Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
ICYMI: Murray, Schrier, Larsen, WA Colleagues Urge U.S. Forest Service to Reinstate Fired Employees Critical to Wildfire Response, Timber Harvest
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s exchange with Schultz***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned Chief of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Tom Schultz, at a Senate Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for the Forest Service. During her questioning, Senator Murray highlighted the critical importance of Forest Service workers, and how the firing of these employees puts wildfire preparedness in jeopardy. Senator Murray also questioned how it is remotely realistic for the Forest Service to meet the demands of President Trump’s Executive Order aiming to increase timber output from federal lands by 25 percent while the Trump administration is right now cutting budgets, delaying funding, freezing hiring, and reducing staff across the agency.
In her opening comments, Vice Chair Murray said:
“As everyone knows, we’re approaching wildfire season. In my home state of Washington, wildfires are a constant threat as you well know—and when we invest in fire prevention, we save lives, we save entire communities. One of the most important investments we make is in the people who do that work.
“But President Trump is throwing all of that work into jeopardy right now. He’s pushed out nearly 7,500 skilled employees across the Forest Service, either by firing them outright or pressuring them to leave under threat of losing their job later down the line. That includes at least 500 Forest Service employees in the Pacific Northwest. But we hardly know the full scope of the damage because the administration won’t share critical information with us.
“I have spoken with countless Forest Service workers from Washington state who loved their job, they played an important role fighting those fires and are gone now—thanks to Trump.
“Setting aside the proposal for a consolidated firefighting agency, this Budget proposes a $1.4 billion cut, that is 40 percent, to the Forest Service’s non-fire programs at a time when our nation’s trees, from our backyards to backcountry, are under stress and we need to step up the pace of forest health and resiliency to withstand these catastrophic wildfires.
“On top of all that, the Forest Service has illegally withheld federal funds to help reduce wildfire risk and is currently not distributing $97 million to support state, rural, and volunteer fire departments.
“That is a huge threat to our communities I represent in Washington state who have told me personally: this administration is putting them in danger by gutting our ability to respond to wildfires.
“So, Chief Schultz, I do appreciate your service to our country.
“I realize you are not making all the decisions here, but I have a number of important questions today, and I hope you can provide this committee with the information we do need.”
[MASS FIRING OF FOREST SERVICE EMPLOYEES]
Senator Murray began by highlighting the importance of Forest Service employees, from combatting wildfires to maintaining trails, and questioned Chief Schultz on the reasoning behind these mass firings: “Now, as I mentioned—I am profoundly concerned about this administration’s reckless decision to mass fire and push out essential Forest Service employees across the country. The Administration claimed that no firefighters have been fired, but the reality is on the ground, we have lost workers whose jobs are absolutely essential. Nearly every single Forest Service worker supports fire operations in some capacity. Trail maintenance crews, for instance, ensure access to routes remain clear for firefighting personnel and equipment. Biologists conduct essential environmental assessments that inform prescribed burns and fuel reduction strategies. Other support staff—ecologists, engineers, maintenance workers, camp managers—receive firefighting training and they are actually mobilized during peak fire season to bolster our frontline firefighting crews.”
“So, Chief Schultz, was there any formal analysis conducted to determine the potential effect of the mass firings for wildfire preparedness?” asked Senator Murray.
“So, I’ll try to just clarify a few things. So, in terms of a mass firing, we did not have a mass firing,” Chief Schultz replied.
Senator Murray pressed, “I’m talking about across the board, pushing people out, early retirement, among other things.”
Chief Schulz said, “Right, I just want to clarify. So, we did have two rounds of that deferred resignation program, and that was about 4,200 people that left voluntarily.”
“Because they didn’t know what was coming, right?” Senator Murray followed up.
“Right…I don’t disagree with you. And we had another 600 that took voluntary early retirement. So, there were incentives for people to leave. Now in terms of—we did not know who was going to leave obviously, it was a voluntary process. So, what we’ve done is, when they did leave, we’ve been moving people to—we call that lateral movement—we’ve been doing that across the agency. We’ve moved probably close to six- or seven-hundred people to fill those critical vacancies. When it comes to the fire piece, specifically, we have, I think I mentioned earlier, about 1,400 people that have fire quals that did leave. And we have reached out to those folks to secure their services this fire season, to see if they want to come back on a voluntary basis, to function on their…” Chief Schultz replied.
Senator Murray called back to her initial question, “It just seems really ridiculous that it was done this way. Which was my question, actually. Was there an analysis done before this was all done, to realize the impacts of these people that you’re now trying to find and bring back?”
“Well Senator, so we couldn’t do the analysis. So, we didn’t know who was going to leave, because it was voluntary, right? We didn’t go handpick who was going to leave,” Chief Schultz dodged.
“Well, I want to get on. But the stakes are life and death here, and this really raises serious alarms about this agency being ready for this critical fire season,” Senator Murray said.
