On the recordMarch 26, 2015
We have a great opportunity before us today to not only provide certainty for healthcare providers and seniors by repealing the flawed SGR for Medicare, but also to fund rural schools and rural forested counties. So I commend my colleagues for their work on this with me. Included in this legislation is 2 years' worth of funding for the Secure Rural Schools program. Now, this is like one of those cans of Fix-A-Flat, if you will. It is an emergency repair on the side of the road to solve a short-term problem, when what we really need is a permanent fix for our forested counties. But this is an emergency, and what we are doing here today is providing that lifeline to our schoolchildren in the classrooms in our rural counties that are forested under Federal land and making sure that our local law enforcement folks have the resources they need and, in my own State of Oregon, protecting some counties from actually going bankrupt because of lack of management and lack of activity on our Federal lands. So I remain fully committed to working on forestry legislation that puts people back to work in the woods, reduces the threat of wildfire, and produces the revenue to allow for self-sustaining counties and the people in them. I just hope this time with a new Senate we will be able to move forward. ____________________
