Greg Walden

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Exactly. We have been joined by our colleague from Northern California, Wally Herger, who serves the adjoining area, at least to mine. And I don't know if he touches up against your district or not. But he does an extraordinarily able job representing Northern California and has been very active in forestry issues and forest health issues over the years. And we are delighted you could join us tonight to talk about the importance of reauthorizing H.R. 17.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And, in fact, you think about in our State and in Northern California how many meth labs have been found on Federal lands, found by county sheriffs deputies generally. They are the ones out there. Now, there are other law enforcement agencies, but a lot of it is that. And I showed you the marijuana growing that that lone deputy, by himself, no backup, on horseback out riding in the Federal lands, found 6,000 plants in a Mexican cartel drug trafficking operation. This is going on out on Federal lands. And it is not like the Forest Service has a huge police force to go patrol their own lands. They don't. And so it is a severe problem.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And the ocean.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Because you mentioned West Virginia. And Rita Griffith from Pocahontas County, she is a commissioner there. She says nine full-time teaching positions will be cut and funding for an after- school forestry education program will be lost. She is from Pocahontas County, West Virginia. I have got examples from Alaska and Arizona to California and West Virginia, so you are right. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Would you yield just on one point?

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I am told our time is about up. I just appreciate your help and that of our colleagues. I would encourage all of our colleagues who are listening tonight, help us pass H.R. 17. Help us keep the promise to these rural people who are surrounded in their areas by Federal lands, which are gorgeous and we love them, but we need your help to deal with them. Again, I thank all of our colleagues who came down at this very late hour on the East Coast to share their comments and concerns. And together we can keep the promise for America.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I would comment. And certainly the gentleman from southern Oregon too, that Lake County, this is 93 percent of their road budget. 93 percent of the road budget. I think you can probably put the State of New Hampshire inside Lake County and still have some room to graze cattle.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome my colleagues from Oregon who are in the Chamber with me tonight. Congressman DeFazio and Congresswoman Darlene Hooley are here with me, and I know we will be joined by other members of the Northwest delegation to talk about a very, very important issue, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, H.R. 17, also known as County Payments, that in both this Congress and the last has been a strongly bipartisan issue. The DeFazio-Walden legislation, H.R. 17, a bill to reauthorize and fund the County Payments Program for 7 years to date enjoys the support of 114 cosponsors in this Congress. The exact same bill last Congress had 139 cosponsors. As I have said in 13 of 18 one-minute floor speeches: the failure of Congress, either the last one or this one, to reauthorize the County Payments Program amounts to a breach of faith to more than 600 forested counties all across America and 4,400 school districts all across this country. I would like to take a moment to highlight a few of the impacts of the rural forested counties and school districts in America without these funds: severe cuts in funding for jail beds; sheriffs' patrols are being cut sometimes in half; criminal prosecutions and the pursuit of meth cooks, all of that being reduced; rural school districts foregoing overdue repairs; may not be able to buy textbooks, or face significant challenges busing kids to schools. It also means libraries will close in places like Jackson County, Oregon. I would like to draw your attention to this poster here to my left. It is from a young lady, a fifth grader named Alice from Ashland, Oregon, who utilizes one of the 15 Jackson County libraries where she lives, and they are all scheduled to close in just a couple of months, in April, if we don't reauthorize and fund the Secure County Schools legislation. Alice has resolved to read all the ``Hank the Cowdog'' books, but she needs these libraries to stay open. She says: ``Representative Walden, I live in Ashland and I go to Bellview School. I am in the fifth grade. I use our library a lot. We always use books on tape for car trips. My New Year's resolution is to read all the ``Hank the Cowdog'' books, and the library has them all. I need the library to stay open so I can finish my resolution. I also use a lot of books here for school reports. Please help to keep our library system open. Sincerely, Alice.'' Alice is a fifth grader in Ashland, Oregon. She gets it. If Alice can get it, this Congress ought to be able to get it, and we ought to be able to keep the libraries open in Jackson County. Many of you in this Chamber and Americans all across the land will remember the heart-wrenching service for the Kim family in southern Oregon this winter, lost in the national forest, and the mountain climbers who perished on Mount Hood just 45 minutes from my home in Hood River. Both of these counties, both of the search and rescue operations that took place used funds out of the program that Congressman