HJR 29-REAUTHORIZE SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS ACT    3:49:26 PM CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 29, Urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act of 2000. 3:49:49 PM REPRESENTATIVE GEORGE RAUSCHER, Alaska State Legislature, relayed that HJR 29 encourages the U.S. Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. He stated that the SRS Program expired and has created budgetary shortfalls for school districts around Alaska, which will continue, if Congress fails to reauthorize this longstanding federal obligation to local governments. He said that the SRS Program compensates more than 700 forest communities nationwide and 33 communities in Alaska for timber harvesting revenue lost due to changes in federal forest management policy. REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER stated that historically, school districts in Alaska have relied on a share of receipts from this federal program to supplement local funding for education services and for roads. 3:51:14 PM REPRESENTATIVE KNOPP asked to know when the authorization expired and whether Alaska is receiving any timber receipts currently for distribution. 3:51:32 PM DARRELL BREESE, Staff, Representative George Rauscher, Alaska State Legislature, responded that the authorization expired in 2015; the last money authorized was in the [state] fiscal year 2018 (SFY 18) budget; and it was a very small amount. He referred the committee to the documents included in the committee packet, entitled "FFY16 SRS/NFR Payments Final (SFY 17)" and "FFY17 SRS/NFR Payments (SFY18)," which indicate that Anchorage received $62,762.77 in SFY 17, but only $3,581.13 in SFY 18 due to the expiration of the authorization. He stated that this year [SFY 19] there will be no receipts. MR. BREESE referred to proposed federal legislation, H.R. 2340 and S. 1027, included in the committee packet, which have broad bipartisan support and support from 29 states across the country. He mentioned many of the states whose congressmen are cosponsoring the legislation and referred to the lists of states included in the committee packet. He said that the communities that would lose money are listed in the two previously mentioned documents showing payments; these are the communities that live adjacent to the Tongass National Forest (TNF) in Southeast Alaska and the Chugach National Forest (CNF) [in Southcentral Alaska], in which forestry occurred; and they are the communities for which money was provided [under the program]. 3:53:55 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked whether only communities adjacent to a national forest received the funds. MR. BREESE replied, that is correct. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked for clarification of "management activities" mentioned in the sponsor statement, included in the committee packet. MR. BREESE explained that the primary source of revenue to the communities was timber sales; other sources of revenues were leases and other activities in the national forest. When the Act was enacted in 2000, the intent was to compensate for the loss of timber sale revenue to the neighboring communities. He said that the communities of Southeast Alaska were impacted more than many other communities, because the timber industry there was much larger than in other parts of the state. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL expressed surprise that Anchorage was compensated and said, "You wouldn't think of Anchorage as a real timber town." MR. BREESE suggested that the compensation to Anchorage was due to its proximity to the Chugach National Forest. 3:55:38 PM REPRESENTATIVE KNOPP commented that he advocated for this for many years during his tenure on the Alaska Municipal League (AML) Board of Directors. REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER relayed that there are many community school districts that have submitted letters of support for the proposed legislation. CHAIR KREISS-TOMKINS announced that HJR 29 would be held over.