Trump's proposed 2018 budget cut millions from DOI's Wildland Fire Management program

[red dog 1]

Boise Mobile Equipment
bmefire.com
November 29, 2017

The following is taken from a 2017 article titled:
"How Fire Departments can Circumvent Proposed Fire Budget Cuts for Fiscal Year 2018"

Under the heading:
"Effects of Reduced Fire Budget On Department Of Interior"

The 2018 budget request for the DOI's (Dept. of Interior's) discretionary Department-wide Wildland Fire Management program is $873.5 million.
This is a decrease of $118.3 million, or 12 percent from fiscal year 2017.
It would mean a reduction in Full Time Equivalent employees (FTE) from 3,586 to 3,401, or 5 percent.
Moreover, the DOI's contribution to the joint Fire Science Program, a program designed to fund scientific research on wildland fires, would be cut in half, totaling $3 million annually.


[snip]

Roxanne Warneke-Preston, whose late husband was a wildland firefighter killed in the line of duty in 2013 wrote:
"I worry about the fate of so many others if the federal government cuts $118 million for fire suppression and firefighting, because this funding is vital to protect communities surrounded by wildland areas."


NOTE:
Paradise, California, which is ground zero for the devastating "Camp" fire, is a "community surrounded by wildland areas"


Read entire article:
https://www.bmefire.com/how-fire-departments-can-circumvent-proposed-fire-budget-cuts-for-fiscal-year-2018

[CincyDem]

1. But I'm sure they kept funding for the "rake futures" accounts. n/t

[Igel]

2. That was proposed for the fiscal year that's already over.

What actually happened with the budget? Was there an increase, a decrease, or no change?


The answer is it was essentially unchanged: https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfire/budget

Out of a budget of $547,671,000 it declined to $543,952. Staffing (FTE) stayed constant.

For the same change, FY2017 to 2018, California proposed increasing cutting their forestry department's budget by a heft amount. I can't find (in the time I'm willing to spend) that they actually cut the budget. Google searches are swamped by the (emergency) increase to the firefighting budget. But I know that a proposal in 2017 doesn't say a lot about actual budgeting, because these things change. (Although when the governor, house, and senate are all firmly in the same party's hands, I'd expect them to change not so much. My expectations might be horribly incorrect, however.)