The Education of Washington Staffers and their "Bosses" -- the Senate and House Congressional Representatives

Ab Note: This is an example of what our wildland firefighter advocates from FWFSA do with their time. I offer MY THANKS to Casey Judd, business manager for FWFSA and thanks to those from FWFSA who go to Washington on the behalf of wildland firefighters. We are PROFESSIONALS. Thanks for spreading the word.

This document reflects the importance of the Washington "Staffers" that we must educate to our work and pay reality for us to gain effective entree to Senators who create and vote on legislation. Such staffers are the GATEWAY to legislators. We need to let them know the reality. Casey

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Here's an example of someone who doesn't YET have a clue into the realities of wildland firefighting. Do you think this person will paint a realistic picture of what we do and what our issues are for his "boss"? I think NOT. Ab.

Mr. Frank Gladics is a "Staffer" who works for New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, Chairman of the Senate committee on Energy & Natural Resources. Here are some disturbing quotes that indicate his, and therefore Domenici's, abysmal lack of understanding of the work and pay situation of federal wildland firefighters. Casey

"Let me see if I understand this – these folks think they should be paid for the time they are sleeping or are sitting in a fire camp eating free food?"

"I will have great difficulty explaining to my bosses that we want to pay people 24 hours a day – unless the hourly rate that we pay them is severely reduced."

"Look the agencies spent $1.2 billion dollars last year to fight 3.9 million acres of fires. If they continue to expend money at that rate, they would have spent $2.2 billion dollars for the 2000 fire season. We added a $500 million reserve account in the budget resolution to cover fire borrowing – as near as I can tell the CA fires last fall will consume at least $200 if not $250 million of that extra money if we have the same season this year as we had last year. The passage of hr 2963 would consume so much funding that the agency will be borrowing an amount equal to the non-fire related accounts that they hold and there is no way I can conceive that Congress will increase the Forest Service budget to the 6 or 7 billion dollars something like this legislative proposal could cost in a bad fire year. HR 2963 is a budget buster."

"Finally, the agencies' comments about this leading to games with the high three average for retirement is likely understated. Those games are already being played and that adds cost to the retirement system that stay with us until the 60% of the Forest Service employees who will be eligible to retire within the next five years pass on. I am not convinced that those costs will not bankrupt the agency under current law and pay rates."

"Do not look for me to recommend this to my bosses – I find it extremely troubling."

"If as the proponents of this legislation claim that cities and counties pay so much more money - I would suspect that no one would be willing to go fight fires for the agencies and that clearly has not been the case. The federal wildland fire fighters are free to apply for these high paying municipal and state and county positions, and I am sure that some do. Until I have the federal agencies testifying that they cannot find qualified people to apply for the fire fighting positions they have to offer, I will be had pressed to recommend to my bosses that anyone get paid 24 hours per day."

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In contrast, here's an example CORRESPONDENCE with two Staffers who are open to and who are becoming educated in the realities of wildland firefighting issues. They, in turn, can effectively brief their "boss". Ab.

Here's my email containing information and saying thanks to John Watts and Craig Harper, Staffers for Senator Feinstein. We have educated her and her office to the benefit of wildland firefighters and they are working on our behalf. Casey

-----Original Message-----
From: FWFSAlobby@aol.com [mailto:FWFSAlobby@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 11:23 PM
To: Watts, John (Feinstein); Harper, Craig (Feinstein)
Cc: Gladics, Frank (Energy)
Subject: Federal Wildland FireService Assn./HR 2963 Documents

John & Craig:

Thanks for taking the time to speak with me yesterday. As I indicated, Senator Feinstein has been incredibly helpful to me personally over the years as we went through the closure process at McClellan AFB and has been a great supporter of our federal firefighter issues. With her work with Rep. Pombo on the Healthy Forest Initiative, it simply makes sense to have her introduce, or co-introduce a senate version of HR 2963, the Federal Wildland Firefighter Emergency Response Compensation Act. I must say its a great title...I penned it!!

Attached are the following documents:

* Copy of HR 2963

* FWFSA Position Paper on the issue(s)

* Internal Discussion Draft (prepared by the Agency and sent to Rep. Pombo's office prior to the introduction of the bill last summer and again to the House Civil Service & Agency Organization Subcommittee about two months ago.

* Our response to the Agency "draft."

Hopefully this will be OK for starters. Since I am heading to DC in a few weeks as I indicated, I will bring some "data" with me that I think will demonstrate the clear disparity between what the government pays contractors and "cooperators" vs their own federal employees.

As I indicated, there is also significant Congressional Record on the subject as a result of our testimony before the Civil Service Subcommittee and the Forest & Forest Health Subcommittee during the 106th Congress. Doug Crandle was extremely helpful in preparing us for the testimony and working with us so that we could truly illustrate to the committee members what our folks go through in a wildfire situation.

Should you have any questions as you peruse this stuff, please feel free to give me a call at 916-515-1224 or e-mail me. Thanks so much for your help and consideration on this. Please pass along my warmest regards to Senator Feinstein. Maybe someday I'll actually get to say Hi to her again.

Casey Judd
Business Manager
Federal Wildland Fire Service Assn.