Why Does it Take an Act of Congress to Support Wildland Firefighters?

I opened my inbox this morning to another stock response from my state legislators thanking me for my thoughtful comments and the time I have taken to urge them to pass legislation in support of wildland firefighters, and reassuring me that they are doing “everything they can” to support these bills as well. I appreciate the response, whether it’s true or merely placating banter from a legislator to a constituent. Yet, I can feel the frustration rising. I’m always left asking what seems like the most basic of questions, “Why does it take an act of Congress?” So here I sit, a pen as my sledge, beginning to hammer this question at the leaders of these agencies directly.

It is in fact these highest echelons of leadership in these public land agencies who have it in their entire power to do exactly what these bills set out to do with one cast of a signature. Yet, here we wait. We wait a year for Tim’s Act H.R. 5631 to be referred to a subcommittee in Congress since its introduction. It waits, without the support of agency leadership or the agencies themselves, which I feel is also worth mentioning. Once assigned to this subcommittee, here it will wait again, and while it would be and is easy to lay blame on the slow-moving cogs of Congressional due process: is that really where the blame lays?

I’ll ask again, “Why does it take an act of Congress?” This time, I’m sincerely asking. Please, enlighten me in all my naivety and idealism.  Why do basic pay practice reforms, basic healthcare and retirement benefit packages, job series definitions and clarifications, and protections related to line of duty injuries require an act of Congress? Is there any other government agency or workforce that requires legislative intervention for basic human resource and payroll changes and implementation? I’m asking, and I’m demanding an answer. I’m demanding it from the highest levels of leadership. Where is your action, as the highest-ranking leaders in these agencies, to bring your agency and its human resources departments up to par? If, and only if, it actually takes an act of Congress, where is your personal support and agency support for these bills?

I’ve pondered the question, and I’ve tried to conjure every conceivable reason that the Chief of the Forest Service, the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, and others in these positions have effectively sat on their hands as their wildland fire workforce is decimated in number, in spirit, and in body. This workforce is crumbling at an exponential pace. The pay and benefit packages for these two agencies are quite literally the most antiquated and obsolete structured systems in comparison to nearly every other government agency in this country. That is not an achievement. You’re sitting dead last. You’re functioning off decades of old practices, which were quite frankly abhorrent to begin with. They are especially abhorrent today – unconscionable actually. To be one of the largest employers of front-line emergency responders, to send an entire workforce of emergency responders to the fire line, to do your bidding, without fair pay, and without so much as an option to opt into a medical insurance plan? I’m not going to pull my punches now: how do you sleep at night?

Budgets. This old grandfather of an excuse has been and will continue to be the reason these leaders would like us to believe it takes an act of Congress. When in fact, these agencies are merely padding the numbers at the expense of their workforce. Again, abhorrent. These agencies are never within budget. With the exorbitant cost of wildfires, and as these natural disasters continue to rise exponentially, they never will be. They are, in fact, masters of the budgetary shuffle, moving costs and operational expenditures around on paper to appear as if all is in order. All the while states and the federal government absorb the costs with emergency declarations and other emergency funding actions. It’s a game of moving water around from bucket to bucket when it’s all coming from the same tap anyway.

So here I wonder, each year, as you have to sit in those chambers, and explain your budgetary spending, if you’re saying you were “within budget” you’d be a boldfaced liar. Every Senator and Congressperson that understands your funding knows it, and it’s why those conversations have gotten more and more uncomfortable with each passing year. At the very least, if you walked into those chambers and owned it, acknowledged, yes, I am way out of my budgetary allowance and this is why: I brought our human resources for our entire agency up to date, I spent money on retention to try and stave off mass resignations and loss of experience I have no way of replacing, I did my level best to ensure my workforce was safe and as healthy as possible, and yes, I overspent. That scenario, plays differently in those chambers. That scenario, plays differently in your conscious. That scenario sends an unwavering message that you are leading people – people worth leading – and you take that responsibility very seriously.

With the way that the seas of politics change, truly, what is the worst that could happen? You lose your job? You’re asked to step down?Well, depending on elections and how confirmations play out historically in Washington D.C., I hate to break this, but your appointment has an end date. You knew that going in. The real question is what impact, what legacy are you looking to leave during your appointment? Our sitting President lost a son to the health impacts of burn pits in Afghanistan. I have a hard time believing that you can’t answer his hard questions armed with the Navarro study* and justify health benefits for an entire workforce that breathes wildfire smoke for a living. There truly is no better time than now to push this envelope, and you are the only ones who can push it.

Again, this message is brash, and unapologetic, probably bordering on unprofessional and targeted. It’s necessary. These are good people. These are YOUR people. You stand at the front of this fight and yet, for decades, these people have fought without support. They’ve fought while their highest levels of leadership appear stagnant in abhorrent traditions and seem to take an adversarial stance against its own workforce. Change is painful. It requires grit, and tenacity, and endurance, and failure. Fail forward at least. Move the needle in your time in this position. Work for your workforce, not against it. Support these bills on a personal level, as well as pushing the full weight of your agencies’ support behind them. Put your hand of support on the backs of these fighters. You do, and I swear to you, the next time you have to answer hard questions in those chambers, you will not be alone. You too will have hands of support on your back, and trust me, they’re good, powerful, calloused hands.

Editor’s Note: H.R.5631, the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act, remains “Introduced.” There has been no movement since this was written on Dec. 16, 2022. To support this bill, support Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, the main lobby group for legislation like this.