The president recently signed the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 (P.L. 119-58) to authorize Secure Rural Schools (SRS) payments for fiscal years (FYs) 2024-2026. This action follows a lapse in the authorization of SRS payments in FY 2024—the first since FY 2016. As a result of the lapse, eligible states and counties only received the much smaller 25% revenue-sharing payments under the National Forest Payments to States program, leading to a 70% reduction in funding compared to FY 2023 (see Issue Brief 25-12).
The new law requires that SRS payments for FYs 2024 and 2025 be made within 45 days of enactment. Because the FY 2024 revenue-sharing payments have already been made, SRS allocations will be adjusted to reflect receipt of those payments.
This brief describes the SRS program and summarizes the reauthorization under P.L. 119-58. The chart below shows recent funding for SRS and revenue-sharing payments.