Update: Additional FY26 Trump Budget Request Details - DOI/USWFS

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Earlier today, DOI released their departmental-level summary for their FY26 budget request: https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025-06/fy26bibentire-book508060125.pdf. USDA released their summary a few days ago, which was highlighted in an earlier post.

DOI’s summary includes a section for the new “U.S. Wildland Fire Service,” which would replace OWF and be a bureau-level organization within DOI. Overall the request would provide $3.7b in dedicated base funding for the service, which is equivalent to the total of the base funding provided to the the two departments for their individual WFM and haz fuels programs in FY25 ($1.1b for DOI, $2.6 for FS).

Additional details will likely be made available with the release of the account-specific congressional justification books in the coming weeks/months. These materials will give a better idea of what trade offs the Admin. would make to pay for standing up a new agency without providing a significant increase in dedicated funding above baseline levels to do so.

Of course, the normal caveats apply regarding these budget requests being an initial offer of sorts from the Admin., with Congress generally having a final say.

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Sounds good on paper, in practice it is going to be half-baked and create unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. Collaboration between stakeholders and agencies? It just got a whole lot more difficult for everyone.

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Having the USFS, BLM, Fish and feathers and parkies spread out across the USDA and DOI isn’t unnecessary levels of bureaucracy?

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Those agencies will still all need to work together, you can just add the USWFS to the alphabet soup.