Lawmakers push for funds that will affect rural counties

WASHINGTON — More than 200 rural educators and officials from 22 states converged on Capitol Hill this week in a last-ditch effort to pressure Congress to continue payments to rural counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging.

The officials are seeking up to $400 million to maintain payments to 800 rural counties in 41 states, primarily in the West, that lost revenue when logging in national forests was reduced to protect the northern spotted owl, salmon and other wildlife.

The Bush administration has agreed to continue payments into next year, but has made no commitments after that.

Western lawmakers have been pushing for the money, but officials from Oregon to North Carolina came to the Capitol to add their voices, saying that without the money there could be drastic cuts to school budgets in rural school districts across the country.

Benton County Commissioner Annabelle Jaramillo was in Washington, D.C., as part of a delegation from the Association of Oregon Counties hoping to build support for continuing the payments.

After what she called “an intensive two days” of lobbying, Jaramillo said she was encouraged.

“I don’t feel there’s a strong opposition to the bill,” Jaramillo said Thursday by phone from Washington. “The issue now is where do we find the resources for the payments.”

“Essentially what is at stake is the quality of education for rural children,’’ said Bob Douglas, president of the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition, an organization that represents more than 1,500 local, state and national groups across the country and organized this week’s lobbying push.

“Rural children need to have equal opportunity to learn,’’ said Douglas, superintendent of Tehama County schools in Northern California. “If this bill is not reauthorized, the promise of No Child Left Behind will be a hollow campaign promise in the forest counties of America and not a promise of opportunity.’’

Douglas and other group members cheered an announcement by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who told them at a White House meeting that a logging bill he has introduced could generate up to $13 million a year for the schools program. Walden’s bill, to speed post-fire logging in national forests, passed the House in May but has stalled in the Senate.

Walden and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., had previously announced $50 million a year for the program from an offshore drilling bill that passed the House this summer.

Walden said the latest announcement — coordinated with White House budget officials — “takes us another solid step toward our goal.’’

Still, he acknowledged that even if both bills are enacted, lawmakers are far from the $400 million they want.

“We’re still short, but we’re doing everything we can,’’ Walden said, adding that administration officials are actively looking for ways to pay for the schools program.

“They recognize it will take a full quilt of offsets,’’ he said, referring to a White House statement that any money for rural schools must be offset by spending cuts in other areas.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and budget official David Anderson met with Walden and other officials on Wednesday. While they made no promises, Walden said the pair were “very open to any ideas anybody had’’ about paying for the program, including a proposal to dip into the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides money to states and local governments to develop parks and open space.

The administration had proposed selling 300,000 acres of national forest lands around the country to raise $800 million to continue the payments over five years, but dropped the idea after it met with bipartisan opposition in Congress.

Doug Robertson, a Douglas County, Ore., commissioner who was among three dozen Oregon officials in Washington this week, called the trip helpful.

“It’s extremely important to re-energize the message — to emphasize the needs of rural education,’’ he said, adding that group members talked to nearly every member of the House and Senate.

“We were very recognizable,’’ he said.

“While there are many in Congress who would like to forget their obligation to these resource-dependent communities, we are not going to allow them to forget it,’’ Robertson said. “Frankly we’re finding pretty wide acceptance.’’