did y'all read this?
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...s_Militia.html
Thursday, September 14, 2006 · Last updated 2:53 p.m. PT
Forest Service fire militia threatened by outsourcing, groups say
By CHRISTOPHER SMITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BOISE, Idaho -- A Bush administration study on whether some jobs in the U.S. Forest Service could be done better by private contractors compromises the agency's in-house firefighting force, say groups representing federal employees.
Administration officials dispute the claim. But the question of whether "competitive sourcing" studies - which determine whether nongovernment activities should be kept in-house or turned over to private firms - undermine the "fire militia" has caught the attention of Congress.
The Government Accountability Office earlier this year began a study, still under way, after a bipartisan group of senators asked if the outsourcing competition studies give enough consideration to the Forest Service's long-term ability to manage wildfires.
While Congress has prohibited the Forest Service and the Interior Department from studying outsourcing of federal jobs that are dedicated to fire suppression and management full time, there's no similar protection for staffers in other jobs who are cross-trained in fire duties, say union officials, wildland firefighter associations and watchdog groups.
"If you outsource Clark Kent, what are you going to do when you need Superman?" said Mark Davis, a Forest Service chemist in Madison, Wis., who's a member of the Forest Service Council, an arm of the union representing federal employees. "They are making outsourcing decisions based on a program that gives no consideration to the fire qualifications of the employees."
Some employees of federal land management agencies are summoned to fire duty from their regular jobs, such as wildlife biologists, payroll clerks and maintenance workers, when full-time and seasonal firefighters are in short supply. That happened this year, when the fire militia was activated in late July as the number and size of fires overwhelmed existing resources.
Currently, almost all of the national and regional fire management teams directing suppression efforts on wildfires are made up of Forest Service and Interior Department employees who have been temporarily assigned from their "day jobs" to work fire duty.
Forest Service officials say the studies of potential public-private job competitions recognize fire suppression and management is "mission critical" to the agency.
"Fire resources are not going to be hurt by competitive sourcing or any other studies being done," said Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh in Washington, D.C.
If fire support is identified as part of a particular job, that requirement would be included in any proposal seeking outside contractors to do the work cheaper and more efficiently, said Jacqueline Myers, the Forest Service's competitive sourcing director.
Fire duty is a minor component of most Forest Service employee's job performance, with less than 5 percent of their time actually dedicated to supporting the suppression mission, she said.
"It's a myth those folks are out on fire lines all the time," Myers told The Associated Press. "If we have more fires, we hire more temps and contractors. We don't send everyday Forest Service employees out to do that stuff."
Employees who leave their usual jobs and join fire teams are specially trained and certified to work in a firefighting environment. But the number of regular employees who are getting that special fire certification is dropping because of fewer incentives being offered by the agencies, said Casey Judd, head of the Idaho-based Federal Wildland Fire Service Association.
"They've failed to address recruitment and retention of the fire militia even though the Forest Service has relied on it for years," said Judd. "Rather than strengthening it, they now want to go out and hire private firefighters for three times the rate federal folks cost."
Myers said the agency is proceeding with the best interests of the forest resource and taxpayers in mind, but acknowledges the studies stir passionate responses among employees.
"A very small percentage of jobs examined have ever gone external because the federal work force is doing a good job," she said. "But I work for the public and it's my responsibility to make sure I am spending their money well."
An insult to FS fire militia. They think they can just go out and hire a new temp or a contractor to replace someone with 1o years of fire experience on a moment's notice during a big season like this? Bullshit.
