[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13850]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS PROGRAM

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to highlight the 
importance of the Secure Rural Schools program. It was created to fill 
a void in the economics left by restrictive forest management practices 
and regulations that have basically cut off our Federal forests and 
left many rural communities without the forests that once drove their 
economy: timber harvest.
  The program was established in 2000 as only a temporary program to 
help rural America until we could restore active forest management, 
which would allow communities to then be self-sufficient, create jobs, 
work the land, and keep their schools running.
  Indeed, the temporary program has not seen the practices towards 
forest management, towards timber harvest that is needed, as we see the 
West up in smoke once again.
  We need, in Congress, to put policies in place that allow for timber 
harvest, for better air quality, for the safety of the habitat, for the 
economy, and for secure rural schools so they will see funding they 
need, and for counties as well that rely on that for road money.
  In Modoc County, they are afraid they may have to close one of their 
high schools, which means another 50-mile drive through bad weather 
over a ridge for some of the students there.
  Congress must implement commonsense forest management for a myriad of 
reasons: again, forest health, school funding, jobs, all the things 
that make sense for the West. We need to pass Secure Rural Schools 
funding.

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