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SJM8015 • 2026
Requesting Congress to ensure that federal wildfire response entities have the capacity to protect communities and infrastructure, limit impacts to natural resources and watersheds, and protect wildland firefighter health and safety.
This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.
Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.
Federal wildfire response
By resolution, returned to Senate Rules Committee for third reading.
Federal wildfire response
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF 1 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF 2 THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE 3 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE 4 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR: 5 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of 6 the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, 7 respectfully represent and petition as follows: 8 WHEREAS, President Trump signed Executive Order 14308 on June 12, 9 2025, directing the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to, 10 among other things, consolidate their wildland fire programs to 11 achieve the most efficient and effective use of wildland fire 12 offices, budgets, and programs; and 13 WHEREAS, In response to this directive, the Secretary of the 14 Interior signed Secretarial Order 3443 on September 10, 2025, 15 directing the creation of a plan for consolidation and the 16 establishment of a United States Wildland Fire Service reporting 17 directly to the Secretary of Interior; and 18 WHEREAS, Secretarial Order 3443 also directs the consolidation 19 plan to be complete and approved by the Secretary prior to the 20 implementation date of January 12, 2026; and 21 WHEREAS, The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture issued 22 Secretarial Memorandum 1078-017, directing reforms to improve 23 S-4000.1 SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8015 State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session By Senators Short, Chapman, Dozier, Hasegawa, and Trudeau Read first time 01/19/26. Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources. p. 1 SJM 8015 performance, eliminate redundancies by consolidating key 1 administrative functions, and streamline the overall function of the 2 interagency wildfire response system; and 3 WHEREAS, The United States Forest Service had a reported 4 reduction of 5,000 employees and the Department of Interior had a 5 reported reduction of 7,500 employees through the Deferred 6 Resignation Program and Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and the 7 federal administration has announced plans for additional reductions 8 in force, but it is unclear what the additional reductions will 9 include; and 10 WHEREAS, It is unknown how many of these reductions impacted 11 staff that participated in wildland fire response, including the 12 potential reduction in the number of available Complex Incident 13 Management Teams; and 14 WHEREAS, Given this uncertainty, it is critical that Washington 15 State at a minimum maintain, but ideally strengthen, its own wildfire 16 response, invest in forest management, and ensure communities are 17 prepared due to the uncertainties in the federal firefighting 18 capacity and structure; 19 NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully request that the 20 federal government take appropriate steps to ensure the federal 21 wildfire response entities have the capacity to protect communities 22 and infrastructure, limit impacts to natural resources and 23 watersheds, and conduct these activities in a manner that protects 24 wildland firefighter health and safety, including through the 25 following: 26 (1) Ensure that the consolidation of the Department of Interior 27 Wildland Fire Service be fully operational and staffed by April 1, 28 2026, to enable a coordinated, cohesive response capability ahead of 29 the 2026 wildfire season; 30 (2) Delay any further reorganization, which may include the 31 United States Forest Service, until wildland fire activity has 32 subsided nationally to a Preparedness Level 2; and33 (3) Provide that the unification process, if implemented, should 34 be done carefully and deliberately to avoid reduction of wildland 35 firefighting capacity in 2027. 36 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 37 transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker 38 of the House of Representatives, each member of Congress from the 39 State of Washington, the Secretary of the United States Department of 40 p. 2 SJM 8015 Agriculture, and the Secretary of the United States Department of the 1 Interior. 2 --- END --- p. 3 SJM 8015