Lost amid the high-fives celebrating the U.S. Senate’s passage of a major energy bill was the fact that rural counties in Idaho and Washington may have lost a critical funding source for basic government services. If Congress doesn’t act soon, counties that used to get a cut from federal timber sales will be left hanging.

The Craig-Wyden Act, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was adopted in 2000 as a substitute revenue source in counties that have large tracts of federal land. Examples are Pend Oreille and Ferry in Washington and Shoshone in Idaho. In fact, more than half of the Idaho Panhandle is federal land, which generates no property taxes for counties.

As the feds cut back on logging in the 1990s, the counties found themselves strapped for revenue with few ways to raise it. Without federal funding, those counties would find it difficult to operate schools and maintain roads. Plus, they would lose money for natural resource conservation projects, such as bridge replacements, trail building and forest thinning.

Congress must periodically approve financing for the Craig-Wyden Act. Current funding expires this year.

The sums are significant, with Washington counties and school districts getting more than $47 million in 2006. Idaho counties and schools got more than $20 million. The superintendent of the Kellogg School District has said his schools count on the money for textbooks, supplies and technology upgrades. Other districts may have to lay off teachers, librarians and other staffers.

Renewed funding had bipartisan support from Western representatives. A House measure would have earmarked more than $1.5 billion for the timber program. Rural states would have gotten $350 million more in reimbursements for federally owned property. But when the Senate took up negotiations on the larger energy bill, that funding was stripped out. Craig ended up opposed to the House bill because he objected to an unrelated $22 billion tax increase.

Now that Congress has passed the energy bill, it needs to get back to work on renewing funding for these revenue-starved rural counties. Craig and other Northwest senators and representatives have vowed to do so.

But the clock is ticking as Congress adjourns soon.