Meanwhile, Back at the Forest Service… Contracting and Procurement Face Extra Layers and Time for Approval

As we’ve been covering, in the last Administration, the FS gave hundreds of millions in grants without competition. In one of the all-time greatest pendulum swings ever, this Admin has removed purchasing cards from many units and also made it more difficult to do contracting and procurement.

Here’s the link:

The Department of Government Efficiency has instituted new layers of review at USFS, as it has at most federal agencies. Processes that typically took minutes are now taking a month or longer and a wide range of functions are feeling the impact. In some cases, that has led to trash piling up and pit toilets—restrooms that include only holes in the ground, as is common as Forest Service recreational centers and campgrounds—going uncleaned or unemptied.

Getting a contract approved for janitorial services, said one USFS who works on those procurements, previously took a day-and-a-half. With the added layers that DOGE has installed, it now takes six weeks.

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Another Forest Service employee who works in contracting said that even a modification of an existing contract, such as picking up an option year, goes to the General Services Administration and DOGE for approval. What previously took a maximum of 15 minutes now takes about a month to get money out the door.

When a new solicitation occurs, a “requisitioner” establishes what is needed, a senior executive signs off, the budget office approves the use of the funds, a contract coordinator conducts a review before this employee approves the solicitation going out. A new layer of review within USFS then conducts an extra review. The process essentially repeats itself when bids come in to select the best proposal. Once a winner is determined, DOGE personnel can either accept or reject the contract.

Another contracting officer said the process for getting procurements approved has changed 15 times since Trump took office.

The employee said DOGE has denied funding to continue using “sniffers”—a device that measures air quality to detect smoke or other pollutants. It has also eliminated support for a platform that agency firefighters use to get equipment, and for devices that track which of those supplies USFS has in stock.

The Trump administration has sought to put sweeping freezes on federal spending, but those efforts have largely been blocked in court. One contracting employee suggested the contracting restrictions were having the same effect: by making funding so difficult to obligate, it has essentially blocked congressionally appropriated funds from being expended.

‘Operational collapse’

Other employees said it has become difficult to purchase small things that need replacing, like when a trailer jack breaks. One worker said his forest was slated to plant over one million new trees for reforesting, but the contract to plant them has been held up for weeks. The trees become worthless if too much time passes and they are no longer the right size for planting. Another noted DOGE has slowed down the purchasing of firefighting helicopters for his local Helitack crew.

The contracting employee said leadership has expressed that any purchasing related to firefighting will be greenlit, but that has not been the case in practice.

“It’s kind of like they’re talking out of both ends of their mouth,” he said. “‘We’re all about fire and safety but we’re not supporting fire and safety.’”

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It seems odd that the FS doesn’t have an expedited review process within itself for safety and time-sensitive contracts and purchases, even if DOGE needs to review it. At one time when ASC was not paying our employees, our region established a strike team to get people paid. I wonder whether a “time sensitive strike team” might work to reduce the time to get to the DOGE review. Over time, as happened in the past, trust will be built and the reins loosened, but no seedlings should have to die before that happens. IMHO. People who know about this, please share your views in the comments.

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The cuts are having significant impacts. At some USFS locations, employees who work on wildland fire management are being pulled into cleaning duties. They are also working on issues ranging from marking trees for timber sales—Trump has issued an executive order calling for increased timber production, which led USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce USFS will boost logging by 25% and make 43 million acres, or 30% of forested USFS land, available for that purpose—to culling invasive frogs. One employee said the non-fire team as his location has lost 40% of its staffing, meaning firefighters are now doing the alternative work.
The cuts are having significant impacts. At some USFS locations, employees who work on wildland fire management are being pulled into cleaning duties. They are also working on issues ranging from marking trees for timber sales—Trump has issued an executive order calling for increased timber production, which led USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce USFS will boost logging by 25% and make 43 million acres, or 30% of forested USFS land, available for that purpose—to culling invasive frogs. One employee said the non-fire team as his location has lost 40% of its staffing, meaning firefighters are now doing the alternative work.

It’s interesting that many units are still doing prescribed burning (evidence on X with photos). Maybe it depends on how many employees were lost? And of course possibly looming on the horizon is the Mega Fire Agency. Which reminds me that Mega Fire Action has four positions open, including a federal policy advisor.
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