[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9824-9825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        HIGHLIGHTING IMPORTANCE OF 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 today to highlight the importance of 
the Secure Rural Schools program. In over 700 counties and 41 States, 
timber was once an economic engine, supporting tens of thousands of 
jobs while keeping critical government operations going strong in these 
communities that house tax-exempt Federal land.
  However, in recent decades, restrictive forest management 
regulations, combined with devastating partisan environmental 
campaigns, has resulted in access to our Federal forests being cut off, 
blocking any economic activity opportunities.
  Rural counties do not want to come to Congress every year to beg for 
money they should be getting to generate in their own backyards anyway. 
Money that should come from Federal and State land, though it may take 
up most of their county, now generates no economic value for them.
  Reauthorizing Secure Rural Schools is very important and will 
provide, though not a permanent solution, at least a temporary one 
until we get back to the wise management of our Federal lands instead 
of watching them burn each fall, as we see in the news. We can't sit 
back and watch rural communities suffer until we wake up to that 
reality.

[[Page 9825]]

  As Congress works to implement commonsense forest management 
policies, it is imperative we keep the Secure Rural Schools program in 
place so rural communities will have the funding for schools and roads 
that they need.

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