Ron Wyden: “I rise today to join my very dear friend and colleague, Senator Craig of Idaho, as his principal cosponsor on…”

“I rise today to join my very dear friend and colleague, Senator Craig of Idaho, as his principal cosponsor on legislation to reauthorize a law that has spawned a revolution in forest dependent communities in 42 States and in over 700 counties across the country. Our bill will reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000. This bill is short and simple but also extraordinary: it renews the original law and its programs for 8 more years. It also makes some technical and grammatical corrections to the original law and adds an oversight report on some of the projects done under this Act. The reason we can pursue reauthorization of such a far reaching law with such little language is because the folks that it affects, the forest dependent communities, as well as the educators, the county leaders and the environmentalists in those communities, have made this law work. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000 is sustaining rural communities as well as encouraging industry and creating jobs based on natural resources.”