[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    WHEN WILL THE DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP KEEP ITS COMMITMENT TO RURAL 
                              COMMUNITIES

  (Mr. WALDEN of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Madam Speaker, by refusing to renew the county 
payments program, Congress has broken its pledge to rural areas all 
across this country like Grant County, Oregon, where Federal land 
covers 61 percent of the county. That's 300 square miles larger than 
the entire State of Delaware.
  The school children of Grant County rely on the Federal Government to 
be a good neighbor. During my most recent visit to Prairie City School 
and the eighth grade class of Andy Demko, I was told by the school 
superintendent, Newell Cleaver, that only the county payments funds 
through the Road Department have kept the schools going.
  Our Speaker has said she would like this to be ``The Children's 
Congress.'' So why won't the Democratic leadership bring a vote on H.R. 
3058, which is a bipartisan, 4-year reauthorization timber program, 
keeping a 100-year-old commitment from this government to these 
counties?
  It has been 112 days since H.R. 3058 was made eligible for a vote. 
It's here on the Union Calendar of the House. We have had 51 
legislative days when it could have been brought up for a vote to help 
secure rural schools, and yet the leadership of this House refuses to 
even schedule it for a vote on the House floor.
  When will the Democrat leadership of the House keep its commitment to 
rural communities?

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