Read first time 01/19/26.Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR:

We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, President Trump signed Executive Order 14308 on June 12, 2025, directing the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to, among other things, consolidate their wildland fire programs to achieve the most efficient and effective use of wildland fire offices, budgets, and programs; and

WHEREAS, In response to this directive, the Secretary of the Interior signed Secretarial Order 3443 on September 10, 2025, directing the creation of a plan for consolidation and the establishment of a United States Wildland Fire Service reporting directly to the Secretary of Interior; and

WHEREAS, Secretarial Order 3443 also directs the consolidation plan to be complete and approved by the Secretary prior to the implementation date of January 12, 2026; and

WHEREAS, The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture issued Secretarial Memorandum 1078-017, directing reforms to improve performance, eliminate redundancies by consolidating key administrative functions, and streamline the overall function of the interagency wildfire response system; and

WHEREAS, The United States Forest Service had a reported reduction of 5,000 employees and the Department of Interior had a reported reduction of 7,500 employees through the Deferred Resignation Program and Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and the federal administration has announced plans for additional reductions in force, but it is unclear what the additional reductions will include; and

WHEREAS, It is unknown how many of these reductions impacted staff that participated in wildland fire response, including the potential reduction in the number of available Complex Incident Management Teams; and

WHEREAS, Given this uncertainty, it is critical that Washington State at a minimum maintain, but ideally strengthen, its own wildfire response, invest in forest management, and ensure communities are prepared due to the uncertainties in the federal firefighting capacity and structure;

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully request that the federal government take appropriate steps to ensure the federal wildfire response entities have the capacity to protect communities and infrastructure, limit impacts to natural resources and watersheds, and conduct these activities in a manner that protects wildland firefighter health and safety, including through the following:

(1) Ensure that the consolidation of the Department of Interior Wildland Fire Service be fully operational and staffed by April 1, 2026, to enable a coordinated, cohesive response capability ahead of the 2026 wildfire season;

(2) Delay any further reorganization, which may include the United States Forest Service, until wildland fire activity has subsided nationally to a Preparedness Level 2; and

(3) Provide that the unification process, if implemented, should be done carefully and deliberately to avoid reduction of wildland firefighting capacity in 2027.

BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, each member of Congress from the State of Washington, the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior.