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A log truck travels through Curry County, which depends heavily on federal Secure Rural School aid to help its cash-strapped budget.

(Jamie Francis/The Oregonian)

A federal program that has provided about $100 million a year to Oregon counties won't be renewed in the waning days of Congress.

The two most powerful members of the Oregon congressional delegation -- Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Greg Walden -- issued dueling press releases Tuesday night blaming each other's party for the demise of the Secure Rural School program.

Both Walden and Wyden said money for the program, which has been mostly distributed to timber-dependent counties, did not get included in an omnibus spending bill put together in the Republican-led House that needs to pass Congress to keep the federal government running.

Walden said that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pledged to pass the county timber aid within the first three months of 2015 while also saying that the House will work with the new Republican Senate next year to send President Barack Obama a bill "a long-term solution to provide certainty for rural forested communities and the people who live there."

Walden also said House Republicans would not resort to "political gimmickry," a reference to complaints GOP leaders about how the timber money in the budget would be paid for in offsets to other spending.

For his part, Wyden accused House Republicans of playing politics with a program crucial to hard-hit rural communities.

"Rural Oregonians deserve better than to have politics put on hold this essential lifeline for funding roads, firefighters and schools," Wyden said in his press release. "I will not stop fighting for Oregon's rural counties. I'll be back at it when Congress returns in January."

Wyden, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee until the Republicans take over in January, and Walden, a member of the House GOP leadership, have both been key figures over federal forest policy in Oregon.

Walden -- along with Oregon Democratic Reps. Kurt Schrader and Peter DeFazio -- passed a bill through the House aimed at boosting federal forest harvests in western Oregon.

But the bill has run into staunch opposition from environmental groups and the White House has threatened a presidential veto. Wyden has promoted his own western Oregon logging bill, but it's also faced opposition from many segments of industry and the environmental community.

Neither Wyden nor Walden explicitly said there was a quid pro quo between passage of the federal timber payments and White House acceptance of a forest policy bill that Republicans would support in the next Congress. But Walden certainly made it clear that the GOP leadership sees the two as having some linkage.

Here's Walden's full statement:

"Speaker Boehner has pledged that the House will work with the new Republican majority in the Senate next year to send the president a long-term solution to provide certainty for rural forested communities and the people who live there. The Speaker has also pledged that the House will act to provide an extension of the Secure Rural Schools program in the first quarter of next year.

"If the Senate would have acted on federal forest policy reform, it would have gone a long way towards providing a long-term solution to actively managing our forests to grow jobs and revenue. But I remain strongly supportive of getting the job done with a viable pay-for once and for all without political gimmickry. I will work with the relevant committees on this solution, and I'm confident we'll achieve a better and lasting solution under Republican leadership in the House and Senate."

Walden announced that the omnibus spending bill did include funding for the Payment in Lieu Program that also includes aid to counties with public land. The program has a much smaller impact in Oregon than Secure Rural Schools, however.

Walden said the amount of the latest appropriation for Oregon is still unclear but that it provided $17.6 million for the state's counties last year.

Wyden was a chief sponsor of the Secure Rural Schools program when it was created in 2000. Since then, the Oregon delegation has had to battle more than once to revive it after it has died.

-- Jeff Mapes