House Democrats are touting legislation that would freeze potential layoffs at federal land management agencies through fiscal 2030, asserting that reductions via buyouts and early retirements in the first year of the Trump administration have created staffing shortfalls.
The “Public Lands Workforce Stability Act,” H.R. 8523, introduced late last month by Reps. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), would reinstate a moratorium on layoffs that expired earlier this year for the Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
“At a time when our public lands and nearby communities are struggling with a water, climate, and wildfire crises, we cannot afford to lose any more expertise,” Huffman, ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement Wednesday.
The proposal would pause any new reductions-in-force, the federal government’s term for layoffs, through fiscal 2030. The lawmakers touted the bill on the same day that House appropriators unveiled their fiscal 2027 Interior-Environment spending bill, which makes cuts across several agencies including the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.
