TALKING POINTS
THE NATIONAL WILDFIRE INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT & COST CONTAINMENT ACT OF 2009

The FWFSA is proud & honored to offer the following talking points to accompany the copy of the above-referenced “discussion draft” previously provided to your office or which is also included in this package.
The FWFSA is a nationwide employee association comprised primarily of federal wildland firefighters from all five federal land management agencies. Our members occupy all fire positions from entry-level to fire chief and also include dispatch & prevention personnel.
This bill is the culmination of 20+ years of inaction and inattention to issues facing our Nation’s federal wildland firefighters by the employing agencies. As a result, the inherently less expensive federal infrastructure has been significantly depleted; the fire programs have been mismanaged and staggering sums of tax dollars wasted on wildfire suppression.
This bill would serve to strengthen the federal infrastructure and require organizational & policy changes in the management of all fire programs that would lead to a stronger more cost effective and efficient fire program and ultimately save the American taxpayer significant sums each year in wildfire suppression.

• This bill would reform archaic personnel and pay policies currently encumbering our wildland firefighters. These outdated policies have led to a significant loss of federal wildland firefighters to non-federal agencies for better pay & benefits.

• The bill would require the federal land management agencies to systematically reduce non-federal suppression spending over a 3 year period. The non-federal resource costs are by far the largest, single cause of skyrocketing suppression costs despite other “experts” claiming climate & wildland urban interface as primary causes.

• Strengthening the federal infrastructure will reduce if not entirely eliminate the losses of firefighters to non-federal agencies.

• Doing so will allow the land management agencies to reduce their current over-reliance on expensive non-federal suppression resources thereby saving significant tax dollars.

• Reducing non-federal expenditures will likely eliminate the annual request by the land management agencies for hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency supplemental suppression spending.

• The bill calls for reforms that will require the land management agencies to management their fire programs more like a fire department to meet the challenges and complexities of wildfires in the 21st century. Currently these agencies manage their fire programs as they did 30-40 years ago.

• Current fire program management is tantamount to a major metropolitan city fire department being managed by the City’s Park & Recreation Department. It just doesn’t work.

• Current fire policy is developed and implemented by agency “line officers” who typically have little to no wildfire experience or expertise. Additionally, these same line officers systematically divert fire preparedness & hazardous fuels reduction funds away from the field to pay for non-fire projects. This bill ensures that such funds are used only for their intended purpose.

• The diversion of these funds has depleted the preparedness resources expected to be in place when the season arrives pursuant to the National Fire Plan. As a result, the land management agencies continue to rely on non-federal resources to “fill in the gaps” which then leads to excessive, unnecessary suppression costs. This in turn leads to the annual request for an emergency supplemental appropriation for suppression.

• Diverting hazardous fuels reduction funds reduces the number of acres treated. Congress has asked the agencies, primarily the Forest Service why treated acreage does not match up with the appropriation for fuels reduction. The Agency has replied that “litigation” has impacted such projects but has failed to divulge the fact that a great deal of these funds are used to pay for non-fire projects and admin costs.

• The bill calls for a pilot program during which some of the reforms will be implemented. The 3 year plan allows for the review of costs and savings by Congress to ascertain the effectiveness of such changes and allows for Congress to make such reforms permanent.

• Your Nation’s federal wildland firefighters, employed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and Fish & Wildlife want desperately to make the federal land management fire programs a career. They want to make the agency fire programs the place to make a wildland firefighter career.

• Most federal wildland firefighters who have left for other non-federal fire agencies indicate they would have liked to stay. However program management and archaic pay & personnel policies left them no choice but to leave and abandon the investment made in their training by the American taxpayer.

• Even more disturbing is the fact that many have left not only for pay & benefits but as a result of a true feeling that the agency they work for simply doesn’t give a damn about them and has failed for decades to properly recognize them for who they are and what they do.

• These brave men & women who risk their lives to protect our Nation’s natural resources, its citizen’s real & personal property & lives, deserve to be respected for who they are and what they do. This bill provides a clear direction in not only doing that but also creating federal land management agency fire programs that are more effective and cost-efficient for the American public.

We would be tremendously honored to have your support and consideration of introducing this important legislation or co-sponsoring it when it is introduced. For more information please contact our Business Manager Casey Judd @ 208-775-4577 or by email at cjudd@fwfsa.org.

THANK YOU

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