Update: Secure Rural Schools Act Signed Into Law

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Update: On Thursday, December 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law S. 356, the “Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025,” which reauthorizes the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 through fiscal year 2026 as detailed below.

Original Post Wednesday, Dec 17 at 5:13 p.m. Sonora, CA — Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Zack Abernathy expressed appreciation that Tuolumne County may receive about $1.2-million from the Secure Rural Schools Act. In California, 39 counties could be sharing about $40 million, bringing in about $1.2 million a year split between Tuolumne County roads and schools.

Abernathy stated, “We are very appreciative of Congress, for the reauthorizing of the Act for 2025, and are looking forward to the president signing the bill. For us, it can’t happen soon enough.”

The bill provides payments to counties for Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 and reauthorizes the Secure Rural Schools program through the end of Fiscal Year 2026. Abarnathy estimates roughly $500,000 will go to schools with the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools passing the money through to Tuolumne Schools based on school size. About $70,000 could go to the largest school and $500 to the smallest, and about $10,000 of Tuolumne County’s money would go to Columbia College. Abarnathy estimated half of $1.5 million that Tuolumne County receiveshas to be allocated to the county budget and is usually used to fund county roads.

The Secure Rural Schools Act was first signed into law in 2000 to provide financial stability for rural counties with large acreages of federal lands, as a way to offset revenue declines related to a shrinking timber industry. Congress let the funding lapse in 2023. In August the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted this week to send a letter to the US House of Representatives in support of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act as detailed here. The US House of Representatives passed the Act last week on Friday, December 9, 2025. Since it passed, it has been waiting for President Donald Trump’s Signature.