r/Wildfire • u/Flat-Suggestion-8373 • May 02 '25

News (General) FY26 Trump Budget Request Details Released - New Wildfire Agency and Huge Cuts Outside WFM

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Here are some of the wildfire-related items in the FY26 budget blueprint that the White House released today (link below). Chiefly, it proposes a “new Federal Wildland Fire Service” under DOI. But also note significant changes in related areas, like the draconian cuts to the “non-fire” side of Forest Service (e.g., almost complete elimination of FS R&D, significant cut to already underfunded NFS activities, etc.).

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf

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u/Shoddy_Pay5822 May 02 '25

Best of luck teaching all the FS folks how to do their own times in QuickTime let alone getting them all onboarded, PIV card issued. physical and medically cleared, background investigated. DOI is already a small support org. Overloaded with work. Cant imagine them taking on the FS firefighter workforce all at once.

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u/BakedBones1207 May 02 '25

Why go through all that work when you can privatize?

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u/Ok-Measurement-8537 May 02 '25

Seems to be the plan: 1) Create unsustainable conditions within the agencies that are then viewed by the public as a failure 2) Privatize

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u/BakedBones1207 May 02 '25 edited May 02 '25

This is what I've been saying all year. If we do great the answer is "see you're fine you don't need more" and if we do awful due to lack of logistics and staffing then "see they can't hack it we need to unleash private industry".

edit: typo