[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19683-19685]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             TAX EXTENDERS

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, there is extraordinary economic hurt in 
much of rural America this evening, and that is especially the case in 
my part of our country in rural Oregon. We are going to have a chance 
to do something about that with the tax extenders legislation. I come 
to the floor today to urge its passage.
  A number of colleagues have been wondering about the folks in green 
shirts who are out and about on Capitol Hill this week. These are some 
of the country's best people committed to making this country a better 
place, and they are here because they come from communities where the 
Federal Government owns much of the land and the Federal Government, 
regrettably, has been talking about breaking its commitment to these 
communities.
  About 100 years ago, the Federal Government entered into an agreement 
with these communities. In effect, the Federal Government said: When 
the National Forest System is created, so it benefits people across the 
country--in Minnesota, in New York, in Florida, and all across the 
land--because we are going to have property owned by the Federal 
Government, we will assist those communities with funds for schools and 
essential services.
  That worked for a number of years when the timber cut was fairly high 
and we were able to get the funds those communities needed for 
essential services. However, when the laws began to change in the 1990s 
and timber cut went down, all of a sudden those communities were hard-
pressed to keep the schools open in my part of the country and to make 
sure there was essential law enforcement service--on the beat fighting 
methamphetamines and providing key services on our Federal lands. So in 
2000, I authored a law with our friend and colleague, Senator Craig, 
and brought those communities money for schools, money for essential 
services, but regrettably, that money has run out. As the revenues and 
benefits that we receive from our national forests change with the 
times, Congress simply can't walk away from its responsibility to 
provide funding to rural counties.
  Now, because of the good work particularly of Chairman Baucus and 
Senator Grassley, there will be an opportunity to renew our commitment 
to these rural communities and to do it in a way that is going to allow 
these communities, after a few additional years, to get into additional 
opportunities for economic growth and creating good-paying jobs for 
their citizens. For example, I have said that if we pass this 
legislation--and it authorizes $3.8 billion in desperately needed funds 
for rural schools and essential services--we are going to use those 4 
years so that at the end of that period, our rural communities can be 
involved in a number of other economic development activities that will 
allow their communities to prosper. For example, we know that in our 
part of the country--

[[Page 19684]]

