Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. SALINAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Vasquez for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 356, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act, my bipartisan legislation with Representatives LaMalfa and Neguse in the House and Senators Crapo and Wyden in the Senate.

In central and southern Oregon, my district, the Federal Government owns over 3 million acres of forestland that pays no taxes to our local government. Generations of families built their lives and livelihood around Federal timber harvest, and counties relied on revenue shares from those sales to fund public services. When the timber industry collapsed, the revenue shares also disappeared.

Congress made a commitment to support rural communities and the critical infrastructure to make sure they did not get left behind. However, in the Republican budget bill, H.R. 1, the timber revenues from Federal lands to counties were eliminated, adding insult to injury.

The Secure Rural Schools program has been a lifeline for our rural communities. It supports basic public services like keeping roads paved, schools open, and emergency services running. Secure Rural Schools was meant to be a bridge and not the final answer for our rural communities.

Mr. Speaker, we still have a long way to go to deliver on the investments and job opportunities that rural America needs and deserves. I know it is one of my top priorities in Congress, along with many of my colleagues.

Letting this program expire and pulling the rug out from under our rural counties is simply not an option. We owe it to our rural communities and our timber-dependent counties to keep this commitment.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it, as well.

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