Before Fires, Bush Cut Fire Preparedness Budgets, Outsourced Forest Service Work

“A review of Bush administration budget proposals by the Huffington Post showed that the flow of money from the US Forest Service to help state and local communities fight wildfires faced chronic cuts since President Bush was elected.

During Bush’s first year in office, the Forest Service’s State Fire Assistance program for wildland fire management was funded at approximately $56 million per year. But the President’s budget proposal for 2008 only requests $35 million from Congress, an 18% cut from what it spent in the current year, already well below the earlier levels.

Assistance to volunteer firefighting forces increased to a level of about $12 million during 2007, but only after Congressional intervention. At first, the Forest Service had requested only $7.8 million. After the budget mushroomed to the higher level, the administration proposed a 38% cut for next year, reducing the budget to help volunteer firefighters to $8 million, less than the level it was funded at in 2001.”*

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