{"id":38190,"date":"2025-02-07T02:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T08:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38190"},"modified":"2025-02-07T02:03:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T08:03:37","slug":"trumps-freeze-stalls-federal-firefighter-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38190","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s freeze stalls federal firefighter hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Trump administration\u2019s federal hiring freeze has stopped the onboarding of thousands of seasonal federal firefighters, including those who work for agencies called on to help battle the devastating Los Angeles<\/a>-area<\/a>\u2002fires<\/a>, creating a potential shortfall of firefighters ahead of the next fire season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though President Donald Trump\u2019s Jan. 20 executive order says the freeze does not apply to positions related to \u201cpublic safety,\u201d federal firefighters are not exempt, according to a person who works in hiring at the Bureau of Land Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service employ more than 15,000 career and temporary seasonal firefighters who perform fuel management, fight wildland fires and assist other jurisdictions in emergencies as part of the National Incident Management System. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In at least one field office for the Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Interior Department, officials involved in annual hiring were instructed in an email reviewed by NBC News to \u201chold all offers related to fire positions\u201d because of the freeze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency \u201cwas already in the middle of hiring their summer [fire] workforce when the federal hiring freeze came down,\u201d a federal hiring manager in Utah told NBC affiliate\u2002KSL in Salt Lake City<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another BLM official involved in hiring said, \u201cThe level of stupidity and negligence here is enraging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat if there\u2019s nobody to show up? How many people died with garden hoses in their hands?\u201d the person said. \u201cThe people making these decisions \u2014 they\u2019re not the ones whose houses are going to burn down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiring federal firefighters is a lengthy process because of federal background checks, and any delay in the process raises concerns about an understaffed federal firefighting force, especially in the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County, which killed at least 29 people and destroyed or damaged more than 18,000 structures, wiping out entire neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFederal firefighters are the backbone of protecting public safety and putting fires out in the state of California,\u201d Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said Thursday. \u201cAny lack of hiring puts both federal forested land and California citizens at risk.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom told NBC News last month that the fires would be the\u2002costliest in U.S. history<\/a> in terms of destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News witnessed U.S. Forest Service firefighters respond to the Palisades Fire, and they also battled the Eaton Fire in Angeles National Forest, where they deployed five large air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines, according to the publication\u2002Government Executive<\/a>, which covers federal business news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal crews are credited with saving a neighborhood in the Eaton Fire, according to video obtained by\u2002KTLA-TV of Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forest Service, the largest of the federal firefighting agencies, is under a departmentwide hiring freeze, according to a\u2002Jan. 21 memo<\/a> from Gary Washington, acting secretary of the Agriculture Department, which oversees the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this time, there are no exceptions to the hiring freeze with respect to the Department,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAccordingly, effective immediately, agencies and offices are not authorized to extend an offer of employment to any person. Persons to whom an offer of employment has been extended, but acceptance has not been received, shall be contacted immediately and be informed that the offer has been revoked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Gutierrez, a member of the National Federation of Federal Employees, confirmed that offers had been revoked and said the hiring freeze is made more complicated by other efforts to thin the federal workforce when there is already a shortage of federal firefighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gutierrez, a 15-year veteran with the Forest Service on hotshot crews and engines, said thousands of firefighters on probationary status are at risk of termination, as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was hoping that there would be an exception or exemption to this,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal hiring freeze in 2017 exempted firefighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interior Department said in a statement Thursday that it is \u201cimplementing President Donald J. Trump\u2019s Executive Order<\/a> across the federal civilian workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forest Service said in a statement that it is \u201cactively working with OPM on its wildland firefighting positions,\u201d referring to the White House Office of Personnel Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Park Service, the White House and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates the efforts of federal firefighters, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sergio Gor, the White House director of presidential personnel, told Fox News<\/a>, referring to the freeze but not firefighters specifically, that \u201cthe hiring freeze in place is enabling us to vet new people coming in and to other positions, also, but you have to clean house. Look, it\u2019s one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gutierrez, the union leader, said that in addition to the hiring freeze, a buyout offer letter sent to the federal workforce also went to current federal firefighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how this could happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a slap in the face to these brave men and women who are out there contributing to the public service and saving communities, only to be on the hillside saying, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s your resignation letter \u2014 sign by this date.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Trump administration\u2019s federal hiring freeze has stopped the onboarding of thousands of seasonal federal firefighters, including those who work for agencies called on to help battle the devastating Los Angeles-area\u2002fires, creating a potential shortfall of firefighters ahead of the next fire season. Even though President Donald Trump\u2019s Jan. 20 executive order says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32294,8850,32295,1230],"class_list":["post-38190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-federal-hiring","tag-firefighters","tag-policy-freeze","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38192,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38190\/revisions\/38192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}