Bipartisan bills introduced to reauthorize Secure Rural Schools funding

SRS was not included in last CR; Hatch, Wyden; McMorris, Bonamici sponsoring extensions

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, have introduced legislation (S. 1027) that would extend the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program for an additional two years. Identical legislation (H.R. 2340) was also introduced in the House by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).

SRS payments  — $296.6 million in FY15  — help provide stability for forest counties and school districts affected by reduced revenue due to federal policies that have significantly curtailed federal timber receipts.

The payments support public schools and teachers, public roads, forest health projects, essential search and rescue and emergency services, and other essential services in counties that contain federal forests within their jurisdictions.  Approximately 700 counties receive SRS funds.

Historically, rural communities and schools have relied on a share of receipts from timber harvests to supplement local funding for education services and roads. During the 1980s, national policies substantially diminished the revenue-generating activity permitted in these forests. The resulting steep decline in timber sales decreased the revenues that rural counties and school districts received from forest management activities.

In response to this decline, SRS was enacted in 2000 (P.L. 106-393) to stabilize payments to counties and to compensate for lost revenues. When the SRS program lapsed in FY14, forest counties saw a more than 80 percent reduction in forest payments.

NACo has sent letters to Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden, as well as to Reps. McMorris Rodgers and Bonamici, in support of both S. 1027 and H.R. 2340.

The letters highlight the critical need for SRS reauthorization and the severe challenges counties will face if Congress fails to renew this longstanding federal obligation.

Currently, the Senate bill has 16 co-sponsors, all from Western states except for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)., while the House measure has five co-sponsors, three Democrats and two Republicans.