Whitman County Gazette - Serving Whitman County since 1877

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers introduced legislation March 22 to extend the Secure Rural Schools program through 2022.

The Secure Rural Schools is part of the Community Self-Determination Act introduced in 2000 to assist counties containing tracts of federally-owned land that are tax-exempt.

The program provides funds in part through timber sales and other leasing activities within National Forests back to county governments where those forests are located.

"The Secure Rural Schools program provides critical financial certainty to many of the rural counties here...