President Donald Trump has repeatedly exhorted California officials to take more aggressive wildfire prevention measures, including “raking” the forest floors. But a new White House funding freeze has put many of those projects on hold, raising the risk of more catastrophic wildfires.
The freeze affects $3 billion in wildfire mitigation funding included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act — two pieces of hallmark legislation signed by Joe Biden. The money has been halted pending a review to “ensure consistency” with Trump’s executive orders. As a result, the Bureau of Land Management has paused all vegetation management projects funded by these laws. That includes fuel reduction work planned for 770,000 acres of land nationwide.
Additionally, “Lomakatsi Restoration Project, a forest management nonprofit that develops and implements programs to reduce hazardous fuels and wildfire threat in Oregon, northern California and Idaho, has stopped work on projects funded by Biden’s legislation, which provides 65% of its $17 million budget,” the Associated Press reports.
“It just doesn’t make good business sense to keep operating, not knowing if we’re going to get paid or if at some point the administration is going to rescind some of this,” Executive Director Marko Bey told the AP. He has laid off 15 employees.
The freeze has affected $1 billion in Community Wildfire Defense grants to boot. This program assists local governments in fire-prone areas with risk assessments, community outreach, brush clearance, and other fuel reduction measures.
“We can’t even buy the rakes, if we wanted to rake the forests,” said Steven Gutierrez — a former firefighter and current head of the National Federation of Federal Employees — in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Democratic senators say the freeze on congressionally-appropriated funding is illegal.
“Not only does the Constitution vest the power of the purse with Congress and provide no power to the President to impound funds, but there have been several bedrock fiscal statutes enacted to protect Congress’ constitutional power of the purse and prevent unlawful executive overreach, including the Antideficiency Act and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA),” wrote Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) and some of his colleagues in a letter to Trump officials.
Will the legal system — sluggish and procedural by nature — be able to act in time? The official start of California’s wildfire season is just a few months away.