After our dysfunctional Congress shut down the federal government today, some wildland firefighters were sent home, furloughed at least temporarily without pay, while others continue to work, ready to suppress fires.
The U.S. Forest Service in a Contingency Plan written September 20 expected of their 32,015 employees that 41 percent would continue to work. This includes 9,800 who are engaged in:
- fire suppression activities,
- securing and protecting property at field locations including research facilities,
- managing some timber sale contracts.
An additional 1,400 USFS law enforcement personnel will continue to work.
Forest Service employees are under a gag order, prohibited from speaking about the furlough, how taxpayers’ money is being spent, and how our natural resources are being protected. All inquiries for even the most mundane of questions are being forwarded to their office in Washington, D.C.
A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture in Washington told us that the decisions about which USFS firefighters would continue to work or be laid off was made by the Regional Fire directors and the Forest Fire Management Officers.
The National Park Service decisions on the other hand are being made at the local level by the Park Superintendents. At Wind Cave NP the entire fire headquarters staff for the Northern Great Plains Area, which supports seven parks, is laid off along with the engine crew at Wind Cave, while the engine crew at Badlands NP will continue to work.
Approximately 75 percent of the firefighters at Yellowstone are being furloughed, but their fire season is winding down.
Some fire management personnel are being told that while they are on furlough they can’t take home their laptop computers or cell phones, but they will be subject to being unfurloughed on two-hour notice if they are needed for an emergency.
in 1995, the last time there was a government shutdown because of a dysfunctional Congress, the firefighters that were furloughed “without pay” actually were paid after the fiasco ended. They received a paid vacation.
The shutdown affects not only government employees, but the closure of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, for example, will result in over 3,500 employees of concessionaires in the parks being laid off.
Well sad to hear that the Congress will pay people that are laid off right now then pay the emergency services that have to stay open and work extra hours!!! That sounds ridiculous can’t the emergency services ask for higher pay ? Since they are having to pick up the slack since they have no coverage!!!
On a California hotshot crew currently, are being required to work full days on an unpaid status, with unknown date for payment. 3rd day on this schedule were extended extra hours due to red flag warnings.
This is interesting because a federal employee can’t be forced to work in a non-pay status, with a very few exceptions. I have never heard of a unknown date for payment promise. Unpaid availability was done by the park service many years ago requiring rangers to be on unpaid required availability and that led to a lawsuit and a massive payout by the park service. There is, or used to be, a pay status for being available. It opens a huge can of worms and questions of liability and expenditure of funds that are not there. I am not a expert on this but worked as a federal supervisor for a good while. Perhaps there is someone else who knows pay issues better then I.
One add on to your report – as far as I know, all Federal employees that were furloughed in 1995/96 were paid for the time they missed. Not so for contractors. Those contractors whose contracts were suspended were not paid for time missed by the Federal government. Their employer could pay them, if they so chose.
That’s correct and it created some bad feelings by critical position employees who had to work. Some employees got unintentional paid time off and those who had to work were not given paid time off later. I was told “Too bad, so sad” by my supervisor when I requested comp-time. He did not have to work.
All in all it’s a bad situation and certain members of congress are being complete jerks about holding the whole country hostage to petty politics.
I do not recall what happened to contractors.
Dear Bill,
It was nice speaking to you today, My husband works for US Forest Services as an Engineer. The emergency services are being forced to work a full shift without getting paid. My husband expressed his frustrations to me yesterday that an L.A USFS was interviewed yesterday and did not speak of such affect on the emergency services. They are open and unable to receive any leave at this time.
Sincerely,
unknown
How about the usfs firefighters that are not furloughed, but being required to work on an unpaid status until the resolution is complete with the promise of payment at an unknown time.
Bill, how will this affect federally contracted services such as air tankers and helicopters and support services like retardant bases and mixers? Lucky it is at the shoulder of the western US fire season.
I’m not Bill, but I can tell you what’s going on at my helitack base… helicopter is still on contract until the end of the MAP, but no flights unless it’s for an emergency (fire, SAR, whatever). Base is staffed with permanent employees during the furlough. Our temp seasonals were told to stay home until the shutdown is over.
Thanks Justin…. good information. What agency do you work for?
I hope we hear from other firefighters about what is going on in their part of the world and in their agency.
I’m Forest Service, R4. My Forest is keeping all of the permanent “suppression” fire folks working. Most fire overhead is working, and engines, handcrews, and helitack are minimally staffed. Fuels and prevention folks were all furloughed. Most temps are still technically employed until their scheduled layoff date, but as I said earlier, were not considered “essential” and are waiting it out at home.
If the shutdown goes on for a bit, we’ve been told that “normal” end dates still apply. The temps will be laid off as scheduled, and the 13/13s and 18/8s will work until the end of their normal tour. I’d imagine that if it goes that long we’ll receive some different direction at some point.