John Doolittle: “this program needs to be reauthorized. I represent northeastern California, which is one of the top recipients of money…”

“this program needs to be reauthorized. I represent northeastern California, which is one of the top recipients of money under this Secure Rural Schools and Community Self- Determination Act, which expired a couple of years ago. Just to give you an example, Plumas County School District in my district receives roughly 20 percent of their annual operating budget from these funds. Without this money, the county is prepared to lay off 9 out of the 16 administrators; 47 teachers out of a total of 150; close all school libraries; possibly close some or all cafeterias; and cut transportation services. Another county adjoining Plumas that I represent is Sierra. They would need to lay off nearly 40 percent of their teachers and administrators. Today's bill will not become law and therefore does nothing to support our rural counties. We cannot continue to go from year to year without this being resolved. In California, if you don't have the funding assured, layoff notices are sent off by March 15 of the year. For the second year in a row, those layoff notices have already gone out. We lose valuable teachers that do not come back once the funding has been restored. This debate should be about schools and public infrastructure, not used as fodder to drive an anti-oil agenda. This process that we are using is deplorable. We were told that PILT would be included, but it was stripped out of the bill on its way to the floor.”