Wyden Presses Trump Administration on Rural Oregon Counties’ Concerns over Republican Budget
Senator’s letters to Forest Service and BLM follow counties’ justifiable worries over budget impact on local roads, schools, law enforcement and more
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today pressed the Trump administration to clarify that the bill congressional Republicans passed at the president’s demand won’t hurt rural Oregon counties and communities by upending longstanding forest management revenue sharing arrangements with the federal government that provide counties significant revenues for local roads, schools, law enforcement and more.
In separate letters to U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Tom Schultz and Acting Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bill Groffy, Wyden noted that the bill Trump signed into law last month has generated significant concern from rural Oregon counties. Those justifiable concerns arose, Wyden wrote, after Senate Republicans rejected his amendment to section 50301 of the legislation so it would have explicitly continued the traditional revenue sharing -- generated from timber sales and long-term timber contracting on federal land -- with the counties.
“This has caused considerable angst among counties,” Wyden wrote in his letters to Schultz and Groffy. “Communities are afraid you may misinterpret section 50301 as overriding revenue sharing.”
The senator wrote that the Forest Service and BLM could easily dispel those concerns from Oregon counties if both federal agencies simply stated they will keep sharing revenue generated by their long-term arrangements with the counties. Wyden asked both federal agencies to respond to his letters by September 8, 2025 stating their intent to do so.
The letter to the Forest Service is here. The letter to BLM is here.
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