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U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith on Thursday asked the Bush administration to include funding for a one-year extension of the timber safety net in the president’s proposed budget.
In a letter to Rob Portman, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, the senators said many Oregon communities are facing severe cutbacks in public services as a result of the expiration of the safety net.
While extensive discussions have taken place the past year between members of both parties in the House and Senate and officials with OMB, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to find offsets to pay for the extension, no funding stream has been identified, Wyden and Smith wrote. They asked Portman to give his greatest attention to what they said was an issue of “critical importance to rural communities” in the state.
“We hope that the administration recognizes the severity of the situation facing counties and school districts in Oregon and across the country, and that such concern is reflected in the administration’s budget request to Congress in the coming weeks,” wrote Wyden, a Democrat, and Smith, a Republican.
Last year, reauthorization of the safety net was included in President George W. Bush’s proposed budget and was seen as an important step by proponents of the plan. However, the administration called for the safety net, which would have been phased out in 2011, to be paid for by selling off hundreds of acres of marginal forest land.
Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson said he expects the safety net extension will be mentioned again in the president’s budget and that it may call for the same funding source. He predicted that wouldn’t go over any better this time.
“That kind of hit with a thud last time,” he said.
Members of both parties were outraged by the suggestion that federal forest lands be sold off. They also criticized the suggestion that forests located throughout the country should help pay for a program that provides the majority of its funding to Western states, although 39 states and Puerto Rico receive at least some safety net funding.
Coos County has already announced it could lay off as many as 100 workers, about a quarter of its entire workforce, if the safety net isn’t extended. Other counties, including Douglas County, are anticipating a cutback in services and possible layoffs, as well.
Time is steadily slipping away, Robertson said, and soon Douglas County will have to decide how it would manage without the safety net.
“We’re in tough shape. If we don’t get some clarity within about 30 days, we’re going to have to prepare budgets as if there is no safety net,” Robertson said.
County department heads have been asked to detail three things they would do to cope with the loss of safety net funding. Douglas County stands to lose about $20 million from its general fund, which totals $46.8 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30. Another $15 would be lost from the county’s road fund.
Altogether, the county receives about $53 million from the safety net. The remainder goes to the state’s education fund and is divided among two programs that provide money for forest educational and improvement projects.
Robertson said he hopes new discussions over funding of the safety net will give traction to his plan introduced through the Association of O&C Counties to sell off half of the 2.4 million acres of Oregon & California Railroad land. The O&C lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management for sustained timber production that benefits Douglas County and 17 other counties in western Oregon.
Last week, Reps. Peter DeFazio and Greg Walden introduced a bill into the House to extend the safety net by seven years. Wyden and Smith are expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate later this month, although the senators have not decided whether it will call for a one-year extension or a longer period.
Jennifer Hoelzer, a Wyden aide, said her boss was still drumming up support for the extension and gauging whether a one-year extension or a longer period would have the best chance of passage.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
In a letter to Rob Portman, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, the senators said many Oregon communities are facing severe cutbacks in public services as a result of the expiration of the safety net.
While extensive discussions have taken place the past year between members of both parties in the House and Senate and officials with OMB, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to find offsets to pay for the extension, no funding stream has been identified, Wyden and Smith wrote. They asked Portman to give his greatest attention to what they said was an issue of “critical importance to rural communities” in the state.
“We hope that the administration recognizes the severity of the situation facing counties and school districts in Oregon and across the country, and that such concern is reflected in the administration’s budget request to Congress in the coming weeks,” wrote Wyden, a Democrat, and Smith, a Republican.
Last year, reauthorization of the safety net was included in President George W. Bush’s proposed budget and was seen as an important step by proponents of the plan. However, the administration called for the safety net, which would have been phased out in 2011, to be paid for by selling off hundreds of acres of marginal forest land.
Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson said he expects the safety net extension will be mentioned again in the president’s budget and that it may call for the same funding source. He predicted that wouldn’t go over any better this time.
“That kind of hit with a thud last time,” he said.
Members of both parties were outraged by the suggestion that federal forest lands be sold off. They also criticized the suggestion that forests located throughout the country should help pay for a program that provides the majority of its funding to Western states, although 39 states and Puerto Rico receive at least some safety net funding.
Coos County has already announced it could lay off as many as 100 workers, about a quarter of its entire workforce, if the safety net isn’t extended. Other counties, including Douglas County, are anticipating a cutback in services and possible layoffs, as well.
Time is steadily slipping away, Robertson said, and soon Douglas County will have to decide how it would manage without the safety net.
“We’re in tough shape. If we don’t get some clarity within about 30 days, we’re going to have to prepare budgets as if there is no safety net,” Robertson said.
County department heads have been asked to detail three things they would do to cope with the loss of safety net funding. Douglas County stands to lose about $20 million from its general fund, which totals $46.8 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30. Another $15 would be lost from the county’s road fund.
Altogether, the county receives about $53 million from the safety net. The remainder goes to the state’s education fund and is divided among two programs that provide money for forest educational and improvement projects.
Robertson said he hopes new discussions over funding of the safety net will give traction to his plan introduced through the Association of O&C Counties to sell off half of the 2.4 million acres of Oregon & California Railroad land. The O&C lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management for sustained timber production that benefits Douglas County and 17 other counties in western Oregon.
Last week, Reps. Peter DeFazio and Greg Walden introduced a bill into the House to extend the safety net by seven years. Wyden and Smith are expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate later this month, although the senators have not decided whether it will call for a one-year extension or a longer period.
Jennifer Hoelzer, a Wyden aide, said her boss was still drumming up support for the extension and gauging whether a one-year extension or a longer period would have the best chance of passage.
• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