and this has been true in much of the land where there is great risk of 
fire--there is a need to thin some of these forests. In our part of the 
country, it is second growth. It may be different in the Midwest and 
Minnesota and other parts of the land.
  But the point is, they are working together--people in the forest 
product sector, environmental leaders, scientists, and others--they are 
coming together and over the next 4 years will act in a fashion that 
will allow us to say that, on our watch, by making sure we acted today 
so these communities could survive, we used this period so that they 
could get into additional opportunities that would allow their 
communities to prosper and provide good-paying jobs for their people.
  Right now, pink slips have been sent out to county workers, teachers, 
and others, and without the action that has been achieved in the 
extenders legislation on a bipartisan basis, led by Chairman Baucus and 
Senator Grassley, without their work becoming law, it is my view that 
the very fabric of rural communities in our part of the country and 
over much of the United States will be torn asunder.
  A number of colleagues have worked hard on this legislation, and that 
is because this 100-year commitment we have had with rural America has 
always been bipartisan. The fact is, Americans who enjoy the National 
Forest System don't come to the forest and get asked whether they are 
Democrats or Republicans. It has been something that has been 
beneficial to our Nation, and in return, we said that our rural 
communities would be given the funds they need for essential services. 
The fact is, in much of the country where there is not Federal land, 
where there is not land in Federal ownership, they sell private 
property, they tax private property, they generate revenue, and they 
pay for essential services. That is what is different about my home 
State where the Federal Government owns much of the land. We haven't 
been able to do that.
  I see my friend and colleague on the floor, Senator Craig. We worked 
together to update our commitment to rural America back in 2000. We put 
in place, for example, resource advisory councils--and Senator Craig 
remembers this well--that brought together people in the forest product 
sector and environmental leaders. Several of them said: What you were 
able to do with Senator Craig has people working together in the 
natural resources field who never worked together before.
  So this has been a program that has worked. We have tried to extend 
it on a multiyear basis. I offered legislation previously with Senator 
Craig. We got 74 votes. An overwhelming majority of the Senate 
supported this legislation. Yet we were not able to get it enacted into 
law.
  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, would the Senator yield?
  Mr. WYDEN. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Oregon, Mr. 
Wyden, for the work he has continually done on behalf of timber-
dependent school districts and this uniqueness that Western States have 
that have these large portfolios of public land and have grown 
increasingly dependent upon the action taken by the Federal Government 
and the reaction in the States and the impact on the economy of local 
communities. When he and I stood together and worked out Wyden-Craig, 
Craig-Wyden and worked with our timber-dependent school districts and 
got it funded, we solved a very big problem.
  The advisory committees the Senator speaks to were in themselves a 
phenomenon in the sense that after 2,300 decisions by those groups to 
do activities on public lands, and not one of them objected to by an 
interest group or a suit filed to stop them, Senator Wyden and I grew 
convinced that we could work together to resolve our public land issues 
when we put determination and resource behind them, and that is what we 
did.
  I thank Senator Wyden very much for staying with this. It is my 
understanding that in the tax extenders package we will consider this 
coming week, we will see a reauthorization of Wyden-Craig that will get 
this work done, send a message back to our school districts and our 
counties that we are here to help, to assist, and to stabilize the very 
dire economic conditions those school districts and counties are 
experiencing. I thank Senator Wyden for sticking to it and with it 
because it is that kind of resolve that may solve this substantial 
problem.
  I thank the Senator for yielding.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I don't want to turn this into a bouquet-
tossing contest, but the fact is that Senator Craig and I have been 
partners in this for some time. We believed we had a good model when we 
moved to pass it during the Clinton years in 2000. It has exceeded our 
expectations in terms of bringing people together and helping these 
rural communities survive.
  I simply say to colleagues that as part of this tax extenders 
package, by extending the program now through 2011, the legislation 
would give rural communities the certainty they need to plan for the 
future and get them off this roller coaster of disaster one day, hope 
the next, that has been the pattern of the last few years.
  There are a lot of exciting things going on in the rural West. My 
friend from Idaho and I, as we sat on the Forestry Subcommittee, have 
heard the exciting developments, for example, in projects to thin and 
restore the Nation's forests, have heard about the good work that is 
being done in terms of biomass, taking essentially woody waste and 
turning it into a source of clean fuel. We have been working together 
to make sure the Federal Government gets the right definition of 
biomass so that we can allow these programs to go forward. Carbon 
sequestration would be a third opportunity that we know will be a 
sensible step because it will help improve the climate and create 
economic revenue.
  So as Senator Craig and I sat and listened to this testimony all of 
these many hours about thinning and biomass and carbon sequestration, 
it became clear to us that as long as our rural communities weren't 
denied the funds they needed to keep going, which is what we are 
talking about today, they could use these next 4 years to get into some 
very exciting and promising fields in the years ahead.
  Madam President, I am very pleased that my friend from Idaho has come 
to the floor, and I know I have exceeded my time for morning business. 
I simply say to my colleagues that I hope they will pass the extenders 
package. The funds involved are for secure rural schools, and it is 
critically needed now so they can use this time to make sure young 
people, law enforcement, and other essential needs are addressed.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.
  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, I understand that Senator Akaka is en 
route to the floor to speak and possibly put forth a unanimous consent 
request. He is entering the Chamber now. I know he has time for that 
consideration. I will not speak as in morning business, but I will 
close by saying I thank my colleague from Oregon.
  The years we have worked together have become a very valuable 
partnership for the benefit of public land States and for us to 
recognize the changing world in which we live in these States. But the 
demand is still on the communities. No matter how the use of public 
land--or how we apply policy to public land changes, we still have to 
maintain roads, bridges, and schools if there is going to be vitality 
in a community that can support new economic opportunity in the coming 
years. That is what the Senator has so eloquently spoken to. We both 
recognized that, and we used the Public Land Subcommittee of the Energy 
and Natural Resources Committee, which I chaired and which he now 
chairs, as that link and partnership to accomplish a great deal of 
this. I thank him for that work.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page 19685]]


  Mr. AKAKA. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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