DeFazio and others and I are trying to reauthorize to help pay for the equipment and for the search and rescue operations, to go on Federal land using county resources to look for these people who were lost, some of whom perished. These vital county services and rural school programs were once funded by timber receipts, but because of virtual elimination of the timber harvest on our Federal forests, Congress approved the county payments to develop forest health improvement projects on public lands and simultaneously stimulate job development in some of our rural communities. This law has been a primary funding mechanism to provide rural schools with educational opportunities comparable to suburban and urban students. It has also restored programs for students in rural schools and prevented the closure of numerous isolated rural schools. It has allowed over 600 rural counties to address the severe road maintenance backlog. Before I get into that, though, I would like to show you total Pacific Northwest timber receipts. As you can see here, it has fluctuated over the years, but it has never been as low as it is today. There were big years of timber harvest, this one up, very large; but generally it has been in this framework, and you can see, really, since the 1990s it has just gone way down. The Federal Government has had a compact with these counties dating back to when Teddy Roosevelt was President and created the great forest reserves, setting aside huge swaths of land. Upwards to half of my district is under Federal management and control, and many of my colleagues and some of my counties it is upwards to 70, 75 percent. The Federal Government believed in 1908 and again in 1938 that it had a responsibility to help these communities surrounded by Federal lands because these lands were not going to be on their tax base. That is what started this whole program. They used to share timber receipts. As you can see, timber harvests went down, the receipts went down. You say, what happened to our wood products system? Well, here is what happened. See what happened on Federal forest lands. This is 1980 here, top level, about 11 billion board feet sold. Then it drops way down in the red. Where did we get the lumber? Imports. Soft wood lumber imports right there, the blue and the yellow. So this came along, we said timber receipts are down, so we are going to replace it, 6 years ago, now almost 7. We authorized this Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. The country has 7,500 national forests and grasslands covering 192 million acres. That is the size of Texas, by the way. Our State of Oregon has 15 national forests. We are proud of them. You need to know they cover 14 million acres, or nearly one-quarter of the State's land mass. There are forests in my district that cover nearly 12 million acres. To put this in perspective, within the Forest Service regions 8 and 9, which cover 34 States, all States east of the Missouri River, Oklahoma and Texas, there are 52 national forests covering 25 million acres. My district alone has nearly half that amount of acreage. You can see those of us in the rural West are really impacted by what goes on in the Federal lands, whether it is search and rescue operations, forest fire operations. You name it, it is expensive. When the Federal reserves were created, we set up this funding mechanism, again going back to 1908 and then coming forward. The problem now is promise to rural schools, the promise to rural communities, and the promise to rural roads has been broken. It broke last year, and it is up to us now in this Congress to keep the faith with the school kids of America and rural America, to keep faith with the resource advisory committees. They are bringing environmentalists and others together to improve forest health and habitat, great projects all over the country, to keep faith with basic county services that are being provided, funded by this program. Folks, last checks went out the end of the year. What is happening now is the pink slips are going out. Road departments are being cut in half. County sheriffs' departments are being cut in half. School teachers getting pink slips, being told, we are not sure we will have the money to hire you back next year. This is now a crisis, and it is time for Congress to act. I would at this point like to yield to my colleague from Oregon, my partner in this effort, H.R. 17, to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, Peter DeFazio from southern Oregon, the Fourth District.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his work and his help in the Rules Committee and on this issue. You have been most diligent and most helpful and we appreciate your comments tonight. Harney County Judge Steve Grasty has said, ``Loss of this program means losing future opportunities for young people here and in rural counties across America.'' We have comments like that, and I am sure Peter does as well, from every county that is affected, every school superintendent who is trying now to work with their school boards to figure out who stays, who goes, what gets cut, what gets left behind, and what do we do to help rural kids keep up in a school system that is going to be devastated by the loss of these dollars. This is a national problem. These are national lands. National policy determines what happens on these lands, and you can see by the reduction in Federal timber receipts, one of the outcomes of Federal policy has been near elimination of receipts, which has brought us to this legislation, which now is expired. And I appreciate the work of my colleague from the Fourth District of Washington as we work to reauthorize this to keep the Federal Government's promise to rural schools, rural roads, rural counties, and our Federal forestlands. And I yield to my colleague.