Challenge
Rural counties like Marion County use SRS Title III funds for law enforcement patrols, training, equipment and other activities necessary to prepare for and carry out successful search and rescue missions. In 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report to the Forest Service limiting allowable Title III expenditures solely to carrying out search and rescue missions, prohibiting use of funds to prepare for or prevent them. The GAO’s report left Marion and other rural counties with almost nothing to spend Title III funds on. They were forced to lay off sheriffs, reduce patrols on federal forest lands and use outdated equipment, significantly decreasing public safety and law enforcement preparedness.
Approach
Once it was clear there was no administrative solution, CFM began working with the Oregon congressional delegation on a legislative fix. CFM assisted in drafting legislation that was introduced with bipartisan support in 2017 by Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Congressmen Kurt Schrader, Greg Walden and Peter DeFazio. The legislation allowed counties to use SRS Title III funds for critical law enforcement patrols, training and equipment related to emergency response. To gain political support for the legislation, CFM assembled and coordinated a coalition that included the Association of Oregon Counties and Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association to urge support for the fix.
Success
CFM worked to secure inclusion of the legislation in the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed into law by President Trump. This important correction freed up more than $500,000 of Marion County’s existing SRS funds and $6.6 million in funds throughout Oregon (mostly in Curry, Lincoln, Douglas and Lane counties) that would have otherwise been clawed back by the U.S. Treasury at the end of the fiscal year.
