More On SRS Repayment

More On SRS Repayment. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

A bipartisan group of thirty-one members of of Congress have sent a letter to Budget Director Zients and Ag Secretary Vilsack questioning why the Obama Administration is retroactively subjecting Secure Rural School (SRS) payments, which were made to counties in January based on fiscal year 2012 revenues, to the fiscal year 2013 sequester. Washington Congressman and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings says they hope the fact that the letter is bipartisan will spark some action.

HASTINGS: That’s the significance of it. The mere fact that it’s bipartisan means that, you know, it obviously bipartisan. I mean, there’s no other way to say it. It’s not a political stunt it just seems to me the administration is trying to provide as much hurt as possible. We’ve seen examples of that in other areas of the government and this is just one more example.

Hastings says they are working from the other end just in case this letter has no effect.

HASTINGS: We will - I’m not sure the timing won’t alleviate the immediate pain - but we will be introducing legislation calling for more timber harvest on federal land. We think that is a long term solution to this issue of Secure Rural Schools and we will be introducing legislation on that probably in April when Congress reconvenes. So we’ll have a long term fix to this but no, on the immediate part it is going to be painful.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.