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The country is bracing for another long hot summer wildfire season at the same time unprecedented disruption and duress is occurring within the ranks of federal wildland firefighters due to the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The DOGE terminated hundreds of employees who provide critical support for fire suppression. Now the Administration is working to further downsize the wildland fire workforce through "consolidation" of all federal agency wildland fire programs, affecting the USFS, BLM, NPS, USFWS, and BIA. First appearing in a June 12th Executive Order, it is now in the president's FY26 federal budget proposal and awaits action in the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee.
Trump's Executive Order mandated consolidation within the next 90 days--during summer's peak wildfire season! In the wake of job and funding cuts that have already slashed agency capacity, this is causing further distress for firefighters at the worst possible time. How many able-bodied firefighters will have to be pulled from the firelines to become bean counters for consolidation budgeting?
Trump's so-called fire consolidation ploy, known among critics as Trump's "fire con job" (pun intended), will have the opposite impacts: it will lead to the demolition of agencies like the USFS where fire plays a major role in its mission, budget, and workforce, and it will cause fragmentation by severing fire management from land management. In the spirit of the DOGE, the fire con job aims to move fast and (further) break things.
As an independent voice in the wildland fire community, FUSEE can speak freely with policymakers and the media to oppose Trump's fire con job. We have heard from several fire organizations who are very concerned about its impact but cannot take public stands. There are also a few organizations who tepidly support the concept of agency consolidation because it's a vehicle for fundamental change in agencies like the USFS--and change is desperately needed! But this is the wrong time and the worst administration to facilitate such radical change in the structure of federal fire management. FUSEE's position: there should be no agency consolidation without policy transformation that implements ecological fire management.
FUSEE depends on supporters like you to help us wage the good fight for the integrity of public lands and the public servants who are stewarding the land and managing fire. The next arena for battling Trump's fire con job: the House FY26 Interior Appropriations bill--stay tuned for more!
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