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. This is so serious to those counties. We have got to get this done.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. March of 2005 we moved it out of subcommittee.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. And we appreciate your help on it too. And I think we have all signed a letter to the appropriators asking them that in the emergency supplemental they fund at least a 1-year extension while we work on a longer equitable solution to this problem. My colleague from southern Oregon.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Thank you, Congressman Thompson. We appreciate your vigilance in our efforts to try and get this reauthorized; and your comments tonight, I think, are very powerful in our efforts. You talk about roads. Morrow County road department has 19 employees to service 850 miles of county roads. They are going to be forced to lay off at least seven, perhaps as many as nine. Wallowa County, 700 miles, county roads maintained by a staff of 14. Soon there will only be seven. That is possibly one person for every 100 miles of road or the same distance from here to Richmond, Virginia. You would have one road maintenance person. This story is repeated over and over in my district, Congresswoman Hooley's district, your district, Congressman DeFazio's district, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers' district. All over the rural West we are facing this enormous problem. And people love to come out into their Federal forests. I love to get out into our Federal forests. I love to backpack and do all the things many of us do. It is a wonderful attraction. But people get lost, they get injured, and who is there to pick them up? The local county. The county sheriff, the local rescue patrol. And that is why this funding is so important so they will have the resources, they will have the people when you break a leg or you fall down an ice shaft somewhere. There is somebody to come get you. And that is just the rescue part and the police part. We have talked a lot about the schools as well. I know my friend from Clackamas County, Congresswoman Hooley, did you want to comment?

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. We thank you for coming out tonight to share your comments with our colleagues and others about the importance of trying to get this reauthorized. I would yield now to our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from the first district of California, Mike Thompson, whose district receives more than $6 million a year to help cover the costs of law enforcement, education, and other natural resource work that goes on there. So I yield to my colleague from California.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I have here a chart showing wildland acres burned over the last several years. The yellow indicates the year 2000, the green is 2005, the red is 2006, and the blue indicates a 10-year average. As you can see, this all starts back in May and ends in November. But, again, over several periods of years, last year, we saw record amounts of fire on Federal lands. In fact, we spent a billion and a half dollars fighting fire. We burned more than 9 million acres. That is a record. And it just keeps getting worse and worse. So we have got a real problem out in the forest, and that affects our communities and our counties, because when you have these fires, what happens? Law enforcement has to go out and manage the roads and manager the flow of people, and they are doing around-the-clock vigil work on do we have to evacuate or not. And of course the Forest Service is involved too, but a lot of that burden falls on that local community. I have had whole communities close for very important times in the summer, because of fires approaching. Sisters, Oregon comes to mind. So your comment about wildfires is very apropos tonight.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I do see we have been joined by a couple other of colleagues, Cathy McMorris Rogers from the great State of Washington, who has been very active on forest and forest health issues when I chaired that subcommittee last session. I know Mike Thompson from northern California has joined us as well. He has been active in helping us on this. Perhaps we could turn from our colleague from Washington State. Mrs. McMorris Rodgers. Thank you, Mr. Walden and Mr. DeFazio for your leadership on this issue, for organizing this time for all of us this evening. I have the honor of representing a district in eastern Washington. We are known for our vast public forests in that area. We have over 2\1/2\ million acres of forest lands. And these lands and this timber plays a very important role in our region's economy. Maintaining healthy forests is essential to those who make a living from the land, and for those who use it for other purposes. Unfortunately there are a number of critical issues that impact the health and the economic stability of the forests in our region. As many have mentioned this evening, since 1908 the counties that host forest lands from which timber is cut receive a share from the Federal Government of the timber receipts, about 25 percent. This is such important money for these counties and schools, used to fund road improvements, fire stations, police protection. And yet as the timber sales have declined, funding received by the counties and schools have also declined. It is because of that issue that we come before you tonight, and that the Secure Rural Schools Fund was originally established, and why it is so important that it continues to be