Last year's Congress failed to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determiniation act, which provides a funding stream for rural areas suffering from the decline in the timber industry. Unless Congress acts soon, these rural communities may lose millions of federal funding. Oregon would be particularly hard-hit. The LA Times has more: This west-central Oregon county, population 335,180, is one of 34 counties in the state that had received payments under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Congress passed the act in 2000 as a safety net for timber-dependent counties, whose revenues were in steady decline because of changes in federal forest policies and the rise of environmentalism. When Congress failed to renew the act last year, the stage was set for layoffs in Oregon — and for budget cuts in rural counties nationwide. The last payments from the program went out at the end of December. Forty states had been receiving money that, in most cases, was directed to schools and road-building. The program doled out more than $2.9 billion. Oregon got the largest share, $250 million a year; California was receiving $60 million, Washington about $40 million.