Cuts to Forest Service Endanger Millions

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHRIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my frustration and outrage with the Trump administration's reckless cuts to our Forest Service.

The workforce that takes care of our forests, harvests timber, and makes them resilient to wildfires is treasured in my State of Washington and, I would say, in the entire Western United States. Cuts to this workforce endanger my constituents, endanger millions of Americans, and put our forests at high risk of catastrophic wildfires.

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Ms. SCHRIER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to echo some of those comments because I am also in the West, in Washington State, and we are seeing the risk of catastrophic wildfires increasing every year.

Because all of this is being done under the guise of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, let me be clear that we all want our tax dollars to be spent wisely.

Let me also be clear that the people in the Eighth District of Washington State think it is a super wise investment to invest in our Forest Service that will thin the forest, prevent catastrophic wildfires, and then fight catastrophic wildfires when they occur.

I would say, and my constituents would also say because we all choke on smoke every summer, that this is not a time to cut the Forest Service. In fact, it is a time to hire up at the Forest Service because we need them more than ever right now.

We need them for fighting fires as I discussed, for maintaining our forests, but also for supporting recreation, maintaining roads and trails, and producing timber that we all need for affordable housing, and for water restoration, watershed restoration, and more.

We have heard from the administration that firefighters were exempt from the cuts, but here is the thing: About 75 percent of the people who were cut had firefighting training. In fact, they may have had different titles, but they had something called red cards, which meant they were ready, firefighting trained, and they leapt into action whenever wildland firefighters needed their help to work side by side with them. They are really indispensable employees.

I also want to say that the people who we are losing, many of them have had years of experience. They choose to work for the Forest Service, for the Federal Government, because of their passion for taking care of our public lands. They are talented. They are critical. They are experienced. They choose to do this, frankly, for lower salaries simply because they want to serve. These are civil servants.

We are losing these really talented and critical staff through layoffs. Now, with the uncertainty, we are seeing early retirements. Frankly, given the disrespect and uncertainty, and now the impossible workload, can you imagine taking on all of the workload of your colleagues? Why would they stay? This is a very tough time to work for the Federal Government, especially in these dangerous jobs.

I am so fortunate to represent Washington's Eighth Congressional District. We have some of the most stunning nature in the country. In fact, we have the North Cascades National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, and two national forests stretching over 2 million acres. That is a fifth of the national forest, approximately 10 million acres in Washington State.

The U.S. Forest Service manages these public lands. We also have agreements and rely on relationships between Federal, State, and Tribal organizations and governments to manage our public land. When you cut Federal staffing, it really has ripple effects and leaves State, Tribal, and local governments lacking.

I want to express gratitude to U.S. Forest Service staff because they are also keeping our cherished public lands accessible for outdoor recreation.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know if you have ever been to Washington State. If you have, you will know that outdoor recreation is our pride and joy and is what sustains us. Those beautiful springs and summers, that is what sustains us when we have the rainy fall and winter.

We have already seen some of these outdoor trail accesses closed. In fact, there is one called the Denny Creek Trailhead that has experienced closures due to these staffing shortages, and that is only going to be worse as we head into outdoor recreation season.

Again, I have mentioned already the role that the Forest Service plays in wildfire mitigation; that is, thinning the forest, doing prescribed burns, doing the work that will prevent catastrophic wildfires.

In my district, Fire Chief David Walker says the Forest Service is the primary firefighting force for something called the Lake Wenatchee area. It is a favorite vacation spot for Washington families.

When you gut the Forest Service's fire response operation, that means you are taking away public safety. You are taking away safety from the people who are camping in the Lake Wenatchee area.

Mitigating risk in our forest has become ever more important with the increasing intensity of wildfires and the longer and longer wildfire season throughout the West.

In our State, we used to see wildfires mostly in the dry part of the State, east of the Cascade Mountains. Now, we see it in the entire State.

We have seen devastating fires in recent years. In fact, six of the highest risk fire sheds in the entire country are in my district.

Now is the time to strengthen our wildfire mitigation efforts, not kneecap the agency that is responsible for maintaining forest health. Firing support staff involved in wildfire response or mitigation does just as much harm as firing those that we think of as being on the front lines. They work together.

I also want to mention, imagine if you were a firefighter depending on that support staff to tell you when the weather conditions change, when the winds are shifting, because that matters for your own survival as you are fighting these fires. The support staff is every bit as important.

We are anticipating there to be further staffing cuts right before wildfire season kicks into gear, and these reduction-in-force plans are being made with little forethought and no agency engagement. We are seeing the arbitrary firing of probationary employees in every agency and then struggling to rehire them because they have cut HR.

