Weekly Column: Secure Rural Schools Extension Provides Better Footing For Idaho's Rural Counties

Thanks to the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program in December, rural communities in Idaho and across our country are starting 2026 on sounder financial footing. Without the SRS program, many counties would fall short of the financial means to provide for integral community functions for local residents and visitors alike.

I introduced the bipartisan S. 356, the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act, with U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and others, to restore funding to rural counties that steward tracts of untaxed federal lands. In June 2025, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed S. 356. On December 9, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 399-5. House passage of the bill followed a bipartisan letter signed by 89 lawmakers I led with my colleagues Senator Wyden and U.S. Representatives Doug LaMalfa (R-California) and Joe Neguse (D-Colorado) to U.S. House of Representatives leadership.

We underscored the devastating impacts on rural counties absent funding from the SRS program and called for passage of the bill before the end of the year. Following passage of S. 356 by both the Senate and the House, President Trump signed the legislation into law on December 18, 2025, restoring the SRS program. The SRS program has been a vital solution for communities struggling to meet public needs.

Since 1908, federal law has required the U.S. Forest Service to share 25 percent of revenue generated on federal land with local governments for “public schools and public roads of the county or counties in which the forest reserve is situated.” For decades, timber sales were the largest source of revenue for local jurisdictions in these areas. However, as revenues declined, this created unexpected and prolonged fiscal challenges for local governments home to untaxed National Forest lands.

In response, Congress enacted the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, giving counties the option to receive SRS payments to support public services like road maintenance, infrastructure, education, wildfire mitigation and other efforts to address public safety. In Idaho, $22.8 million was distributed across 34 counties to help pay for educational programs, emergency response systems and other services in Fiscal Year 2023. Since the program was not reauthorized in 2023, county payments reverted to 1908 timber sharing law, which represented about an 80 percent cut for some counties, before the current reauthorization of the program. The Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act, now law, provides lapsed payments for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025 and extends the program through Fiscal Year 2026.

Public lands have many benefits--natural beauty, considerable resources, wildlife habitat and outstanding recreational opportunities--but we cannot forget they also create revenue challenges for local communities still expected to meet increasing public services expectations. Enactment of the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act is a reaffirmation of the federal government’s commitment to these rural counties shouldering our federal lands. This is a tremendous win for Idaho and many other communities across our country, and I remain committed to working toward a long-term solution that provides more certainty to rural communities.

# # #