U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today announced that communities across Alaska will receive $11,540,639 to fund school and local budgets across the state. The funds come through the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program. Murkowski helped secure a two-year extension of SRS through FY2015 in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (P.L. 114-10) and voted for the bill in April 2015. Without that reauthorization, Alaska would have received less than $500,000 from revenue generated on our national forests. 

“After nearly a month-long delay, I am glad the Forest Service has fulfilled its duty to local communities across Alaska by issuing the payments Congress provided for communities that depend on the Secure Rural Schools program,” said Murkowski. “At the same time, I continue to find it unacceptable that communities across Alaska and the nation are forced to rely on these funds because the federal government has failed to responsibly manage our national forests to support jobs and economic activity. Moving forward, the federal government needs to allow increased timber harvesting in our federal forests, which would create jobs and grow local economies. In the coming weeks, I look forward to continuing my work with my Senate colleagues on a plan that finally realizes the potential of our national forests.”

Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, has long supported the responsible management of our national forests and is working with her colleagues on a bipartisan solution to ensure greater timber harvesting. This is particularly important for Alaska, as the Forest Service controls 22 million acres of land in the state, including 17 million acres in the southeast region.

A list of eligible Alaska boroughs and communities and the amount of SRS funding each is expected to receive is available on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee website. Payments to unorganized boroughs are determined by the State of Alaska.