WASHINGTON — For the second time this week, the House Friday rejected a Senate-backed measure to extend a multiyear program of payments to rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks.

Democratic leaders rejected several attempts by Oregon lawmakers to add the measure to legislation approved on Friday, including a package of tax breaks and a short-term economic stimulus plan.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he and other supporters of the timber program have “tried every angle, every option, every tactic available” to get the timber payments extension through the House.

“I’ve been blocked at every turn by a Democratic leadership that is pushing rural counties off a cliff,” Walden said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — the main target of Walden’s ire — said in a statement Friday that House Republicans were to blame for the program’s apparent demise.

In June, the House defeated a bill sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that would have continued the timber program for four years.

Walden and other Republicans voted against the measure, citing a provision that would have paid for the program by collecting back royalties from oil companies. The royalties were lost due to a government error on drilling leases in the late 1990s. Walden said the measure violated terms of federal contracts with the oil and gas companies.

Pelosi accused Republicans of “choosing to protect oil companies rather than schools, libraries and road building.”

The timber program, officially known as the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, helps pay for schools, roads and public safety in 700 rural counties in 39 states. Oregon gets the largest sum of money, followed by California, Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

“Our nation’s fiscal house is in disarray, which makes it difficult to fund even the most vital initiative,” Pelosi’s statement said.

DeFazio, who has worked with Walden to extend the timber program, said Walden’s efforts Friday were merely “floor stunts” designed to distract from his vote against the timber bill in June.

“They voted against it because it was paid for by royalties from oil companies,” DeFazio said of Walden and other Western Republicans. “They have this song and dance, but it’s a pretty thin cover.”

Despite the rancor, lawmakers said the fight to extend the timber program is not over.

The Senate has approved a four-year extension and President Bush has said he will sign the legislation.

“It’s not over. If the Senate can work some magic, then the House can take it up,” DeFazio said.

In an impassioned speech on the House floor — one of a half-dozen he has given recent days on the timber program — Walden said his rural district faces ruin if the timber program is not extended.

Many counties will have to gut their sheriff’s departments, fire departments and all but abandon search and rescue, he said, noting that federal land accounts for a majority of the 2nd District, which covers the eastern two-thirds of Oregon.

Three of the district’s 20 counties have unemployment rates higher than 8 percent.

“The libraries are closing. The teachers have been fired. It doesn’t have to happen that way,” Walden said.

Hours after Walden spoke, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, offered to add a one-year extension of the timber program to an economic stimulus bill. The catch? It had to be done by unanimous consent.

Two Republicans objected, and the measure was defeated.