Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I rise to address the Baucus amendment that maintains the core Federal commitment to our timber counties through the Secure Rural Schools and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes Programs.
Let me give you a sense of what this is all about. This is equivalent to a farmer who is told by the Federal Government: We have a new set of rules, and you cannot grow crops on your farm any longer, but we are going to substitute payments that you would otherwise receive. Well, the farmer doesn't like it. He would rather grow crops, but what can he do? Then along comes the government a few years later and says: You know what. You cannot grow crops and you are not going to get compensated for our rules that tell you you cannot grow crops. And, of course, that is outrageous. That is like a taking of property, and yet that is exactly the situation that exists for our timber counties in terms of lands affected by the Secure Rural Schools Program.
The timber harvest cannot proceed in its original method, and the compensation is not guaranteed to be in place, so we have to fix that. We have to make sure the Federal Government abides by the deals it has struck. This deal is essential to rural timber counties throughout our Nation. It is essential to so many counties in Oregon.
Five years ago when my colleague Senator Wyden was working to make sure this commitment was upheld, I was in the role of a speaker, and in that role I organized the delegation of Democrats and Republicans to go out and talk with our county leaders, and there was such mystification about the fact that the Federal Government was not going to stand by the deal it had struck. Today, through the amendment that Senator Baucus, Senator Wyden, and others have been working to put forward, we have the chance to make sure that the word of the Federal Government is good. That is why we need to pass this amendment.
I wish to tell you that we are going to put forward an amendment that secured the word of the government for a good long time to come but, unfortunately, it is only a minimalist, 1-year agreement, but that is what we have before us and that is what we must do.
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