The Trump administration’s proposal to cut off funding for state and private forestry programs would threaten programs with bipartisan support, House Democrats said at a hearing.
A House Natural Resources hearing on wildfire and forestry bills saw Democrats charging that eliminating the funds for the coming fiscal year would hobble one of the very measures the GOP majority is looking to push through, among other consequences.
At issue is a range of programs that help states, localities and conservation organizations manage nonfederal lands, including for wildfire prevention and reforestation. Congress funded state and private forestry at $284 million this year.
One budget casualty, Democrats on the Subcommittee on Federal Lands said, could be the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, a network of three research programs at universities in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona that gets around $7 million in annual federal funding.
