Democrats demand answers on cuts to firefighters during critical fire season

Source: The Guardian

Thu 14 Aug 2025 09.01 EDT
Last modified on Fri 15 Aug 2025 03.00 EDT


As federal firefighters grapple with strained resources in an intense year of fire activity, Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from the Trump administration about how severe cuts to staffing and budgets at the US Forest Service may have hamstrung wildfire preparation and response.

Leaders at the agency and the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees it, have repeatedly assured the public and Congress that they were fully prepared for the critical fire season that’s already well under way.

But internal data, first reported by the Guardian last month, painted a dangerously different picture, with more than a quarter of firefighting roles left unfilled in mid-July, just as fire activity and risks spiked. Trump administration policies designed to rapidly shrink the federal government have also left significant gaps in the workforce that supports wildfire mitigation and suppression.

In a letter issued Thursday, the representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, gave USDA secretary Brooke Rollins two weeks to provide documents with a detailed accounting of firefighter staffing and support personnel, and called for clarity from the USFS on information that’s largely been shielded from the public.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/14/firefighter-cuts-trump-administration