Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025
What does the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 do?
S 356 is a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID). The Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, first enacted in 2000, pays counties that contain Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land a formula-based "State payment" or "county payment" for schools, roads, and other municipal services — an alternative to the traditional 25-percent (Forest Service) or 50-percent (BLM) share of receipts from timber sales and other federal-land revenues. This Act reauthorizes those SRS payments through fiscal year 2026, restores the lapsed payments for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 (which the Secretary of the Treasury must pay within 45 days of enactment), and extends the authority to initiate Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) Title II special projects on federal land and to spend Title III county funds through fiscal year 2028.
Did S 356 pass? Where it stands
As of July 20, 2026, S 356 has been signed into law.
Status: Signed into Law
Latest vote: House Passed 399–5 on December 9, 2025
Outlook: Enacted
Key provisions
- What SRS Pays For
- Formula payments to counties containing Forest Service or BLM land
- Funds schools, roads, and other municipal services
- Alternative to the 25-percent (Forest Service) or 50-percent (BLM) revenue share
- SRS Payments Extended
- State/county payment authority extended through fiscal year 2026
- Restores payments that lapsed for fiscal years 2024 and 2025
- Treasury must issue those lapsed payments within 45 days of enactment
- Election Waived for 2024-2025
- Counties skip the biennial election for fiscal years 2024 and 2025
- Their fiscal year 2023 election choice carries over automatically
- Title II & Title III Extensions
- RAC special-projects initiation authority extended from 2025 to 2028
- Unobligated Title II funds return to Treasury deadline pushed from 2026 to 2029
- County Title III fund-expenditure authority extended from 2025 to 2028
- RAC composition waiver and pilot program authorities extended to 2026
Last updated July 20, 2026