[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         ACTIVE FOREST MANAGEMENT LEADS TO HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the Twenty-Five Percent 
Fund Act of 1908 required 25 percent of tax receipts of timber 
harvested from U.S. national forests to be returned to the counties 
where the tax receipts originated.
  Since local property taxes cannot be levied on Federal lands, these 
dollars along with payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT, funding are 
critical for counties located in national forests and other Federal 
lands. This is because the 1908 law specifies that they directly 
support local schools and road activities in national forests.
  Unfortunately, timbering has dramatically decreased in the National 
Forest System since the late 1980s. According to the Forest Service, 
the agency was annually harvesting over 12 billion board feet by the 
end of the 1980s, but today, this amount has decreased to less than 2 
billion board feet per year.
  Make no mistake, timbering activities, such as removing unhealthy 
wood waste and potential fire fuel, plays a fundamental role in the 
core mission of the Forest Service and lends the forest health.
  Leading up to the turn of the century, declining timber production 
has resulted in less forest management and, therefore, decreased forest 
health, fewer local employment opportunities, and dramatically less 
funding for schools and roads in forested communities.
  As a result, the Secure Rural Schools program was created in 2000 to 
help offset the lack of funding for essential local activities. 
Unfortunately, the program was allowed to expire at the end of 
September 2014, resulting in payments to counties reverting back to 
previous law which again requires 25 percent of the tax receipts from 
timbering to be returned to the counties of origin.
  Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the parent 
agency of the Forest Service, announced that 25 percent of receipts 
will be paid to 41 States throughout the coming months in 2015.
  These funds are very much needed in rural communities located on 
Federal lands, including the Allegheny National Forest, where four 
counties in northwestern Pennsylvania directly benefit.
  While these funds amount to nearly $50 million nationally, they 
represent only one-sixth of the funds that were provided the previous 
year through the Secure Rural Schools program.
  Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee 
and a former school board president, I can attest that there is no 
school district in America that could have 94 percent of a funding 
stream pulled out from underneath them and still manage.
  Make no mistake, the Secure Rural Schools program has gone a long way 
in helping communities bridge the financial shortfalls for the lack of 
taxable land over the past 15 years, but the program alone does not 
solve the underlying challenges faced by counties and communities 
colocated in national forests and other Federal lands.
  In order to ensure the long-term ecological sustainability and 
economic prosperity of our national forests and our local communities, 
the Forest Service must adhere to its historical mission of active 
forest management and timber harvesting for our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, let us not be confused. National forests are not 
national parks; they are home to the people's resources. We must 
encourage sustainable and increased production of the public's 
resources which directly support those communities that are colocated 
on Federal lands. This would be a win-win for the country. The American 
people deserve as much.

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