[UNPREPARDENESS FOR WILDFIRE SEASON]
Senator Murray continued by emphasizing the consequences of these mass firings on wildfire preparedness across the country: “Interior Secretary Burgum recently told this Committee that on-the-ground wildfire operations would not be affected by the administration’s staffing cuts across various agencies. But we know that’s not true. In the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, one firefighter barracks recently and abruptly lost power. And it stayed without power not for a few hours or a day—but for weeks. Why? Because the maintenance workers in that Forest had been pushed out the door. There was no ability to put even a small purchase on a credit card because the card limit was drastically decreased. And there was no one left to process a basic contract to get that repair done. This is what happens when administrative staff disappear. It’s not just an inconvenience—it directly affects whether firefighters have a safe place to sleep, whether they have power, whether they can be deployed effectively. Maybe Elon didn’t care about the maintenance crew but turns out they’re pretty important. And this is not an isolated incident. I’ve heard so many stories: administrative staff responsible for coordinating travel for crews when a fire breaks out—gone. People who made sure fire response teams had their fuel and supplies ready—they’re gone. And all of this is happening as we now head straight into what is going to be a dangerous fire season in Washington state.”
“So, Chief Schultz, tell us: do you believe the Forest Service is ready for wildfire season, given this absence of critical administrative and support staff, do you believe they are ready?” Senator Murray asked.
“Yes, I do believe they’re ready. And then some of the credit card issues you’re talking about, we have adjusted those. We’ve had increases in cards, and we’ve—again we’ve been moving people into lateral positions to ensure critical vacancies that we can clear them to fill those,” replied Chief Schultz.
“Well, I can just tell you from the ground, it feels like we are not prepared for this wildfire season. You just said we were. We’ll see what happens. But I fear I’m going to be right,” stated Senator Murray.
[RESOURCES STRIPPED FROM TIMBER]
Senator Murray moved on to the sale of timber, President Trump vows to increase output while reneging funding and resources, effectively crippling the ability of the Forest Service to produce timber at all: “The President supposedly wants to increase timber output from federal lands by 25 percent. Here’s the problem. This same Administration is simultaneously cutting budgets, delaying funding, freezing hiring, and reducing staff at the Forest Service—the very agency that is responsible for that work. So how exactly is that going to work? Who’s going to consult with tribes, who’s going to lay out the sale plans, who’s going to mark the timber, who’s going to manage compliance, and issue contracts when field offices have already been literally decimated? Is the expectation Chief Schultz—is it really the expectation that these fewer people, with fewer resources, less support, can somehow deliver work, at a faster pace and with greater complexity? How is that realistic?”
Chief Schultz responded, “I think it’s an iterative process. We don’t have all the answers today, but in terms of how we’re going to get there, we’re going to, again, fill critical vacancies. We’re also going to have to lean on partners differently. So, the states in Washington, they have a very aggressive Good Neighbor program.”
“The states are being relied on for just about, virtually everything. And I got to tell you, firefighters don’t sit—as my partner from Oregon knows—they do not sit in one state,” stated Senator Murray.
“That’s right. But to your point though, we are going to be working with partners in a different way. We’re going to have different kind of contracting terms that we’re going to have looking at longer term contracts,” replied Chief Schultz.
Senator Murray pressed, “Well, that begs the question, so do you have some kind of plan for this? It’s going to be executed over the next year? Because the wildfire season is here right now, and critical employees are not in place.”
“So, when it comes to the wildfire season, yes, ma’am, we do have the critical folks in place. When it comes to administering the timber program that you’re talking about, we’re building that right now. So that’s part of what we’re doing. Is we’re building that, that process, those interim operating plans, we’re working on that right now,” said Chief Schultz.
“When will we see that?” followed up Senator Murray.
“You know, I would suspect in the next couple months we’ll have that whole plan figured out how we’re going to execute that for the next four years. That’s what we’re working on right now,” Chief Schultz responded.
Senator Murray said, “Okay, thank you.”
___________________________________
Senator Murray is a leading voice pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on federal agencies, including NOAA and the U.S. Forest Service, that support disaster preparedness and response in Washington state and across the country. Last month, Senator Murray held a press conference with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and wildfire officials in Washington state and Oregon to sound the alarm on how the Trump administration’s funding freezes and punishing cuts to the workforce at the U.S. Forest Service and other key agencies are seriously undermining wildfire preparedness and response in Washington state and Oregon and putting communities at risk. Senator Murray is working to secure critical investments in wildfire suppression and mitigation—and in our firefighters. Last year, as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she secured nearly $22 million in funding for wildfire risk reduction projects across Washington state as part of the USFS Wildfire Crisis Strategy. In the Interior and Environment appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2024, she worked to include essential investments in wildfire preparedness and suppression. And in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, she secured $25 million in funding for wildfire mitigation projects across Washington state.
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