01/15/07 H.R. 17

HR 17. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Oregon Congressmen Peter DeFazio and Greg Walden have introduced H.R. 17, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007, legislation that would reauthorize the successful "county payments" law for seven more years. According to Walden WALDEN: This is a covenant and a trust that the federal government has now walked away from as the old program has now expired but we need to get it reauthorized. Our legislation would extend this program for seven years, keep the commitment between the federal government and local government, provide funds for roads and schools as well as habitat projects and conservation projects bringing divergent viewpoints together. For me, it's a must pass bill. Originally the money came from the timber industry. WALDEN: They've dried up. When you reduce timber harvest on federal timberlands by 80 to 85%, the revenue is just not there and counties suffered earlier in decades ago when the market would drop out, you might have very little harvested in an area and so they'd take a hit so it was generally reliable but there were periods and pockets where you had problems. An important part of HR 17's gives the local community the ability to determine where those payments go. WALDEN: That was written in 6 or 7 years ago when the bill was first drafted and in part I think it was to reflect that these local communities would have a say; more of a say in their future. These funds help them have that say through roads, through other projects that are funded as a result of this assistance through the federal government. According to Walden, Oregon has received the lion share of the funds with Washington and California also receiving significant amounts. WALDEN: Well this is a nationwide program. It does touch 40 states, more than 4000 school districts but it's predominately in the west and it's predominately in Oregon. Of the 400 million dollars that would be allocated Oregon's share is about 280 million. But it is totally reflective of the end of the timber sale in any meaningful amount. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.