We Keep Pretending This Time Will Be Different

This cycle has repeated for two decades. Congress lets the Secure Rural Schools Act expire. Rural counties lose 80% of their funding overnight. Schools lay off teachers. Roads go unpaved. Then Washington panics, passes an emergency extension, and everyone applauds the "solution."

The House just voted 399-5 to reauthorize SRS through September 2026. Rural counties lost $207 million over two years while Congress debated. Skamania County saw a $2.3 million drop. Stevenson-Carson School District laid off 20 staff members and closed a middle school.

The cycle will repeat in 18 months.

The Original Deal Nobody Honors

In 1908, Congress made a promise. Local governments can't tax federal lands. Counties lose property tax revenue. So the government would share timber and grazing receipts to fund schools and roads.

The deal worked until the late 1980s when environmental regulations slashed timber harvests. Revenue collapsed. By 2000, Congress created SRS as a temporary fix.

Twenty-five years later, "temporary" means permanent crisis.

Three Ways to Actually Break This

Option 1: Federal Land Endowment

The Forest Health for Rural Stability Act proposes investing timber receipts in a permanent fund. The principal stays intact. Counties receive investment income annually—no more congressional renewals.

The approach invests wealth from non-renewable resources to generate a stable income. The land stops depleting. The funding stops vanishing.

Option 2: Transfer Federal Land to Counties

Idaho Rep. Russ Fulcher is exploring this now. Transfer management and ownership of federal lands to state and local governments. Counties control their own resources. They collect their own revenue.

The risk? Idaho historically sold off a third of its state endowment lands. When land transfers to private ownership, public access closes off—but private property also allows individuals and families to own land. That property gets sold and resold, changing hands multiple times over decades.

And state and county ownership doesn't guarantee access either. Oregon has imposed regulations and fees that make public access to state lands more difficult. Coos County has restricted motorized vehicle access to county forest land. The question isn't just who owns it—it's what restrictions come with that ownership.

Option 3: Fix Payment in Lieu of Taxes

PILT exists but requires annual appropriations. It's permanently authorized but never fully funded. Population caps limit how much counties receive.

Remove the caps. Make it mandatory spending—base payments on actual federal acreage and lost tax revenue.

The Real Question

Over 700 counties depend on SRS. Congress has provided $7 billion since 2000. That's $7 billion distributed through emergency extensions and last-minute deals.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said it clearly: "Way too many folks in D.C. have been blissfully ignorant about how disastrous the lapse of SRS has been for timber communities."

The frustration is bipartisan. The consequences are real. The cycle is predictable.

The question nobody in Washington wants to answer: Does Congress want to solve this, or does it want to keep pretending emergency extensions count as governance?

Because September 2026 is coming. And everyone already knows what happens next.