Spokane, Washington is burning right now. Homes are gone. Sisters, Oregon narrowly escaped the same fate in July. 1.5 million acres of forest went untreated because the USDA gutted the very agency responsible for doing the work. Hobbling the Forest Service by understaffing will ensure repeats of the same year after year. You need to act immediately to enforce the laws Congress already passed and reverse this dismantlement.
This isn't a policy disagreement, it's open defiance of federal law. Sections 716 and Section 421 of the Agriculture Appropriations law bar USDA from spending a single dollar to relocate offices or employees or reorganize its structure without notifying Congress and getting their approval. These laws are on the books, signed by the President himself, and USDA is violating both. A federal court just forced the department to hand over its own reorganization plan after a year of fighting to keep it buried. That document proves USDA has been lying to the American public and Congress about what it was doing to the Forest Service.
Forest Service employees are the backbone of firefighting camps — they move supplies, coordinate logistics, and support crews in the field. Gutting that workforce during an extremely dangerous fire season is unconscionable. Congress has the authority and the obligation to enforce its own legislation. Use it.
First sent on August 3 by Karla
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