FISA Amendments Act of 2007
Floor Speech
FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - February 06, 2008)
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Mr. CRAPO. I thank the Senator from Texas and my colleagues on both sides for allowing me this few minutes to have a break in the debate on the FISA bill to discuss a very important issue to the people of Idaho and, frankly, to the people in rural communities throughout the country. I rise to talk about the need to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000 and to fully fund the payments in lieu of taxes, or the PILT payments, which we call them in Congress. I encourage my colleagues to make this overdue extension and funding a top priority for Congress in the coming days.
This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the passage of the act requiring the U.S. Forest Service to return 25 percent of its gross receipts to the States to assist counties that are home to our national forests and other Federal lands with school and road services. This program was put into place to compensate local governments for the tax-exempt status of national forests which we all enjoy. Otherwise, many rural communities that neighbor these beautiful national treasures are unable to fully meet the school and road needs of their communities.
One hundred years ago, the impact of large Federal forest reserves on neighboring local economies was discussed and debated on the floor of the Senate, as former Idaho Senators Weldon B. Hayburn and William Edgar Borah joined their Senate colleagues in debating this issue which remains an issue today. However, the unfortunate reality of today is that in recent years, timber receipts have eroded to the point that the Federal obligation to our local communities is simply not being met. The receipts are not adequate for the needs of the communities and have been dropping off dramatically. Congress has acted in recognition of this to ensure that communities have the necessary assistance.
In the year 2000, I joined with my colleagues, Senators LARRY CRAIG, RON WYDEN, GORDON SMITH of Oregon, and many others to support and secure enactment of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000. This law provided the necessary assistance known as county payments to communities where regular Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management receipts-sharing payments had declined so significantly. The assistance has prevented the loss of essential school and road infrastructure needs in our local rural communities. The law also enabled very significant forest improvement projects.
The best solutions to natural resource challenges are achieved through local collaboration, and the more than 70 Resource Advisory Committees--or RACs, as we call them--provided for in this law have created valuable partnerships in carrying out projects to address a wide variety of improvements on public lands. These projects include habitat and watershed restoration, reforestation, fuels reduction, road maintenance, campground and trail enhancements, and noxious weed eradication. At a time when increased public demands are being placed on our Nation's natural resources, the RACs have provided the necessary cooperation to help resolve natural resource challenges throughout these local rural communities.
Additionally, payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILT payments, have augmented county payments to provide local governments with the means of offsetting a part of the tax revenues they lose because of the tax-exempt status of these Federal lands in their jurisdictions. PILT payments have supported community services such as firefighting and police protection in rural communities. Through PILT, the Federal Government partners with counties to provide public lands the stewardship and community services they need. Unfortunately, PILT funding is also not meeting this obligation, and we need to work together in Congress to achieve full and adequate PILT funding.
I am proud of the largely bipartisan effort in the 110th Congress to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act and to fully fund PILT. Progress has been made but more needs to be done to achieve the Federal Government's commitment to these communities.
In March of 2007, the Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment which I cosponsored to the fiscal year 2007 emergency supplemental appropriations act to reauthorize county payments for 5 years with offsets. However, this language was replaced with a 1-year extension, with the final payments made at the end of December 2007.
In December last year, Senators MCCASKILL, CRAIG, SMITH, DOLE, MURKOWSKI, STEVENS, and BENNETT joined me in urging the Senate leadership to attach a reauthorization of county payments and PILT funding to any legislative vehicles expected to be enacted before Congress concluded its work last year. Unfortunately, the reauthorization was attached only to the energy package which also would have increased taxes on domestic oil and gas producers to pay for incentives for renewable power, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, and other technologies.
I support incentives for alternative energy resources and the extension of county payments, but I am opposed to paying for those incentives by increasing taxes on our domestic oil and gas production. We are facing real and increasing constraints on our energy supply, resulting in higher energy costs daily. We simply cannot meet those needs by decreasing conventional energy production in the United States, which would further our dependency on foreign energy supplies and dramatically increase the cost for gasoline and electricity. This would negatively impact communities across the Nation, not just the rural communities we are seeking to help.
We need to again turn our attention to focusing on the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools legislation and increasing and achieving full and adequate PILT funding. It is unfortunate that the county payments extension was dropped from the enacted Energy bill and was not included in other legislative vehicles before the end of last year. However, today is another day. As we embark on the second session of this Congress, we have every opportunity to work together to extend and fund county payments and fully pay for PILT payments for students in rural areas.
We must do this to prevent the closure of numerous isolated schools and to enable rural county road districts to address severe maintenance backlogs.
Time is of the essence for many rural communities across the Nation, and this important legislation impacts millions of students and their families in more than 4,000 school districts and more than 7,000 counties. I am hearing from Idaho communities that, absent an extension, personnel layoffs as a result of program closures are expected soon. Communities in more than 40 States are facing similar pressures.
Just as the economic impact of Federal land ownership on neighboring rural communities has not been worn away by time, neither has this Nation's responsibility to the States worn away. It is my hope that others will join me in working to meet this Federal responsibility by reauthorizing the Secure Rural Schools Act and providing the full funding for PILT. This must be achieved in a timely manner that prevents the cutoff of needed services in rural communities nationwide and provides some long-term certainty to those rural communities.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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