Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR) has voted in favor of Senate Bill 356, known as the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Reauthorization Act. The bill is expected to provide approximately $50 million annually for three years to Oregon’s counties that depend on timber revenue.
Bentz commented on the historical context behind the legislation: “In 1990 the Spotted Owl was listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species. Almost immediately timber production from federal forests in the Western United States plummeted by 80%. The economic and societal cost to timber dependent states and their timber reliant counties was appalling. Demand for SNAP and Medicaid shot up, alcoholism and meth addiction became routine. County tax revenues were decimated. A belated but needed response was the Secure Rural Schools Act first passed in 2000, ten years after the listing of the Owl. This law, and the funding it provides, was designed to partially offset the massive decline in federal timber revenue. It provides a modest amount of funding for critical services including infrastructure maintenance (roads), wildfire mitigation, conservation projects, search and rescue operations, fire prevention initiatives, and most importantly, money for children’s education.”
He added: “When society enacts socially attractive laws that seemingly benefit the broader public but end up harming small communities, society must mitigate that harm. This is what the SRS bill does. It mitigates at least a part of the billions in damage done to small communities by the implementation of social goals such as, in this case, the Endangered Species Act. I thank my colleagues and Speaker Johnson for supporting this essential bill and the funding that my counties so desperately need.”
Cliff Bentz represents Oregon’s 2nd district in Congress after succeeding Greg Walden in 2021. Before his time in Congress, he served in both chambers of Oregon’s state legislature.
Bentz has been serving as a U.S. Representative since 2021 and previously held positions in both Oregon’s House of Representatives from 2008 to 2018 and State Senate from 2018 to 2020. He was born in Salem, Oregon in 1952 and now resides in Ontario.
He graduated from Eastern Oregon University with a BA degree before earning his JD from Lewis and Clark College.
