Bipartisan Senators Urge President Obama to Renew County Payments

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA) joined 28 members of the United States Senate from both parties urging
President Obama’s Administration to include a long-term reauthorization of the
Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act (SRSCA), known as
the county payments program, in its 2012 budget. These payments are made based
on rural counties historic timber harvest levels and the amount of public land
located in a county.

“Failure to extend the SRSCA in 2012 would have a
devastating impact on the economies of over 780 of our most rural and most
economically depressed counties and school districts across the nation. In
these counties, unemployment is higher than in other regions of the country
with rates approaching those experienced in the Great Depression,” the
Senators wrote in a letter to the President.

Senators
signing the letter include Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Blanche
Lincoln (D-Ark.), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), James E.
Risch (R-Idaho), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Max Baucus
(D-Mont.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), John Ensign
(R-Nev.), John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-W.V.), Christopher S. Bond (R-MO), Jon
Tester (D-Mont.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-Penn.), Robert
Bennett (R-Utah), Mark L. Pryor (D-Ark.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Mark Udall
(D-Colo.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Russell D. Feingold (D-Wisc.), Michael F.
Bennet (D-Colo.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Tim Johnson
(D-S.D.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).

See the full text of the letter.