With a significant federal funding source for rural schools and counties set to expire this year, Montana’s senators are prodding the Obama administration to extend the program.

In a letter sent Monday, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester urged the administration to recognize the importance of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act and include funding for it in an upcoming presidential budget request for fiscal year 2012.

The act was first passed by Congress in 2000 to compensate counties that long had received a share of revenue from federal lands.

Western Montana counties had for decades received funding from U.S. Forest Service timber harvests that declined sharply starting in the 1980s. Lawmakers determined that school and county funding shouldn’t be dependent on federal timber.

“Montana’s economy depends on quality education programs for our students and smart investments in infrastructure,” Baucus said in a press release. “It’s my job to help the president understand very clearly that our rural counties rely on this program for roads, schools and jobs.”

Tester added that “this is about upholding the deal the federal government made with Montana’s counties in exchange for the resources our back yards provide this country. Making the federal government keep its word to our rural schools

Set to expire in 2012 is the federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, which compensated counties that gave up large shares of their potential property tax base when national forests were established more than a century ago.

In the 2011 fiscal year, Montana counties are projected to receive $23 million from the Secure Rural Schools program alone.

Since 2008, Lincoln County has received $19.3 million and Flathead County has received $12.1 million from both the Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools programs.