counties with little or no compensation for 
the impact of federal land ownership. Today, we import more wood 
products than we ever did before, and the spotted owl--which was 
supposedly what all the litigation was about--isn't any closer to 
recovery as a result of our de facto zero harvest policy.
  Fortunately, the Congress at least recognized the dramatic impact to 
local governments caused by the sharply declining Forest Service timber 
receipts. This is why we passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community 
Self-Determination Act in 2000. This law, which expired at the end of 
Fiscal Year 2006, enabled local governments to either remain with the 
traditional receipt sharing system or take a payment based on 
historical harvest levels. In addition, it authorized funding for local 
governments to work in cooperation with interested stakeholders to 
carry out special forest restoration projects. These payments made the 
difference for many county governments that would otherwise not be able 
to provide essential services.
  Today, however, the future of these payments is in doubt. Despite the 
many efforts on both sides of the aisle, we were unable to secure an 
extension of this bill before the 109th Congress adjourned. I am proud 
of the fact that the House did at least identify and act upon a couple 
of legislative items last year that would have helped offset the cost 
of the reauthorization. However, the situation remains that we need to 
find a way to get the county payments extension through the Congress 
and on to the President. Time is quickly running out for these rural 
communities.
  Let me give you examples of what will happen to two of my counties if 
we fail to act now.
  Chelan County, which is almost 80 percent federally-owned land, will 
face severe cuts in education, road maintenance, search and rescue 
operations and many other county services. In addition, they would be 
forced to eliminate the Forestry Education Program, which takes ``at 
risk kids'' from several local rural school districts and involves them 
in hands on habitat restoration projects during the summer. This 
program is administered with the help of Washington State University 
and local employees of state and federal agencies and has been 
recognized by the National Association of County Officials.
  In Skamania County, which is more than 80 percent tax exempt federal 
land, the local school districts will lose 40 percent of their current 
budget. That means the loss of dozens of teachers and support 
positions, the shuttering of school buildings, and dramatic cutbacks in 
classes and extracurricular offerings. The county government would be 
forced to cut more than half of their law enforcement personnel, road 
workers, and court employees. These people will likely have to leave 
the county to find alternate employment, taking their families with 
them and further eroding the county's economy.
  Mr. Speaker, these are just a couple of examples of the kinds of the 
consequences to real communities if we fail to act. I again urge the 
leadership of the Congress to move the extension of the county payments 
bill on the next available legislative vehicle. Let's keep our promise 
to these local governments and reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and 
Community Self-Determination Act before it's too late.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his work 
and his help in the Rules Committee and on this issue.
  You have been most diligent and most helpful and we appreciate your 
comments tonight. Harney County Judge Steve Grasty has said, ``Loss of 
this program means losing future opportunities for young people here 
and in rural counties across America.'' We have comments like that, and 
I am sure Peter does as well, from every county that is affected, every 
school superintendent who is trying now to work with their school 
boards to figure out who stays, who goes, what gets cut, what gets left 
behind, and what do we do to help rural kids keep up in a school system 
that is going to be devastated by the loss of these dollars.
  This is a national problem. These are national lands. National policy 
determines what happens on these lands, and you can see by the 
reduction in Federal timber receipts, one of the outcomes of Federal 
policy has been near elimination of receipts, which has brought us to 
this legislation, which now is expired. And I appreciate the work of my 
colleague from the Fourth District of Washington as we work to 
reauthorize this to keep the Federal Government's promise to rural 
schools, rural roads, rural counties, and our Federal forestlands.
  And I yield to my colleague.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, again just to reiterate, 4,400 school districts 
across America, I believe, of more than 800 counties are impacted. 
Critical law enforcement, public safety, search and rescue services, 
road maintenance services, schools, school class size, school 
infrastructure, all these things are on the cutting block. Benton 
County in my district tried a levy. It failed. Again, the cuts will be 
targeted at law enforcement and the sheriffs' offices. That is the 
biggest part of the general fund for virtually all my counties. They 
have no choice.
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I am told our time is about up. I just 
appreciate your help and that of our colleagues.
  I would encourage all of our colleagues who are listening tonight, 
help us pass H.R. 17. Help us keep the promise to these rural people 
who are surrounded in their areas by Federal lands, which are gorgeous 
and we love them, but we need your help to deal with them.
  Again, I thank all of our colleagues who came down at this very late 
hour on the East Coast to share their comments and concerns. And 
together we can keep the promise for America.
  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express support for full 
reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self 
Determination Act.
  My district in southwest Washington state is one of the 10 most 
forested districts in the entire country. Because so much of the land 
in my district is under the control of the Forest Service, counties in 
my district like Lewis, Skamania, and Cowlitz rely on the Secure Rural 
Schools program. They are among 27 counties in Washington state that 
rely on funds of over $40 million a year.
  These communities do not want to rely on this program, but a long 
series of events have left them without recourse.
  For decades, heavily forested counties could rely on 25 percent of 
revenue generated

