On April 21 Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen recorded another in a series of what she calls “selfie videos” in which she gives her take on recent activities within the agency. The Chief has done this on a number of occasions. They are informal and are sometimes recorded on a cell phone.
She began the most recent edition by talking about the weather, volunteers, Earth Day, Administrative Professionals Day, and telework, before shifting to her testimony April 15 before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The purpose of the hearing was to discuss with members of Congress the proposed budget for the Forest Service for the fiscal year that begins October 1, 2021. It was pointed out critically on this website on April 17 that during the hearing she had two clear opportunities to accept or ask for more funding in two very important inadequately budgeted areas, fuels treatment and aerial firefighting.
You can watch the complete video at the bottom of this article. The Forest Service provided a “lightly edited for clarity transcript”, a portion of which is below. The Chief started talking about the hearing at 6:15. The transcript below begins at 7:10 after she introduced the topic in general terms.
…So, it was a really great hearing, it was my opportunity to really showcase all the great work that you all are doing. And if some of you aren’t familiar with the budget process, it’s a little bit complex, especially this year with this new administration coming in. They didn’t have the time to develop a full budget proposal. So, last week, what’s called the budget blueprint came out, and it’s just the high-level funding that the administration recommends to meet the priorities of the administration. You may notice, if you’re paying attention, there are some initiatives that bump up the Forest Service’s proposed budget in that budget blueprint. They’re high level, and there’s not a lot of detail, but it’s around our work to create resiliency for wildfire, climate change work and additional science resources.
The full budget won’t be out until the middle of May, so it was a little bit of a unique time to have a budget hearing because I really couldn’t talk about the administration’s full proposal because it’s not out yet. And, oftentimes, people ask me, “Chief, why don’t you just ask for all the money we need?” and the process is: we’re part of a big family, all right? The Forest Service is a part of a big federal family, and just to give you context, there’s $769 billion of discretionary funds for non-defense spending for all of the federal government. So, all of the appropriations committees in Congress divvy that out and those subcommittees then help decide based on the administration’s budget proposals how they’re going to prioritize and then how they’re going to negotiate with the other chamber—in this case it would be with the Senate—on a final budget construct. So, we’re part of that bigger federal family. We certainly talk about what we can do, I talk about our science, I talk about the challenges we face, but we’re a part, again, of that bigger family budget that is delivered as one administration and, in this case, right now, we only have that blueprint.
So, in the hearing last week, I got a lot of great questions about how we could invest in making a difference on the landscape and in serving the American people. I highlighted how Forest Service has really risen to the challenge in a very difficult year, how important it is that we steward the nation’s forests and serve the American people, the wildfire crisis that is before us, and that we really need to have a paradigm shift, quite frankly, in matching the work that we need to do to create more resilience on the landscape at the scope and scale to meet the challenge. I talked about the infrastructure and, of course, the resources that Congress gave us last year through the Great American Outdoors Act and how important that is in being able to provide a better experience for the American people, but also to provide critical jobs: jobs near national forests, particularly in rural areas, and we were really mindful of the job creation of that important investment that Congress had made.
So, it’s conversational; it was a virtual hearing, I did go into my office. I did it from my office, and we’re really figuring out how to even do hearings virtually. It will be provided in a link from this selfie video if you do want to take the time to watch it. It’s about an hour-and-a-half long but you can, of course, speed through the parts you don’t want to hear. And there was also, by the way, some really good engagement about our state and private mission area; you know, providing the capacity and the resources through our state forestry agencies and other partners for urban forestry and stewardship forestry, forest health and all the rest. So, really good conversations about state and private and our need and how we show up with our really important science in the Forest Service. So, one down, three more to go. The other three will likely be after the full budget comes out, so that will be a little bit of a regular way that we would do budget hearings.
Probably more than you ever wanted to know about budget and budget processes, but I know folks ask me, “Why don’t you just ask for more money, Chief?” and I want to give you a little bit of how the process works. So, I talk about the great work you do and how we’re a good investment and what the needs are on the ground.
I just signed my leadership intent letter for wildfire for the 2021 season, so that will be hitting all of your mailboxes. Look for that, and I think I’m going to try to do a little selfie video to give some highlights about the 2021 wildfire letter. For now, I’m going to call it a wrap.
I hope you all have a great day and a great rest of your week. Thank you for what you do. Stay safe and be well.
(end of transcript)
The “Leadership Intent letter” mentioned by the Chief can be downloaded here. Not much is surprising in the two-page document, but she does refer to COVID-19:
We will continue to use the foundational risk management practices that enabled success in 2020, including consistent mask use, small dispersed fire camps, remote incident management, enhanced safety protocols in our logistical contracts, and continued COVID-19 screening and testing of firefighters.
She also said vaccinations are good, safety is good, sexual harassment is bad, fuel treatment is good, and the Cohesive Strategy is good.