This administration is not getting the message that every carpenter in my district knows: Measure twice, cut once. Figure out where it makes sense to make cuts before making those cuts. This is not efficiency. This is actually the opposite.

There are many roles that the Forest Service plays in research. They research how to fight pestilence that weakens our trees. They research which varieties of trees will survive best in fire. They also do research into which of these fire-prone areas is the most at risk so that they can treat those areas first.

I want to emphasize how important these Forest Service employees are to our district, the entire West, and, frankly, the entire country.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk a little bit in a moment about our Forest Service employees, some that I have spoken with since they were let go. First, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Carson) to speak about Forest Service cuts.

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Ms. SCHRIER. Mr. Speaker, I will tell you something about the town of Roslyn in my district. It is a small town, completely surrounded by forest, and this forest is at high risk for catastrophic wildfire. In fact, it was incredibly important to the residents of the town not only to firewise their own homes but to treat the forest around the city to protect it.

I actually got to go out with nonprofits and Forest Service employees, use that drip torch myself and participate in prescribed fires in order to work to make sure that this area would not go up in flames and threaten the entire city. It is this sort of work that some of the employees in my district who were fired were doing. They were protecting homes and protecting lives. Then, after years in the Service, they were let go.

I even have constituents, a husband and wife who both worked for the U.S. Forest Service. They were both let go. They both did that work and trail maintenance. They also protected people during snow season in snow parks. These are year-round, family-sustaining jobs, and these are people without whom we all suffer.

There is another worker from my district who was fired who was actually working on harvesting timber. That timber is then sold and actually makes money for the Federal Government, but those workers were let go.

I mean, that is not efficiency. It is definitely not saving taxpayer money. It is really beyond foolish, and it is emblematic of what this administration and Elon Musk have been doing. This is not government efficiency. It actually hampers the ability for the Forest Service to be efficient and to fulfill its mission.

Taking a hatchet to these Federal agencies across the board, labeling probationary employees as if they are in trouble for some reason, when really it just means they have been there devoting themselves to civil service for less than a year, only causes harm and disparages them. That is why I was so proud to lead a letter with my Washington colleagues calling for Forest Service terminations to be rescinded and for the administration to halt any further cuts.

This has disproportionately hit Washington State. I will continue fighting for the employees in my district, for the people in my district, for Washington State to protect our forests, to fight these cuts, and to protect the U.S. Forest Service employees who have dedicated their lives to public service.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Min).

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Ms. SCHRIER. Mr. Speaker, we have all talked about thinning forests, making them more resilient. We talked about the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

We passed a big infrastructure bill a couple years ago, and part of that was not just protecting roads and bridges. It was also protecting our natural infrastructure because of its connection with our urban areas and the wildland-urban interface and more. That involved more management of our forests, more thinning of our forests. It required more hiring up of Forest Service staff, which really emphasizes the point my colleagues have made about how this is doing the exact opposite.

I wanted to connect a couple other dots for you, just to really bring home this point. President Trump promised all along the campaign trail that he was going to bring down costs for the American people. These are costs at the grocery store, costs everywhere really.

We could talk about tariffs, but what I really want to focus on, which is a big issue in my district and my State, is the cost of housing. Young people today cannot afford to buy a house. That means they are going to struggle to build their nest egg for retirement.

One of the ways to bring down the cost of housing is to use that 8- inch diameter or smaller timber that the Forest Service brings out of those national forests, mill those, turn it into cross-laminated timber, mass produce walls, roofs, and the building materials you need to build houses quickly and cheaply.

You can do rezoning, permitting for land to use for housing, and then you can build houses quickly, starter houses, houses to just help young people get their piece of America, their safeguard for their retirement.

However, this is doing the opposite. If we are not bringing the wood out of our forests, like the Forest Service employee I just told you about who lost her job, then we don't have that cross-laminated timber.

What is happening now, we are going to rely on Canada for timber at, what, a 25 percent surcharge because of these tariffs? This is doing the opposite. It is not bringing costs down for American families. It is driving costs up to the tune of close to $4,000 per family across this country. This is damaging. Then you add on what is happening in the Forest Service, and it just drives up the cost of housing.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I first just extend my gratitude to the people who step up to serve our country, who work for the U.S. Forest Service, who protect our forests, protect our homes, protect us from choking on smoke all summer long, and now stretching into other seasons. I emphasize that it is important to use tax dollars wisely and to have an efficient government, but sometimes that means hiring up instead of firing. Certainly, indiscriminate firing is crazy, wrongheaded, and reckless. I once again object to these indiscriminate cuts, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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