{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-working-ensure-pilt-and-srs-included-2015-budget", "Tipton Working to Ensure PILT and SRS Included in 2015 Budget", "2014-10-15", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2014 Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) joined with a number of his bipartisan House colleagues today in urging House leaders to provide certainty for counties by including funding for Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) in the upcoming FY 2015 budget. The members underscored the importance of PILT and SRS funding for many rural county budgets that are already strained to deliver vital services to residents. The House is expected to vote on a measure to fund the government for FY 2015 before the end of the year.\nThe text of the letter from Tipton and his colleagues to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi follows:\nDear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi,\nAs the 113th Congress comes to an end, we urge you to work in a bi-partisan, bi-cameral fashion to secure funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) programs for fiscal year 2015.\u00a0 Without full funding of these programs, counties throughout our districts and across the nation will be unable to provide our constituents with essential services such as education, law enforcement, and road maintenance.\u00a0 While it must be our ultimate goal to enact a long-term, sustainable solution to eliminate the ongoing uncertainty our counties face, an extension and full-funding of these programs is essential to address immediate needs.\nPILT provides payments to local governments in 49 states and nearly 1,900 counties to offset foregone revenue due to tax-exempt federal lands within their jurisdictions.\u00a0 Current authorization for full PILT funding expired on September 30, 2014. Without congressional action, we risk severely crippling these counties\u2019 ability to operate.\nEqually important is the funding that more than 700 forest counties and school districts receive through SRS.\u00a0 These payments honor the over 100 year old contract between the federal government and counties housing the 193 million acres of federal forest land.\u00a0 Due to extremely low productivity on our forests over the past two decades, these funds are more critical to counties\u2019 well-being than ever.\u00a0 SRS expired last year and must be authorized to avoid economic catastrophe in rural and timber communities across the nation.\nPILT and SRS allow the federal government to meet its long-standing obligations to counties with federal land.\u00a0 It is imperative that we fulfill this duty.\u00a0 We thank you for your consideration of this request and stand ready to work with you going forward.\nSee a pdf of the letter HERE.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-working-ensure-pilt-and-srs-included-2015-budget"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.7392131742089987, "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"}