5-13 IAT Rural Schools

  A very feisty Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson takes on U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell for a variety of issues not the least of which is rural education. Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson took on a Forest Service budget proposal that cut funding for active forest management in favor of funding the fire budget which covered a variety of issues, including fire borrowing, Secure Rural Schools, and the states’ role in managing public lands. Simpson noted that the Senate's decision to strip funding intended to reimburse the agency for fire borrowing during the devastating 2012 fire season left the Forest Service with holes to fill in FY14 but expressed concern about the fire budget in the President’s request.  

Simpson spokesperson Nikki Watts: “During the hearing, Simpson also expressed support for extending the Secure Rural Schools program, which provides an alternative source of education funding for counties with a high percentage of national forests or federal land, and encouraged the Forest Service to partner with states to improve forest management. “States have public forests and therefore foresters and public land managers who are already doing some of this work right next to national forests,” said Simpson.  “I think there needs to be some way to improve the relationship between the Forest Service and the states so you can partner with state foresters to get some of this work done.”