Herald and News: Rep. Walden secures funding for schools, police

Herald and News: Rep. Walden secures funding for schools, police

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, said he has secured a two-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools program for local schools, roads, and law enforcement in Oregon’s rural forested communities.

The Associate Press reported that Tuesday Walden said House Speaker John Boehner agreed to include the extension to Oregon timber counties in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, a bipartisan agreement to overhaul the way doctors are paid by Medicare.

According to a news release, the extension will provide funding to 33 cash-strapped Oregon counties. Walden spokesman Andrew Malcolm said payments were last disbursed in 2013. Statewide, counties received about $100 million, he said. Klamath County received about $9.7 million. Malcolm said he did not know the amount that could be approved, but the payments will be reduced about 5 percent each year.

Secure Rural Schools receives funds from timber operations on federal land. The timber payments began when the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act passed in 2000.

The bill is expected to reach the House floor Thursday. If passed, the bill would then go to the Senate for a vote, according to the release.

“We fully expect the House to approve it this week,” said Malcolm.

The program is now in the 2014-15 biennium. If the bill passes through the House and Senate, 2014 payments could be released before July.

“This two-year extension gives us time to continue work on a long-term plan to reform federal forest policy to grow jobs in the woods, improve forest health, and provide certainty for essential local services like schools and roads,” Walden said.