{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1941", "Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, Congressman Joe Neguse Lead Bill to Permanently Fund Payments to Rural Counties with Federal Lands", "2026-09-25", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "CO", "Brittany Pettersen", "P000620", "pettersen.house.gov", "pettersen", "https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "LAKEWOOD \u2014 Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen (CO-07) and Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-02) this week introduced the Permanently Authorizing PILT Act to guarantee reliable federal payments to Colorado counties that provide essential services on and around tax-exempt federal lands. Without predictable mandatory funding, counties will never have the true assurance of the federal revenue that they receive.\n\nThe Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program provides payments to counties, including 56 in Colorado, and other local governments with non-taxable federal lands within their borders to offset lost property tax revenue. These payments are key for local governments to fund services including transportation infrastructure projects, education, law enforcement, healthcare, and emergency services. While PILT has operated under reauthorizations for previous fiscal years, this legislation would make the program a mandatory funding effort by Congress not subject to the federal appropriations process. A permanent authorization will provide certainty for counties, ensuring they can maintain their services without disruption.\n\n\u201cOur rural communities provide essential services on and around federal lands\u2014from roads and schools to emergency response\u2014and they deserve funding they can count on. These counties shouldn\u2019t have to wonder every year whether the federal government will provide needed support for these services,\u201d said Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen. \u201cI\u2019m proud to work with my friend, Rep. Neguse, to make PILT permanent so these counties can plan for the future and keep delivering for Coloradans.\u201d\n\n\u201cColorado\u2019s 2nd District spans from the Front Range to the Western Slope, including many communities that rely on federal PILT payments for essential local services \u2014 from firefighting and search-and-rescue operations to the construction of public schools and roads. Our bill, the Permanently Authorizing PILT Act, makes this program permanent, ensuring local governments can rely on a consistent stream of federal support to keep their communities thriving,\u201d said Congressman Joe Neguse.\n\n\u201cMany Western Counties depend on PILT to balance our budgets. The services, (Search and Rescue, Fire, law Enforcement, Road maintenance etc.) we must provide on public land are a huge strain on our budgets,\u201d said Dwayne McFall, Fremont County Colorado Commissioner and National Association of Counties Western Interstate Region President, \u201cWithout PILT many services would have to be cut. Permanent funding of PILT would create a long-term sustainable solution for counties.\u201d\n\n\u201cPublic lands may be national treasures, but their footprint is local. In Chaffee County approximately 80% of the land is federally owned and is completely exempt from local property taxes. PILT is a crucial tool of fairness and fills the structural revenue gap so our small taxpayer base isn't forced to single-handedly foot the bill for essential services, from rural road maintenance, to emergency response and public safety for millions of visitors each year. I greatly appreciate Congresswoman Pettersen\u2019s efforts in pushing to make PILT a reliable and permanent fixture in the appropriations process.\u201d said Gina Lucrezi, Chaffee County Commissioner.\n\n\u201cCounties with federal public lands are responsible for delivering essential services \u2014 from public safety and search and rescue to roads, infrastructure and wildfire mitigation \u2014 even though they cannot collect property taxes on those lands,\u201d said National Association of Counties Executive Director Matthew Chase. \u201cPILT helps counties offset those lost revenues and meet these responsibilities in the 62 percent of America\u2019s counties with federal lands. We applaud Representatives Pettersen and Neguse for introducing the bipartisan Permanently Authorizing PILT Act, which would give public lands counties the long-term certainty they need to plan, budget and deliver for their residents and visitors. We urge Congress to pass this critical legislation into law quickly.\u201d\n\nThe Department of Interior makes PILT payments to over 1,850 counties in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Counties have used these payments for more than 40 years to fund essential county services. In 2026, Colorado was compensated more than $53 million through the PILT program.\n\nCongresswoman Pettersen previously introduced the bipartisan Permanently Authorizing PILT Act of 2023. She has led a bipartisan letter to the Appropriations Committee requesting full and robust funding for the PILT program in every Appropriations cycle since being elected to Congress. She has advocated and secured funding for local and county governments, including for rural communities, to ensure they have the funding and support to address the needs of all residents.\n\nFull text of the bill can be found HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-26T09:43:57Z", "2026-09-26T09:44:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://pettersen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1941"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5108711086213589, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}