Cantwell, Herrera Beutler work to bring back Secure Rural Schools program
Federal lawmakers from Washington are working to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program to provide much-needed funding for schools.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced a bill Wednesday to reauthorize the program, while a similar bipartisan bill was introduced in the House by Republicans Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) and Democrat Rep. Derek Kilmer (WA-06).
“The Secure Rural Schools program was established to help give communities the certainty they need to run schools, keep law enforcement officers on the job, keep infrastructure projects moving, and so much more,” Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) said in a press release Wednesday.
The SRS program provides revenue to rural forest counties with a high proportion of federal land and supports a variety of services in 775 counties and 4,400 schools across the country.
“These... programs are what pay for schools, roads, and emergency services in our rural communities,” Cantwell said at a hearing Tuesday. “Local governments depend on these programs to function, and I know that we need to have these programs now and give certainty to our local governments.”
Uncertainty about the program could make it difficult for local governments impacted by SRS to plan their annual budgets, said the press release. SRS payments affect 9 million students across 41 states. .
The bills introduced Wednesday would back-pay counties for the shortfall in funding they received in April without the Secure Rural Schools program, and would ensure that counties receive the same payments next year as well.
“The Secure Rural Schools program is currently the only lifeline for many formerly timber-dependent communities in Southwest Washington to keep schools, emergency services and roads operating,” said Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.
In 2016, under SRS, Forest Service payments to Washington counties totaled more than $17.3 million. This year, without SRS funding in place, Forest Service payments to Washington counties totaled just $2.3 million.
“... Skamania County once had a thriving timber industry to fund their vital services, but now, with more than 90 percent of the land in public ownership and producing virtually zero harvest, they no longer have local tax revenue to support the needs of their local residents,” Herrera Beutler said in the release.
Herrera Beutler said also that she is committed to working with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to insure the Secure Rural Schools program is extended, and wants to see a long-term, sustainable solution for the program developed through federal forest management policy reforms.
Source: The Daily News