A bipartisan coalition in Congress that includes Representative Doug LaMalfa is pleading with legislative leadership to revive a program that provided federal subsidies to counties that had relied on the timber industry. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act was originally established to make up for timber revenues that declined as environmental protections and automation reduced logging on national forests. The idea is that the population supported by logging remains in areas where there’s not enough property taxes to support schools and roads because of the vast swaths of tax exempt federal land. The funding has expired a number of times and has been repeatedly revived with increasing pressure to let it die. In 2013 LaMalfa was among those who said it was not necessary if an amendment was attached that would require each national forest to harvest a portion of its sustainable yield. LaMalfa argued that would improve forest health, and would once again provide counties with a cut of the proceeds. What that amendment really did was to provide ammunition to those who have wanted to kill the funding. Now LaMalfa says communities rely on the money. Funding lapsed in 2023, causing a 63% cut in the money provided to rural budgets. There’s enough support for reinstatement in the Senate, but there’s still resistance among House Republicans.
-Steve Gibson