Congressman Denny Rehberg

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg recently contacted House Democrat Leaders demanding they include funding for secure rural schools in any upcoming supplemental spending package.

“The Secure Rural Schools Act is critical for Montana’s rural communities,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  “It provides vital funding for local schools and transportation projects throughout Montana at a time when rural communities are already stretched thin.”

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, signed into law in 2000, provides an alternative source of funding to counties that were once dependent on timber sales from federal lands. At the time the law was passed, it was estimated to provide assistance to 700 counties in 39 states.

“Now is not the time for Congress to abandon our rural communities,” said Rehberg.  “I’m going to keep fighting to prevent that from happening.”

Letter:

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi                The Honorable Steny Hoyer
Speaker of the House                           House Democratic Majority Leader
H-232, The Capitol                              H-107, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515                        Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable David Obey
Chairman, House Appropriations Committee
2314 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Madam Speaker, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Chairman Obey:

We write to you today, as many of us have in the past, to emphasize our strong support for including in any upcoming supplemental spending package that can be signed into law one year of emergency funding for the Secure Rural Schools and County Self-Determination Act (county payments program).  Your support last year assisted approximately 4,400 schools in over 600 rural counties across America and helped provide essential emergency services in these counties where as much as 80 percent of the land base is federally owned and thus off the local tax rolls. We strongly encourage your support once again this year.

While a division on the House Floor among advocates for reauthorizing the county payments program for an additional four years resulted from the leadership’s decision last month to take up a controversial version of HR 3058 under suspension of the rules, we want to make sure that you know our differences over how to pay for the renewal of the program should in no way be interpreted as a lack of mutual support for the goal of reauthorizing and funding the program, or as a lack of support for the one-year extension of emergency funding in a new supplemental that can be signed into law.

We know many of our colleagues on your side of the aisle have written you, as we are, to urge your support of this much-needed additional year of emergency funding.  We hope you will support us in this bipartisan effort to provide critical assistance to thousands of local schools and community services in over 600 of our rural counties across America.  Your support of our and other colleagues’ request will reinstate the federal government’s commitment to rural forested counties across our nation.

Sincerely,

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