Before the full House of Representatives, Congressman Walden delivers speech outlining what is at stake for Harney County

January 30, 2007 - WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) today addressed the House of Representatives to explain the dire consequences facing Harney County should funding for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act be discontinued. Walden and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced H.R. 17 on January 4, the first day of the 110th Congress, a bill which would reauthorize the Act for seven years. The Act expired in September 2006, and without prompt reauthorization and funding, approximately 4,400 school districts in 615 counties in 39 states will have essential federal funding severed.
 
The speech before the House, the seventh in a series of 18 that will each day focus on a specific county in Oregon’s Second Congressional District that receives funds from the essential program, follows:
 
“Madam Speaker. The failure of Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act is another day with another broken promise.
 
“When the federal government abruptly slashed timber harvests, the economy in Harney County, Oregon, population about 7,000, nearly collapsed. Hundreds of family-wage jobs were lost.
 
“Seventy-eight percent of the land mass in Harney County is controlled by the federal government, so the government’s decision had a dramatic effect on the people who live there.
 
“In 2000, Congress did the right thing by approving the county payments program, which in Harney County supports roads, community services, and Burns High School, where 60 percent of the student body takes vocational classes.
 
“Take Jim Gibbon, for example. He is a Burns High graduate and a four-year vocational classes participant. Through that learning, he is now co-owner of Burns Ford and employs 20 people.
 
“County Judge Steve Grasty said, ‘Loss of this program means losing future opportunities for young people here and in rural counties across America.’
 
This Congress must keep the federal government’s word to timbered communities and pass H.R. 17.  Time is running out.”
 
For more information on the county payments effort and for video of the speeches, please click here.
 
Congressman Walden represents 20 counties in central, southern and eastern Oregon. He is a Deputy Whip in the House Leadership Structure and a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.