The House on Tuesday cleared a slate of natural resource and water bills, including one to reauthorize the the Secure Rural Schools program.
The chamber passed S. 356, from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), by a vote of 399-5. The Senate passed the measure in June by unanimous consent.
The program was created in 2000 to help school districts and counties that don’t receive property taxes from federal land within their jurisdictions. Without the funding, they’d rely on timber harvest revenue that is much less than what SRS provides.
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The program lapsed in September 2023, and since then bill backer say schools and counties across 41 states have seen a 63 percent shortfall totaling $177 million.
