Weekly Column: Investing In Rural Idaho Schools--A Secure Rural Schools Program Update

With the start of the 119^th Congress, comes the restart of pressing for the passage of needed legislation.  The Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 is among the first pieces of legislation I introduced in this Congress, because the federal government is responsible for the impact of federal land ownership on local Idaho communities, and it must meet this responsibility. 

On February 3, 2025, I introduced the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 to extend Secure Rural Schools and Self Determination Act (SRS) payments through Fiscal Year 2026.  SRS payments, along with Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), have been instrumental to Idaho counties with limited revenue because they are home to large amounts of federally-managed land.  The SRS program has helped ensure the counties are able to provide for schools, road maintenance, public safety and search and rescue operations.

Property taxes fund county governments, allowing them to provide basic public safety services and infrastructure maintenance for local communities.  However, lands managed by the federal government cannot be taxed by local or state governments.  To help offset losses to local governments from the presence of non-taxable lands, laws have been enacted that provide payments to mitigate the impact of the presence of non-taxable lands.  PILT payments are received for lands managed by the U.S. Department of Interior.  The U.S. Forest Service typically compensates counties through SRS payments. 

However, SRS expired in September 2023, with the last authorized payments going out to counties in March 2025.  Therefore, the SRS program requires reauthorization for the federal government to continue to meet this responsibility to rural counties nationwide.  Last November, the Senate unanimously passed legislation I championed to extend the SRS program.  But, since the U.S. House of Representatives did not pass the legislation by the time the 118th Congress concluded in December, new legislation must be introduced in this Congress in order to extend the program.  Conversely, PILT is permanently authorized, but it requires annual appropriations to fully fund the program.  I continue to advocate for full support of PILT as I press for reauthorization of the SRS program.

The SRS program is rooted in century-old federal policy.  The recognition of the effects of a lost tax base due to the large presence of federal lands in the West led to the 1908 enactment of legislation requiring the U.S. Forest Service to share 25 percent of its receipts with states for “public schools and public roads of the county or counties in which the forest reserve is situated.”  The SRS program was enacted nearly a century later to offset the loss of the local share of timber sales revenue due to a drastic decline in timber harvests. 

Nearly 80 percent of Idaho’s counties receive SRS payments because of the large amount of National Forest System land in Idaho.  A lack of an extension of SRS payments puts many Idaho counties in a very tough spot, forcing difficult choices about what critical services to cut. 

As I advocate for extending the SRS program, we must also secure long-term solutions, such as strengthening revenue sharing with local governments by increasing timber harvests and restoration work on federally-managed lands.  These reforms must be considered while Congress also enacts comprehensive economic reforms to control federal overspending, which has made it increasingly difficult to ensure the federal government meets its responsibilities to rural counties.  I am urging the Senate and House to both take up this measure expeditiously, and remain committed to finding a viable long-term solution that provides more certainty to rural county governments. 

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