FS & BLM Funding

[Grumpy]

Things don’t look too promising on funding issues for those agencies falling under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior such as the National Park Service (NPS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Senate Appropriations Committee completed its work on allocating spending limits for the various subcommittees under its jurisdiction (these are called 302 (b) allocations under the Budget Control Act of 1974) and gave the Interior Subcommittee $400 million less to work with than current funding levels in FY15. This means there is going to be a fiscal haircut at the Interior Department as well as the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) since it also falls under the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee. Given that the cost of fighting wildfires continues to rise and particularly so this year with the severe drought conditions in the western part of the U.S., the NPS, the BLM and the USFS are all going to have to do more with less. No doubt this will have an impact on recreational activities on these public lands.