Wildland firefighters will keep a four-year-old pay hike under a GOP-led spending bill signed by President Donald Trump, but many worry that mass federal worker firings will leave the nation more vulnerable to wildfires.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday credited Trump with securing the pay increase in a post on the social media site X. He said the administration is grateful to firefighters who he said “embody the American spirit by selflessly risking their lives to protect their neighbors, protect their communities, and preserve our natural heritage.”
The permanent pay raise comes as Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut about 3,400 workers at the U.S. Forest Service, about 1,000 at the National Park Service and another 1,000 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Many of those workers kept trails free of debris, oversaw prescribed burns, thinned forests and were specially trained to work with firefighters.
They say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires.
“What I’m hearing from my constituents who actually fight fires in Washington state is that Trump and Elon are making wildland firefighters’ jobs far more difficult and far more dangerous by indiscriminately firing thousands of Forest Service workers and others who support wildland firefighting,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said in an email to The Associated Press. “It’s disingenuous and frankly insulting for this administration to pretend otherwise.”