mr. chairman , i rise with my colleague from wyoming and a number of other colleagues from the west and from the east in support of this bipartisan amendment offered by the gentlewoman from wyoming ( mrs. cubin ) xz4000880 . 
the amendment would increase funding for the payments in lieu of taxes , or pilt program , by $ 12 million . 
the result would be to bring the bill total for pilt to about 80 percent of the authorized amount . 
that would not be enough , in my opinion , but it would be a definite improvement . 
pilt payments go to every state except rhode island , as well as to the district of columbia , guam , puerto rico , and the virgin islands , as we see on the map here . 
so pilt is a nationwide program , this amendment is important for local governments across the country . 
but it is particularly important for western states because we have the largest amounts of public lands , again as we can see on the map . 
pilt payments help local governments pay for vital services like firefighting and police protection , construction of public schools and roads , and search and rescue operations . 
so it should be something local governments can count on without becoming hostage to debates over the management of federal lands . 
but as things stand now , pilt is neither stable nor dependable because the amount of each year 's payments is decided by annual appropriations . 
we were reminded about that when the president 's budget proposed a $ 26 million cut in pilt . 
this would have been devastating for colorado . 
so i am glad the committee on appropriations rejected this idea , and i applaud them for including $ 230 million in the bill for pilt . 
however , that is still less than the full authorized amount . 
that is why i support this amendment and that is why i urge the house to adopt it to bring us closer to full funding . 
if i can conclude , the gentlewoman of wyoming mentioned that it is unnecessary to continue debating pilt every year as a part of the appropriations process . 
she has a bill that would phase in full funding for pilt over 3 years . 
i have also introduced a bill with the gentleman from colorado ( mr. salazar ) xz4006201 that would provide permanent automatic funding , and i hope the committee on resources will take this up in the near future . 
but in the meantime we should pass this very bipartisan amendment , which will help counties all over our great country . 
