TX GOP Slashes Funding For Agency Battling Wildfires, While Also Blasting Obama For Not Spending Mor

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/21/tx-gop-obama-fires/

For months, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has berated President Obama and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for not giving the state more federal money to combat historic wildfires that have so far burned 2.5 million acres. Despite the fact that the administration has offered 26 different kinds of federal assistance to combat the fires, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) claimed that Obama is waging “a war on Texas.” After months of blaming the President for not doing enough, Reuters reported yesterday that Perry is poised to sign a budget that slashes funding for the state agency that is battling the wildfires.

Republicans control all three branches of government in Texas and are close to an agreement on a budget that makes deep cuts to the Texas Forest Service during an unprecedented and destructive wildfire season:

The Texas Forest Service faces almost $34 million in budget cuts over the next two years, roughly a third of the agency’s total budget. The cuts are in both the House and Senate versions of the proposed state budget. <...>

Assistance grants are likely to take the biggest hit. Volunteers — two of whom were killed in fighting this year’s fires — make up nearly 80 percent of the state’s fire-fighting force and are first responders to roughly 90 percent of wildfires in Texas.

More at the link ---

:eyes:

Limiting the role of the federal governement? Lower federal taxes? Letting the states prioritize which programs are worthy of funding and to what extent? The role of a state in protecting its citizens and property? I guess that stuff's all gone "up in smoke".

:smoke:

I guess since the problem is fires and not flooding the rainy day fund cannot be used.