Chris Stewart: “As my colleague from Washington has so ably noted, in areas where large tracts of land are part of the National Forest…”

“As my colleague from Washington has so ably noted, in areas where large tracts of land are part of the National Forest System, local school districts have relied in the past on timber harvesting receipts, shared with local governments, as an important source of revenue to support their school systems. This is a problem that was created by activists here in Washington, D.C. When Federal policies dramatically reduced logging receipts from our national forests, those schools were hit very hard. That is why we created the Secure Rural Schools program. This is real. It affects real people. It affects real families. It has affected many people in my own State. So I would like to ask my colleague: Are your local schools feeling the effects of a situation like mine?”