Let's talk about Trump vs Smokey Bear.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump versus Smokey the Bear.

In the latest installment of Trump trying to destroy American institutions that protect the people's interests from corporate interests, Trump is moving to restructure the US Forest Service. Trump's version of restructuring is moving the agency's headquarters to Salt Lake City from Washington DC. His plan will shut down 57 research facilities and combine them into one. It will shut down regional offices and instead of regional offices across the country, they will be replaced by partisan politically appointed state directors. The regional offices will be shut down.

Steve Lenkart is the executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees and when he talked about Trump's plans, he didn't pull punches. Not about Trump and not about the Republicans in Congress who aren't representing their constituents.

He said, "Trump's moves are illegal because this kind of activity was explicitly prohibited in fiscal year 2026 appropriations. The Republican Congress is allowing the White House to break the law and violate the Constitution without so much as a peep from our big, brave, so-called freedom seeking Republicans. They won't even uphold their own oath to support and defend the Constitution from tyranny.”

To be fair, the law is pretty clear and says that none of the money regulated by the act “shall be available for obligation or expenditure through a reprogramming of funds that:
• One creates or initiates a new program, project or activity.
• Two, eliminates a program, project, or activity.
• Three, increases funds or personnel by any means for any project or activity for which funds have been denied or restricted.
• Four, relocates an office or employees.
• Five, reorganizes or renames offices, programs, or activities.
• Six, contracts out or privatizes any functions or activities presently performed by federal employees.

It goes on and there's actually more restrictions, but the reorganizing, renaming, eliminations, relocations, and so on make it pretty clear that the union has a really strong case here.

This isn't Trump's first attempt at disrupting the Forest Services work. He tried to fire thousands of employees early in his second term. Those dismissals were blocked by the courts, but the disruptions still hurt the agency and it looks like they wound up losing a thousand employees who were trained to deal with wildfires.

The US Forest Service manages millions of acres of land across the country. If you were to put it all together, it would be an area about the size of Texas. The research, expertise, and services that will be lost by Trump's move will be immense. Americans will be paying for it for years to come. It seems incredibly likely that this is headed to court.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.

[2naSalit]

1. So glad that...

I'm retired.