established. It is essential for the livelihood of rural communities in eastern Washington. The Federal Government owns the majority of the land in many of the counties I represent, like others have mentioned tonight, for example Okanogan County, which is one of the largest counties in the country, it is 73 percent owned by the Government. That means 27 percent of the remaining land that is under private ownership is the tax base for a county that is six times the size of Rhode Island. That is the funding from those lands that is used to support search and rescue. Last year they saved a woman's life. And this year they will be forced to cut the special training and equipment and the jobs of some of those who work on the team. Without revenue from timber receipts, along with the inability to tax Federal land, these communities do not have enough money to provide essential community services and educational opportunities. I remain hopeful that we will be able to find the funding for the reauthorization of this program. I am hopeful because we do not have another option. In Ferry County, the largest employer was Vaagen Brothers Lumber. I say was because they had to close in 2003. Ferry County has 18 percent private ownership of land. And they too are dependent upon these resources, and we need to keep the promise to our rural communities and schools. In the State of Washington, half of the money from the secure rural schools goes to support schools. It means $21 million for the State of Washington, and although I would prefer this money go to the schools that are actually timber-dependent schools, nevertheless it is important money to our schools. For Newport, Washington it means a difference in music or art or maybe the difference in a foreign language teacher. Our timber- dependent schools simply do not have the capacity to make up this kind of funding cut. The purpose of this act is to stabilize payments to counties that help support roads and schools, provide projects that enhance forest ecosystem health, and provide employment opportunities among the Federal land management agencies. I wanted to point out last year, just one example in my district, we had over 200,000 acres burn. Now this is in Okanogan County, this is a county that is nearly 75 percent owned by the Federal Government. And what we see here is the burn, the brown and the light yellow is where over 200,000 acres were burned. The pink areas here 1\1/2\ percent of what burned is what is proposed to be salvaged. Hopefully soon, although it is in dispute too. This in my mind demonstrates part of the challenge that we have, because this is a recent example in a county that is desperate for support for community services, trees have been lost. In the past I would have preferred for us to be able to go in there, even like 10 years ago, and be able to harvest some of these trees, create some timber receipts for this county rather than facing this situation where we have had devastating burns, with now very little of that burn being able to be salvaged.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. If I could follow up. You talked about Polk County. Klamath County has a total law enforcement operation of 35 officers to patrol 6,000 square miles. 6,000 square miles. They have to cut that by a third. Sheriff Tom Evinger says they may well end up having no law enforcement patrols at night, nor do the state police patrol at night. That is an area 100 times larger than the District of Columbia. And when they do patrol they will have no back up. I mean, this is really serious stuff, folks. Search and rescue as you mentioned, the loss on Mt. Hood, but the loss down in southern Oregon, those are just the two that caught the media's attention, and the country and the world's attention. Let me suggest, as we all know from the northwest, there are many, many more search and rescue operations going on all of the time.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. I would just like to follow up on something the gentleman said. You talked about law enforcement needs on these rural lands. Wheeler County, Oregon, population less than 2,000 people, has three deputies and a sheriff. Total of four are doing law enforcement. They will have to layoff a quarter of their force as a result of the loss of this program if we don't reauthorize it. Now, I tell you that because they are responsible for patrolling 1,833 square miles. That is an area 30 times larger than the District of Columbia. You are going to have three officers, the sheriff and a couple of deputies, over 30 times the size of the district, you have got more than that probably standing right out behind us here. Now, who are these deputies? One of them rides horseback. He is out riding horseback on Federal land, and what does he come across? I don't know if you can see this, but he comes across a $19 million marijuana grove. These little vertical lines here, horizontal lines here, are a marijuana grove, a Mexican drug cartel with illegal nationals doing the cultivation. It is amazing to me they got it to grow out there, but they did. It is a $19 million growth spread over a quarter of a mile of Federal lands, and it was one of these sheriff deputies riding horseback that spotted this. These are on Federal lands. Why is the Federal Government doing this? Well, the Federal Government is helping to pay for some of this, but now it is breaking its promise. I yield now to our colleague from Oregon (Ms. Hooley), who has been a real champion in helping us on this.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. This chart here shows it very clearly.