Subject: FW: Interesting news you don't want to miss...
From: <[email-masked]>
To: "'I'" <[email-masked]>, "' Lorrie Parker'" <[email-masked]>, "'Doris Celarier'" <[email-masked]>, "'Elena B'" <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, "'Marian Connolly '" <[email-masked]>, "'Rhonda Thomas'" <[email-masked]>, "'Stana '" <[email-masked]>, "'SueS'" <[email-masked]>, "'Theresa Barber'" <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 16:58:02 -0400

It was so good to catch up with most of you today. I know some of you get the retirees emails but in case some of you do not, here’s a report on the House Appropriations Committee’s Budget for FS. It reflects a great deal more support for FS than I would have hoped for. But if Congress doesn’t stop the administration from reprogramming appropriated funds to other uses, some of the “wins” here may be losses.

Marian Connolly

   233 8th Street SE

     Washington, DC20003

From: Joan Golden <[email-masked]> 
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 4:48 PM
To: DC Forest Service Retirees <[email-masked]>
Subject: Interesting news you don't want to miss...

 

I know some of you get this already but I thought this was worth seeing twice.

Joan 

Joan Golden

FSX of DC Communications Chair
[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

703-314-5163

Begin forwarded message:

From: National Association of Forest Service Retirees <[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> >

Subject: Updates for July 15 2025

Date: July 15, 2025 at 11:03:20 AM EDT

To: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

Reply-To: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

 

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FS Research and State and Private Forestry 

Survive in House Spending Bill 

 

Appropriators Also Reject 

New Wildfire Agency at Interior

 

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This story was published by E&E News on July 15.

House appropriators Monday turned away a Trump administration effort to slash the Forest Service’s research budget, proposing to hold spending steady at about $300 million in fiscal 2026.

The proposal by the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee is part of an $8.5 billion annual spending plan for the Forest Service that largely ignores the administration’s most far-reaching proposals.

Total spending for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would be $16.8 million less than this year’s level. Spending not directly tied to fire suppression would total $3.6 billion, or about $107 million less than this year. The measure is scheduled for a subcommittee markup Tuesday.

The research budget would total $302 million, of which $34 million would be reserved for forest inventory and analysis — the data-collecting operation that the administration hadn’t looked to scale back.

Lawmakers’ decision to stick with research funding follows a strenuous lobbying campaign by Forest Service retirees and others who said the programs have a distinguished, long history worth continuing.

The committee proposed $2.43 billion for wildland fire management at the Forest Service, plus the $2.48 billion disaster fund that’s mandated by Congress and likely to be tapped to cover rising wildfire costs.

Lawmakers didn’t endorse the administration’s proposal to move wildfire suppression to the Interior Department, which would require creation of a new sub-agency there.

Appropriators also opted not to endorse the administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for state and private forestry programs, including international forestry.

State and private forestry programs would receive $281 million, a slight decline from this year and a bigger drop compared to the $337 million spent three years ago.

These include many of the grants the Forest Service provides to states and localities for practices from reducing potential wildfire fuel to planting trees, although the bill doesn’t dictate exactly how the funds are to be distributed.

As appropriators have learned this year, a top-line spending number doesn’t guarantee that the administration will spend the money as Congress likes.

The Agriculture Department this year has siphoned money away from some of the state forestry grants to pay employees who took deferred resignation, and a USDA official  <https://at4paa4ab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001mk_Bc3gth4YpjEYTNqi9ponVvqOGmLf5BFYhy5XSMDRkavJXwJ16XDoUIbgmOP5IZVuRk0qT82TA-WDwJiTUwK_5TiYEfLPaS5jcWszeQYh3YLucNZyQRqD5aJ3EOCPPmQyog85yyU0kJjqGCS7tgs8xi_iaVP2DW8KJP9_8eKEfidXq3mmMt6WZi9Iz9upEcXibDjkSeEk4nI3L7_kKPH59aeb6_GtXwvQ9q7Z0LJ-7-6wV5iRGxaDdlz8z3M_s9yau3KKo412NQ7g9LqBQnl16VSUa59qi&c=w7PmIN53p8DBfFnvPJFTMO3a8x0_WWlmANmb1OgKaNKhtCgwniu53Q==&ch=2CtwxMfEr3tqOfPp23UTRlMkMKEG_om_TVH6lJ5cFrjiGAjoR1H0hw==> told lawmakers last week that the administration intends to shift already-appropriated grant funding to boosting timber production.

The appropriations bill also includes $202 million for reducing hazardous fuels such as dead or dying trees in national forests. Up to $30 million of that amount may be used to promote increased use of biomass such as in wood products.

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National Association of Forest Service Retirees | Box 273362 | Fort Collins, CO 80527 US

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