In A Massive Turnaround, The Forest Service Says They Have Reduced The $750M Salary Budget Gap To $50M.
It’s pretty clear by now that a fully funded budget is not likely before the new year. It’s not impossible, but most don’t expect it to happen. I reported on the $750M budget gap months ago, and it sounds like the Forest Service has drastically closed that gap through tough decisions and creative money management.
Reducing a budget gap of this size by $700M is no easy task, and the Forest Service did it relatively quickly. However, this did not come without tough decisions. In communications with Forest Leadership last week, the FS said, "The Forest Service has made tremendous progress regarding the budget for FY25 and has reduced the $750M salary budget gap down to $50M.”
They continue saying that this was accomplished through personnel actions and permanent employee actions and was greatly assisted with trust funds and contract adjustments.
As we already know, no non-Fire seasonal hires will happen in fiscal year 2025, likely freeing up a tremendous amount of money. There have also been discussions about providing buy-out opportunities for “close to retirement” employees. I don’t know what this would look like, but multiple employees have come forward saying they have received “hypothetical” offers.
It's not a huge surprise to hear they utilized trust funds, and contract adjustments were likely coming down the pipe anyway. I think this just really forced their hand.
Add that all up, and they filled a $700M hole in about two months with $50M remaining. Of course, this does not mean the bleeding has ceased, but it seems like the Forest Service looked at their budget issues like a trauma surgeon and lopped off a leg to try and save the rest of the body.
I’m sure more difficult decisions still need to be made, but quite frankly, this is a massive move forward in terms of closing the enormous budget gap. Clearly, sacrifices were made. Cutting your entire non-fire seasonal staff in 2025 is a huge sacrifice with measurable downstream effects for many people and organizations. But as I’ve said before, they couldn’t just do nothing. It’s a mess.
The question now is, what does the path forward look like? If a full budget does get passed, it’s already been made clear by the Chief’s office that it’ll likely be significantly less than what they need. Hell, they might shut the Government down in December if a budget deal can’t be reached. But they are well-versed in that scenario by now.
Forest Service leadership seems to be trying to get ahead of all these situations by making tough decisions now. Currently, wildfire funds and salaries seem secure, but this did come at a cost—one that will surely be felt by others who filled those seasonal positions.
I’m sure these decisions were not easy, but by the looks of it, they were necessary to keep the Agency afloat.
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In just a few short months the FS has closed a 700M dollar gap, yet they can't get PD's or a permpermanent pay solution figured out in a couple years.....
I appreciate all that fire does and recognize that it a great community to be apart of (one of which I would like to be apart of eventually) but also a little disappointed in the FS as fire is not their only role. Looking at the big picture, when they take these cuts how is this at the end of the day going to impact management of natural resources? Management of these resources are not enough (in my opinion - worked for the FS and getting a degree in Natural Resources) and feel that the FS has let not only its employees down in both fire and other departments but also the taxpayers that fund this agency with the understanding that they are managing and protecting our lands appropriately. Also with the rate of how quick they were able to close $700 million dollars is a little suspicious and im curious how this will impact the departments, fire included, for next season.