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Most of the States this side of the Mississippi have less than 7 or 8 percent Federal ownership. In my district, much like like yours, Deschutes County is 79 percent federally controlled. Lake is 78; Harney is 78; Malheur is 76; Hood River is 72; Grant is 61; Wallowa is 58; and Baker is 53 percent of the land masses under Federal ownership and control. That is why this is so important that the Federal Government keep its word. I would like now to yield to our good friend and colleague from the Fourth District of Washington, the Honorable Doc Hastings, whose district receives $8.8 million a year to help with roads and schools in a very federally dominated area. Doc, you have been a terrific leader in this effort, and we appreciate your coming down tonight.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise their remarks on the subject of my Special Order this evening.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, Congress still has not passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act reauthorization. So what does that mean? For Wheeler County, Oregon, it means the sheriff's department will lay off a quarter of their workforce. Now, the force is only four deputies, four deputies including the sheriff, but they are responsible for patrolling 1,833 square miles. That is an area 30 times the size of the District of Columbia. Last year, a deputy found 6,000 marijuana plants worth over $19 million spread over a quarter of a mile of Federal land. This operation was financed by Mexican drug cartels and cultivated by illegal aliens. When my office inquired further, we found out that the deputy of Wheeler County who was out patrolling was doing so on horseback on your Federal lands. That is where he is protecting America from drug cartels and those that push this on our kids. The sheriff says, ``Cutting these funds will increase criminal activity on our Federal lands.'' The county judge says, ``County payments has been our savior.'' And this Congress, this Congress and the last one, have failed to reauthorize county payments. It is time you pass H.R. 17.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, failure of Congress to reauthorize the Secure Schools and Community Self-Determination Act amounts to a breach of faith to more than 600 forested counties and 4,400 school districts across America. To Baker County, Oregon, this breach of faith means the road department crew who plow snow 5 months out of the year will be cut in half. The county will also have to fire the only trainer who prepares volunteer firefighters in 13 rural communities. If this Congress fails to act, the 11 people left in the road department will be responsible for maintaining 1,100 miles of road; that is one person for every 100 miles of road, the same distance from here to Richmond, Virginia. If this Congress fails to act, volunteer firefighters might not receive the vital life-saving training on equipment, tactics and communications. County Judge Fred Warner says, Because we have vast Federal lands, we have no tax base to replace the lost funding. We just need the Federal Government to honor its commitment. My colleagues, Congress must renew the Federal Government's promise to timbered communities. Pass H.R. 17. Time is running out.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, the failure of Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act amounts to another breach of faith to more than 600 forested counties and 4,400 school districts across our great country. For Wallowa County, Oregon, this means the road department and the sheriff search and rescue budgets will be slashed in half. There are more than 700 miles of roads in Wallowa County maintained by a current staff of 14. Soon only seven will try and keep up with this responsibility; that is one person for every 100 miles of road in Wallowa County. That is the same distance as between Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia. County Commissioner Mike Hayward says, ``Impact to our roads and rescue services will put our citizens and visitors at risk.'' Loss of the county payments program will also have a significant negative impact on more than 18 county governments across America whose Payment in Lieu of Taxes funds could be reduced by as much as 20 percent. This Congress must keep the Federal Government's word to the people who live in timbered communities and pass H.R. 17. Time is running out for them.

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon

Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, the failure of Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act amounts to a breach of faith to the almost 600 forested counties across America and 4,400 school districts. Hood River County, Oregon, is my home and hosts two of Oregon's icons: Mount Hood and the powerful Columbia River, both attractions for outdoor recreation and the dangers that come with it. Surely you remember the December search for the mountain climbers lost on Mount Hood? This event unfolded just miles from my home. The county paid for this rescue and recovery effort entirely with county payment funds. This included the airplanes, snowcats and equipment for volunteers, radios and medical supplies. County Sheriff Joe Vampler says, ``We will do search and rescue on Federal lands and waterways no matter what but the Nation must share this cost.'' County payments also fund many other vital services like the County Health Department's vaccination program for children. County Commission Chair Ron Rivers says, ``The loss of these funds will have a significant impact on all services, including those provided to protect our most vulnerable citizens.'' Congress must keep the Federal Government's word to timbered communities and pass H.R. 17. Time is running out.