Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees funding for the U.S. Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service, released the following statement after President Trump issued an executive order directing the agencies to reorganize and consolidate wildland firefighting efforts:
“Instead of focusing on preparing for fire season and directing all energy to actively respond to wildland fires on the ground—like the Rowena Fire in Oregon—President Trump is telling the agencies responsible for keeping us safe to instead make it their top priority to move ahead with a hasty, poorly planned reorganization of their agencies. Congress has not authorized or provided funding for this consolidation and telling the agencies to do this in 90 days, at the height of summer fires, is literally playing with fire that will only burn our communities.
“As Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, I’ve been sounding the alarm over moving forward on this proposed consolidation with the heads of the Interior Department and Forest Service, urging them to work with Congress as the law requires. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had even promised to do so, and his complete and total failure to do just that raises legitimate questions about his commitment to keeping our communities and public lands safe versus enlarging the department he manages.
“The Trump Administration is once again acting with a blatant disregard for the law and constitutional separation of powers. We cannot trust an Administration that is jeopardizing our wildfire preparedness by firing staff, threatening to cut funding from state, local, and volunteer fire departments, and intentionally managing by imposing chaos and fear, to improve federal wildfire response, and I’ll keep pushing for Congressional oversight over these reckless actions.”
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