SALEM (AP) - Rural legislators are hoping that a newly-created Office of Rural Policy will help give their regions a more influential voice in Salem.

Members of the Legislative Emergency Board signed off on the proposal Friday, allocating about $65,000 for office space, supplies and support services for the office. That committee handles the state's money matters between sessions.

Their action clears the way for Gov. Ted Kulongoski to sign an executive order creating the office.

The state also will get $65,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help run the new office.

"This is great news for all of Oregon, not just rural Oregon," said Gilliam County Judge Laura Pryor, who led a coalition from Eastern Oregon to lobby lawmakers last year to create the office.

The Oregon office will be similar to operations that are already up and running in North Carolina and Texas, said Jim Brown, the governor's natural resources adviser.

Advocates for the new office say state decision makers have lacked rural perspective when writing laws, filling statute books with "one-size-fits-all" rules that don't always apply to Oregon beyond the Willamette Valley.

For instance, should volunteer fire crews in towns with no three-story buildings be required to train to fight blazes in high rises? Or should businesses along lonely highways see the same restrictions for driveway access as businesses on congested routes in the Portland suburbs?

Kathy Miller, a program director for the Rural Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri, said such offices help to explain the challenges facing sparsely populated areas when it comes to poverty, health policy, telecommunications, businesses and education.

"Rural areas are different and policy impacts may be different in rural compared to urban areas," she said.

Brown said the first task in Oregon will be to recruit an advisory panel to help sort out the office's duties and agenda.