[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6532-6533]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION ACT OF 2000

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the importance of 
the need to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self 
Determination Act of 2000.
  This act expired September 30, 2006, and now over 700 counties and 
4,400 school districts in 39 States are in financial limbo.
  In simple terms, this means that 8 million kids in rural America are 
going to be impacted by Congress's inaction.
  This is simply unacceptable.
  I have been joined by several of my colleagues in introducing, S. 
779, a simple one year reauthorization. This measure would provide some 
certainty to the impacted counties and schools while Congress works to 
address the larger issue of a multiyear reauthorization.
  It is clear to me that the safety net payments need to continue, but 
in a manner that encourages and focuses on building collaboration--one 
of the cornerstones of this act.
  For my colleagues who are unfamiliar with this issue, let me quickly 
review how the Congress got to this point.
  In 1992, Congress provided some counties in the Pacific Northwest 
with a temporary financial ``safety net'' to help them transition from 
the timber boom years of the 1980s.
  The safety net was scheduled to gradually phase out over a 10-year 
period, but demands for a more inclusive program resulted in its early 
termination and the enactment of another temporary program, the Secure 
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.
  This act was designed to allow counties an opportunity to transition 
back to the traditional revenue sharing programs.
  The temporary safety net was originally recommended to Congress by 
the National Forest County Schools Coalition.
  One of the Coalition's principles States that special payments to 
States under this legislation will provide a short-term safety net with 
a specific termination date.

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  The county payments program dramatically broadened the geographical 
and substantive scope of the original safety net payment.
  The large majority of the funds still were focused on the Pacific 
Northwest, but the new national program permitted most States and 
counties across the country to participate and benefit from it thus, 
providing a measure of financial certainty to all counties that rely on 
revenues from Federal forest lands.
  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.
  Next, the act has allowed rural county road districts 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.
  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 public lands. Projects have included fuels 
reduction, habitat improvement, watershed restoration, road maintenance 
and rehabilitation, reforestation, campground and trail improvement, 
and noxious weed 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 decision making in over 150 of our largest forest counties 
in America and are reducing the gridlock over public land management, 
community by community.
  In the future, I feel the RACs will be providing the leadership to 
build consensus for projects that will keep our forests healthy and as 
a result generate revenue for future projects, counties, and schools.
  The achievements of this act over the last few years are 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 public lands.
  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 after school 
programs, sports programs, music programs, and trying to determine what 
is the basic educational needs of our children.
  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.
  Congress needs to act now in order to ensure a future for rural 
schools and counties.

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