Democrats demand answers on cuts to firefighters during critical fire season | Firefighters

While federal firefighters struggle with tense resources during an intense year of fire activities, Democratic legislators demand responses from the Trump administration on how serious allocation and US Forest Service endowment and budgets can have the preparation and response of forest fires.

The leaders of the Agency and the American Department of Agriculture, which supervise it, have repeatedly assured the public and the congress that they were fully prepared for the season of critical fires which is already in progress.

But the internal data, reported for the first time by The Guardian last month, painted a dangerously different image, with more than a quarter of roles of fire fighting in mid-July, as well as the activity and the risk of fire increased. Trump administration policies designed to quickly reduce the federal government have also left significant gaps in the labor market which supports the attenuation and abolition of forest fires.

In a letter published Thursday, representative Robert Garcia, the best democrat of the Chamber’s supervisory committee, gave the USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins two weeks to provide detailed accounting of the firefighter and support staff, and called for the clarity of the USFS on the widely projected information from the public.

“The ability to fight forest service has been dangerously hampered by the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government and the layoffs of the Trump administration, deferred resignations and other retirement and anticipated resignations, as well as climate change prolongs the fire season”, wrote Garcia in the letter, asking for details that would show the “extent of the American public”.

The endowment reports produced on July 17 have shown that more than 5,100 used positions were not completed, more than 26% of the positions. The problem was particularly dark in the northwest of the Pacific, a region faced with an extremely high risk of fire this year, with a 39%vacuum rate. The Intermountan region, the largest region with nearly 34 m acres (14 million hectares) of forest land that extend in parts of UTAH, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho and California, holds nearly 37% of defeated jobs.

A few weeks before the reports, Tom Schultz, the chief of the USFs, told senators that the agency reached its capacity to fight fire and had reached 99% of hiring goals.

Staff numbers fail to capture the tension felt in specific areas of these regions where the ranks are seriously thin. There are reports on the USFS teams with less than half of the positions, formerly deemed necessary to be fully operational.

Six federal firefighters, who asked for anonymity because they are prohibited from speaking publicly, described in July how personnel shortages had complicated the ability of crews to repress large fires and contribute to increased injuries and risks for firefighters on the ground.

“There is certainly a lot of tension in the system this season,” said a fire captain, describing how these problems have long tormented the agency. “It’s a bit like this medieval torture device that stretched people – just one more crank.”

This captain has hypothesized that the agency could exploit the difference between the requirements of “minimum” personnel and what was traditionally considered to be “fully personal”. “You can technically play a football match with 11 people in the team,” he said. “It would be considered negligent, perhaps even abusive towards the players, but they registered to play and it is technically authorized.”

In addition to the dangerous holes reports left in the fire fighting teams, there were deep cuts to support the staff who have negatively affected the teams on the fire line. The USFS has not disclosed specific figures and it is not clear how many employees have been pushed outside the agency this year, whether through layoffs or programs inciting resignation and early retirement, but estimates shared by the American senator Patty Murray increase to 7,500 people. Among them, 1,400 people with so-called “red boxes” and non-professional firefighters who have trained to join operations on the fire line if necessary.

The Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the forest service, has tried to combat the loss of employees with fire qualifications by calling for those who have resigned or early retirement to return voluntarily for the season and take shooting assignments until the end of their contracts. On July 21, 65 returned and were mobilized, according to a USDA spokesperson.

This year, there have already been crew reports without being able for weeks due to the reduction of interview workers, late payroll checks or in two because the administrative roles were left empty or firefighters having to mow the lawns outside of their offices, to manage campsites and to do plumbing in their barracks in addition to their other functions. In Oregon, the firefighters were hungry after their quarters of 4 p.m. and would have run for medical purposes following the challenges of the endowment.

“Lost staff includes administrative staff and human resources, food and sanitation workers, scientists, foresters, meteorologists and other people with deep institutional knowledge that helps firefighters do their job,” Garcia wrote in the letter. “These personnel cuts and endowment stations have firefighters covering tasks, such as responding to phones and cleaning the toilet, rather than fighting fires.”

While Schulz publicly said that the USFs was sufficiently personal, he recognized the challenges of an internal note sent to the agency management in July, shared with The Guardian.

“As expected, the 2025 fire year is extremely difficult,” he wrote. The forecasts made from the Climate Prediction Center and the predictive services indicate that the season is far from slowing down. Higher than normal temperatures are planned for a large part of the United States until September, as well as dry conditions than normal, creating high risks for large burns.

“We have reached a critical point in our national response efforts and we have to make all the resources available,” added Schultz. “Sometimes we know that the demand for resources exceeds their availability.”

With her request, Garcia hopes to discover exactly how the agency calculates its figures and where gaps can still exist.

Legislators ask Rollins to provide “detailed and complete accounting of current staff and endowment changes to the forestry service, including fire -fighting jobs and people with red cards, as well as administrative staff, support staff and other positions that contribute to preparation for disasters and fire fighting, since January 20, since January 20 2025 ”. They also request documents and communications concerning administration layoffs and programs that have pushed thousands of staff to resign or retire.

In May, Rollins ordered the head of the USFS to provide an analysis on how voluntary departures affected fire fighting and fire support, as well as a plan to “remedy critical vacancies”, but these figures and strategies have never been made public. Garcia also asked for documentation and communications on this note.

Garcia represents parts of Los Angeles, the city struck by a storm of disastrous and fatal fire in January which left the districts leveled and killed 31 people.

“Our federal firefighters on wild lands are on the front line of our battle against natural disasters, but the Trump administration continues to reduce essential staff, even if we are faced with forest seasons longer and more and more dangerous,” Garcia said in a Guardian statement. “The Ministry of Agriculture owes the American people to the American people on the reasons why the agency lacks personnel and how they plan to protect communities on a national level, especially since millions of acres continue to burn across the country.”