Max Baucus: “in closing, let me thank the bill's sponsors and all of the Senators who have exerted so much effort on the behalf of…”

“in closing, let me thank the bill's sponsors and all of the Senators who have exerted so much effort on the behalf of our rural counties. Especially, let me thank Senators Wyden and Craig who have worked so hard to answer concerns that were raised by me and by other Senators, and who should receive full credit for the passage of this fine legislation. Mr. President, I would like to draw attention to the determined efforts of my friend and colleague from Oregon, Senator Ron Wyden, on behalf of rural counties. Senator Wyden has worked tirelessly to ensure that counties with federal lands get a fair deal. As we all know, counties containing large amounts of public lands are not able to raise sufficient revenues from taxes since the federal government is not required to pay state or local taxes. Recognizing that this is fundamentally unfair to these counties, Congress has tried for some time to rectify this situation by providing funding from revenue generated on our public lands from payments in lieu of taxes in an effort to make the counties financially whole. Unfortunately, as revenue from our national forests has decreased, so too have the payments to counties. This has been seriously disruptive to counties across the West. Fortunately, Senator Wyden stepped in with a creative solution that insures that counties have the option to receive much more steady funding.”