U.S. Senate spending panel calls for extending pay boost for Forest Service firefighters

Source: Nebraska Examiner

By: Jacob Fischler - April 10, 2024 3:13 pm

WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee said at a hearing Wednesday they were focused on keeping pay for wildland firefighters at the higher level set in a 2021 law and urged Forest Service Chief Randy Moore to focus on ways to maintain a healthy timber industry.

Senate Interior-Environment Subcommittee Chair Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and ranking Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they were committed to funding Forest Service programs to prevent wildfires and to maintain healthy forests.

As the temporary additional funding to the agency appropriated in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and Democrats’ 2022 climate, taxes and policy law approaches an end, lawmakers and the agency must work on a way to continue strong funding for an agency that is on the front lines of a changing climate, Merkley said.

“Those are one-time investments,” Merkley said of the additional spending passed in recent years. “And those funds are running out.”


A massive wildfire burns its way in to Grand Coulee, Washington at night. The fire and the city glow in the smoky night air. (Courtesy of Chris Majors/iStock via Getty Images)


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