The Department of Agriculture is using a slimmed-down approach to decide who will provide a study on handing wildfire management on national forests over to the Interior Department.
USDA, which oversees the Forest Service and its extensive wildfire program, is taking quotes from contractors for the next week on a feasibility study, casting aside the potentially more complicated formal request for proposals that officials had previously discussed.
Consolidating wildfire management efforts at the Interior Department’s Wildland Fire Service is one of the Trump administration’s top land management goals and was included in its budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, as well as in the prior year’s request. Congress directed the study in an appropriations measure for this current year.
In a performance work statement describing USDA’s goals, the agency said it’s sending the request for quotes specifically to vendors already in the federal government’s contracting system rather than making a public appeal.
