April 2006

News & Legislation Update:  4-3-06

The last several weeks have been filled with a great deal of activity starting primarily with commentary coming out of the R5 Chief Officer’s Conference in Reno.

As Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth was on one end of the country touting the successes of the Forest Service and ensuring congress that preparedness for the upcoming season would be at levels seen in the past allowing for a 99% rate of extinguishment on initial attacks, Forest Service officials were informing attendees of the Chief’s conference of the potential for significant cuts in the West.

Shortly thereafter it was learned that Chief Bosworth wanted to conduct yet another classification audit on GS-8 Engine Captains stemming from a classification appeal in R3. The studies were done just a few years ago validating the GS-8 positions and in fact pushed the envelope towards GS-9.

Many believe Chief Bosworth’s actions regarding the audit are a response to the FWFSA providing detailed budgetary information to key congressional committees as a result of preparedness funding being “diverted” or misused for other projects and not getting to the folks who need it.

If that wasn’t enough of an attack on our firefighters, the Forest Service plans on adding fire positions to its list of A-76 studies this year for outsourcing. It should be noted that time and again, A-76 studies have shown no fiscal benefit for contracting of fire positions and in fact those on both sides of the aisle in Congress steadfastly oppose contracting out of fire positions.

FWFSA RESPONSE

Having established sufficient credibility on Capitol Hill, the FWFSA immediately provided key Senate & House Committees with budgetary information which demonstrated that the funds congress has appropriated for preparedness budgets over the years has been systematically diverted by the Forest Service leadership for other projects, namely the centralization of human resources to New Mexico.

Additionally we are collaborating with the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) to combat the A-76 studies. As long ago as early 2003, the FWFSA sought to put this issue to bed once and for all by seeking an amendment to the current law protecting Dept. of Defense federal firefighters from outsourcing by adding firefighters employed by the land management agencies.

Unfortunately the FWFSA was still affiliated with the IAFF which refused to “open a can of worms” with respect to the contracting out issue. However the FWFSA has offers from several congressional offices to introduce the amendment and it is hoped we will do so before this summer.

Perhaps more than any other nonsensical decision by the Forest Service, the GS-8 engine captain audit defies logic and at a time when our firefighters are facing what could be a devastating season. Such a study is a waste of time and taxpayer money and we have indicated as much to Congress.

The FWFSA has provided details of this audit to Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) who, as you may recall, held hearings last summer on our portal to portal bill and defiantly told OPM and the Forest Service that you are “heroes & firefighters, not technicians.” He is leading the charge against OPM to address proper classification for our firefighters and we trust that the information surrounding this audit will not sit well with the congressman.

We are extremely fortunate and honored however to have one of our own members appearing at the scheduled meeting in Portland on April 4-5 as an engine captain from R5. It is our hope that the matter will conclude that engine captain complexity has increased to the point that perhaps a rating of GS-9 in more appropriate. Let the Forest Service swallow that one!

With all these issues attacking our firefighters at the start of what could be a very nasty season, the FWFSA has earned the opportunity to provide questions to the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands & Forests which will in turn pose those questions to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey in a hearing scheduled April 5th in Washington DC to discuss the FY ’05 fire season and the land management agency preparedness for FY ’06.

After input from a number of sources I have crafted the questions and forwarded them to committee staff. The questions will address each of the issues mentioned above and while professionally framed, will nonetheless be pointed enough to ensure Chief Bosworth and other land management agencies that we do have congress’ ear on the issues and they are taking said issues seriously.

UPDATE ON PORTAL TO PORTAL LEGISLATION

The access provided to us by the Senate on our issues will hopefully lead to a senate companion bill soon. Having the same bill in both the House & Senate opens additional avenues for moving the legislation. Our focus now is to educate congress that providing our federal wildland firefighters with proper compensation does not require additional appropriations but rather a change in the way the land management agencies spend their appropriated dollars.

The fact that we are able to demonstrate to congress that funding is being diverted from fire to other projects validates our belief that if fiscal management was required by the land management agencies, sufficient funds would exist in current budgets to not only pay our firefighters portal to portal but eliminate many of the recruitment and retention problems we see.

OUR MEMBERSHIP IS GROWING

I have been extremely pleased with the growth in membership within the FWFSA in just the last two months. We continue to be honored by those who put their faith in us as an organization to amplify their voice in changing the status quo to improve pay, benefits & working conditions for all of you.

As a note, for all our members, please note that the Members Only area on the home page of our web site does not have any content yet. The password each of you has been sent recently is specifically for your FWFSA website email account and not for the Members only site. The entire site is still evolving and we sincerely appreciate your patience.

As a final note, although much of the information contained in this update deals with the Forest Service, it is imperative that we hear from our members employed by BLM, the Park Service, BIA & Fish & Wildlife as to what is going on in those agencies. The Forest Service gets the most play but we want to ensure our members in all agencies that we are there for them. If there are unique issues facing you, or a particular region, we need to hear from you.

A more detailed email to our members at their FWFSA email addresses will be forthcoming after the Senate hearings later this week.

Thanks for reading…

~JOIN ONLINE~

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