[[Page 3755]]

by timber harvest in our federal forests. National Forests cannot be 
taxed locally, so this was a fair exchange. As timber harvest plummeted 
in the 1980s and 1990s, these local governments were left with barely 
enough funds to operate essential government services, including 
schools. The 2000 Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination 
Act saved these communities from dying off. It has allowed them to hire 
teachers, keep libraries open, and provide the services that many of us 
take for granted.
  And Secure Rural Schools is about more then county payments. The 
program also authorizes Resource Advisory Councils and designates 15 
percent to 20 percent of the county payments towards these Councils, 
known as RACs. RACs bring together members of the community including 
environmentalists, labor groups, and local elected officials to 
collaborate on necessary forestry projects. These forestry projects 
include preventive thinning that limits the danger of fires in our 
forests. Over 9 million acres of land burned in fires in 2006. 
Collaborative efforts to prevent this damage are a model that needs to 
be refined and expanded. That can only happen if we continue funding 
the program.
  For the 780 counties, 4,400 school districts, and millions of 
Americans affected by this program, I implore my colleagues to help 
reauthorize and fund the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self 
Determination Act. If we fail to reauthorize this critical program, 
counties in my district will see their school district budgets cut by 
more than 40 percent, community programs and services will be slashed, 
and jobs will be lost.
  We must act now.
  Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my great concern 
over the current funding situation facing rural schools. The Secure 
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 provided 
compensation to counties with a large presence of Nation Forest lands. 
Unfortunately, the law authorizing these payments expired at the end of 
2006. When it became apparent the reauthorization would not pass the 
House through regular order during the 109th Congress, my colleagues 
and I introduced H.R. 6423, which would have extended the funding for 
one year, providing us with more time to work for a long-term solution. 
Despite our efforts, the 109th Congress adjourned without reauthorizing 
the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. However, 
I maintain my commitment to providing this much-needed funding for 
rural counties.
  I fully support the reauthorization of this law, which provides 
essential funding for over 4,400 schools in 780 counties. This money 
compensates counties for the loss of tax revenue as the Federal 
Government placed large amounts of land in forest reserves. The 
revenue-sharing mechanism that was created for the counties when this 
land transfer occurred is no longer viable due to decreasing timber 
sales.
  With nearly 5.5 million acres of National Forests in my Congressional 
District, my counties are greatly affected by the expiration of the 
Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. As 
an example from a county in my district, Plumas County School District 
receives roughly $2.5 million annually from this program, which 
represents 20 percent of their annual operating budget. Without this 
funding, the County is preparing to:
  Lay off 9 administrators (out of a total of 16); lay off 47 teachers 
(out of a total of 150); close all school libraries; possibly close 
some or all cafeterias and cut transportation activities.
  In Sierra County, schools will be shut down and students will be 
bussed up to 3 hours over the State line to attend school in Nevada. As 
you can see, reauthorization of this program is essential.
  The Federal Government has a responsibility to compensate these 
counties from which large amounts of land were taken to create the 
National Forest System, and by failing to produce a real solution that 
will provide this funding, we are neglecting that responsibility.
  I was disappointed to see that no funding was provided for rural 
schools in the continuing resolution we have recently passed. I am 
hopeful that the emergency supplemental we will soon consider will 
contain the needed funding for these counties, which are truly in dire 
circumstances.

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