After almost two-year lapse, Oregon counties get nearly $100 million from Secure Rural Schools

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle

Most Oregon counties are set to receive nearly $100 million from the federal Secure Rural Schools Act after Congress let funding for the 25-year-old program lapse for almost two years.

The U.S. Forest Service and Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, announced the state would get $48.6 million in the current fiscal year to distribute to 30 rural counties and their schools, and an additional almost $49 million in retroactive 2024 funding. That includes nearly $1.3 million for Lincoln County.

The program provides tens of millions each year for rural schools and communities that previously benefited from revenue generated by natural resource industries on public lands. Since 2000, it has provided $7 billion in payments to more than 700 counties and 4,400 school districts across 40 states and Puerto Rico that have large swaths of federal land within their borders.

Oregon, where more than half of the state consists of federal land, has experienced the biggest loss of any state since the funding lapsed in 2024: nearly $48.7 million in money for rural roads, public services and schools, according to a September report from the D.C.-based Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy and think tank.

Wyden, who co-authored the original Secure Rural Schools Act and who led a year-long bipartisan campaign to renew it, said in a statement it’s a relief that schools and communities that have relied on the fund for a quarter century will be made whole. He also said they need the funding to be untied from the whims of Congress.

“Young Oregonians who deserve quality schools, and all Oregonians counting on safe roads as well as dependable public safety will all benefit from these investments in communities throughout our state,” Wyden said. “I’m glad these funds are heading to Oregon, and I am focused on a permanent solution that takes rural communities off this year-to-year financial rollercoaster.”

Twice since December 2024, the Senate voted to renew the act in an effort led by Wyden and Idaho’s senior U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican.

But each time the Senate approved it, the House failed to take a vote. The bill lapsed in 2023 and counties haven’t gotten payments since early 2024. After House Republicans failed to reauthorize the act in the tax and spending cut megalaw they passed in July, the campaign to get something done by year’s end ramped up and in December, House Republicans at last voted to reup the fund through September 2026.

Oregon Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit Salem-based news service that focuses its reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy.