Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley\u2014the Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee\u2014delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the hearing reviewing the President\u2019s Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for the U.S. Forest Service with Chief Tom Schultz:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Merkley\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChief Schultz, thank you for appearing before us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe you and I share a fundamental commitment to the health of our forests, and the rural and urban communities across this country that depend on them for their livelihoods and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese values transcend boundaries\u2014no matter if those lands are managed by the federal government, states, Tribes, or are privately owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd we share the goals of: reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire, restoring forest resiliency, and ensuring the American people have access to our public lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Oregon, we treasure our public lands as places to camp, hunt, fish, hike, and just to be in the wilderness to restore our souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut when I look at the budget proposal before us, it doesn\u2019t reflect those shared values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt pulls back on state and Tribal partnerships. It backs away from a foundation of research and science. It doesn\u2019t use all the tools in your toolbox for better management. And it projects a loss of 40 percent of your non-fire workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe very people in Forest Service green who are the key to making any of these goals a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChief, the Department\u2019s recently launched reorganization for the Forest Service has generated a significant stir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have been working to assure stakeholders that the reorganization plan won\u2019t: shutter research activities, reduce the workforce, or take a step toward transferring federal lands or selling them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, when viewed alongside the President\u2019s budget, those concerns remain significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow that we can look at both the Reorganization Plan and the Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal together, the optics are hard to ignore: the reorganization is shrinking agency capacity just as the budget proposal envisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a bright vision for the future of our nation\u2019s forests that I know many of us strive for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead, these changes would weaken an agency that has been the global benchmark for integrating forestry research and stewardship for over a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe budget request instead suggests a dimmer vision\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt zeroes out federal forest research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt eliminates state and Tribal grants that support private landowners and the volunteer fire departments who are often the first responders to wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt stops funding for collaborative landscape-scale restoration, which, in Oregon, is a successful approach to reaching consensus on projects that restore forest health across large landscapes and supply sawlogs to local mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt cuts recreation management by one-third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd it projects a reduction of more than 7,000 Forest Service staff positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, I think it\u2019s understandable that folks are alarmed and worried that relocation notices may be a prelude to job losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe budget projects a cut of 7,000 positions in the same month that 6,500 staff received notices of relocation and reassignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose seem closely connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI also want to point out that the prior budget request for Fiscal Year 2026 looked very similar, but Congress rejected that proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is clear that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, does not share that vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFinally, the budget once again proposes moving Forest Service wildfire management into Interior, which puts the Forest Service in the back seat when it comes to the final say on decisions about fire and fuels work on the lands you manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, I appreciate that you are undertaking the study this Committee has required on the potential issues with that proposal. However, I am concerned that there have not been consultations with Congress and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have heard from forestry experts that fire management is integral to forest management and should never be separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs always, there is so much more to discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs I noted at the outset, I believe we share a commitment to our forests and to the communities who rely on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut securing the resources to realize that commitment is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope that, together, we can find a way to fulfill that vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI look forward to our discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley\u2014the Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee\u2014delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the hearing reviewing the President\u2019s Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for the U.S. Forest Service with Chief Tom Schultz: Senator Merkley\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below: \u201cChief Schultz, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[42,105,36,45,110],"class_list":["post-24516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-agriculture","tag-appropriations","tag-natural-resources-and-rural-development","tag-tackling-climate-change","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n