By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
March 28, 2007

The extension of federal payments to counties hurt by logging cutbacks is caught in a political showdown between Congress and President George W. Bush.

Compensation for rural areas has been included in both the Democratically-controlled House and Senate versions of an emergency supplemental funding bill. However, the House-approved legislation demands that U.S. troops be withdrawn from Iraq in 2008. The Senate appears poised to follow suit, although Republicans are expected to offer an amendment that strikes any timeline or makes it non-binding.

Meanwhile, Bush has vowed to veto any bill that puts a deadline on military action in the Middle East. He is also displeased that numerous “pet projects” have been included in the bill to cover war costs and provide disaster relief.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., believes that county payments legitimately qualify for disaster aid. He said economic havoc will ensue if the money is lost. For example, Jackson County is closing all of its libraries in April because it cannot cover the $24 million hole in its annual budget.

Walden voted “no” on the House war supplemental bill for $124.3 billion after the troop withdrawal deadline was inserted. He believes federal officials should not risk the economic stability of more than 700 counties in 39 states in their opposition to the war.

“Until the majority of the Democrats in the House and the Senate work out language in the war supplemental that the President will sign, this measure will not become law and our timber-dependent counties and school districts will not receive the emergency assistance they need,” said Walden, who resides in Hood River.

“Hopefully, by the end of this week we will have a revised measure before the House that does not include an arbitrary withdrawal date of U.S. troops regardless of the assessments of commanders on the ground in Iraq, is not overloaded with non-emergency spending, and is one that I therefore can support.”

Walden and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., were instrumental in getting the House to include $400 million for counties in the $124.3 billion of supplemental funding for 2007. They have proposed legislation to extend the program for seven more years and remain hopeful that it will be signed into law later this year.

In December the original Secure Rural Schools and Self Determination Act of 2006 lapsed. That left Hood River County seeking a way to replace $1.7 million in its road maintenance budget and $50,000-131,000 for search and rescue operations. In addition, the county’s share of $580,000 will no longer be added to state coffers and divided up among schools.

“The fact of the matter is without these payments, rural Oregon and the rural West would just be hit with a wrecking ball,” said Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

He and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., lobbied successfully to have seven more years of funding included in the Senate’s proposed $122 billion war supplemental bill. The money for rural counties will decrease 10 percent a year for the next four years.

By 2011, the counties are expected to have transitioned into another type of industry and the funding falls off sharply.

The formula for the distribution of federal dollars is also proposed for change. The Senate wanted to address complaints by Idaho and other states that Oregon and Washington were receiving a much larger share.

Previously, the amount of money turned over to each county was based on an average of receipts from three high logging years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The new formula factors in the current acreage of U.S. Forest Service and eligible Bureau of Land Management lands. It also includes a mechanism to focus support on areas in greatest economic need.

During the next several years, Wyden plans to challenge stakeholders in rural counties to “come up with a sustainable new course.” He said ideas for economic development range from producing clean energy to forest thinning.

Walden said the House will recess for two weeks on Friday. So, he is advocating for the Senate to adopt a supplemental funding bill that can be reconciled with an amended House version. He wants to avoid a time delay brought by a veto when Oregon counties are putting together budgets that require funding certainty.

In 1908 and 1937 Congress passed laws to share harvest receipts with counties in states that host federal land. Toward the mid- to late-1990s, a series of environmental regulations were adopted that reduced harvest levels by 70 percent nationwide. In 2000, Congress approved the county payments funding to offset that loss of revenue for six years.

However, Oregon’s Congressional delegation contends that it has proven difficult for counties with large tracts of national forest to gain economic ground.