Washington, D.C. - Today, Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee rejected two Democratic bills to restore critical county payments that fund basic government services like public safety, jail beds, schools, and road maintenance.
Legislation offered by Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) would have repaid money sequestered last year from the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program and it would permanently exempt the program from future cuts under sequestration.
Legislation led by Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), Joe Garcia (D-FL), and Jared Polis (D-CO) would reauthorize the Payments In Lieu Of Taxes (PILT) program that provides funding for over 1,850 rural counties throughout the United States. Guaranteed PILT payments lapsed and the omnibus government funding bills did not provide any funding for FY 2014 payments.
Democrats sought to have these two measures and other important Committee business added to the agenda of a full committee meeting called to give Chairman Hastings authority to issue unwarranted subpoenas.
“Today, we offered two straightforward pieces of legislation that would have restored vital sequestered SRS and expired PILT payments to struggling rural counties. Rather than consider this legislation to help rural communities, the majority rejected these bills and instead focused on scoring more anti-Obama political points with far-fetched political conspiracies. And to top it off, they are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to do it. The issues outstanding before this committee are critical. On the Republican’s watch, FY 2014 PILT payments expired for 1,850 rural counties across the country. They have convened no emergency meeting, no task force, and offered no renewal. Cash-strapped counties that can’t pay for public safety and roads remain on the hook for sequestered Secure Rural School funds. If the majority is content to let these communities wither-that’s on them. I say we get back to actually legislating," said DeFazio.
To date, Natural Resource Republicans have received over 40,000 documents and wasted $1.5 million of staff time on over 25 investigations at the Department of Interior alone.
The Republicans also rejected legislation to provide relief to fishermen and small coastal businesses struggling with high interest federal loans issued under the West Coast Groundfish Fishery Capacity Reduction (buyback) Program. The legislation was sponsored by Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Jared Huffman (D-OR). DeFazio is an original co-sponsor of the legislation and helped draft the bipartisan bill. The REFI Act would direct the Secretary of Commerce to refinance the buyback loan, saving fishermen millions over the life of the loan and ensuring the savings would flow into coastal communities and local supply chains that support commercial fishing operations.
To see Ranking Member DeFazio’s opening statement and request to markup the legislation, click here: http://bit.ly/1gQmbzV
