WASHINGTON – Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) and Forestry Subcommittee Ranking Member Andrea Salinas (OR-06) led a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins regarding reports that USDA Under Secretary Michael Boren inappropriately pressured U.S. Forest Service personnel to divert firefighting resources from large wildfires to protect his private ranch in Idaho.
Ranking Members Craig and Salinas were joined on the letter by U.S. Representatives Shontel Brown (OH-11), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Jill Tokuda (HI-02) and Jim Costa (CA-21).
“Officials responsible for our National Forests should be focused on allocating wildfire resources through the established wildfire management response systems based on an objective analysis of risk and need, not pressure from a senior political appointee to protect his private property,” write the lawmakers. “Every aircraft that was diverted to the Cabin Creek Fire was an aircraft that could have been fighting another fire in the region thereby protecting another rural community.”
