Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Chair John Boozman said he’d oppose moving the Forest Service out of the Department of Agriculture, further dampening a long-brewing idea that’s attracted new attention with the Trump administration’s overhaul of the agency.
Boozman (R-Ark.) said he’d be open to another Forest Service move — migrating only wildfire management to the Interior Department — but that the USDA is a politically steadier home for forest programs and has housed the forest agency for more than 100 years.
“It’s a pretty noncontroversial agency,” Boozman said of the USDA, speaking to agriculture reporters.
The Trump administration supports moving wildfire management out of the Forest Service, but not lifting the entire forest agency out of the USDA. Still, the administration’s looming reorganization of the Forest Service and the wildfire proposal have fed speculation among agency retirees and others that those actions could set the table for an easier all-out transfer later.
