A prominent California fire boss has “tentatively accepted” the job of leading a federal wildland fire service that doesn’t yet exist.
On December 5, Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy announced he was retiring from his California post and being onboarded as new director of the United States Wildland Fire Service. In a letter to his fellow firefighters, Fennessy said the “newly created” service would become effective January 12, 2026.
“The creation of the USWFS represents a historic opportunity to strengthen interagency coordination, modernize capabilities, and elevate the profession of wildland firefighting,” Fennessy wrote in the letter.
But despite almost a year’s worth of discussion, the proposed consolidation of federal firefighting resources hasn’t taken place. And so far, Congress has specifically refused to fund the plan, although that may change in some last-minute budget maneuvers.
Fennessy did not respond to requests for comment. His selection, however, won quick praise from the national group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, which called him a “leader capable of modernizing federal wildland fire management.” In the same statement, the group warned that the Forest Service was failing its firefighting mission through “indecision, non-fire leadership appointments and slow action on workforce reform.” It also called for full consolidation of Forest Service and Interior fire programs.
The wildland fire service was among President Donald Trump’s early initiatives in his second term. Montana Senator Tim Sheehy authored a “Fit For Service” bill in February ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, and Interior Department to present a design for the combined firefighting force. Draft proposals circulated through the Forest Service and firefighting communities last spring, drawing criticism for emphasizing a “full suppression” strategy toward every wildfire, an approach that ran counter to scientific research on fire behavior.
In June, the administration’s budget proposals for USDA and Interior both included plans to shift all the federal firefighting responsibility to a new program housed in the Interior Department. The leaders of Agriculture and Interior further detailed their intentions to form the combined firefighting force on September 15.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had also released a separate secretarial order on September 10, announcing a unified Wildland Fire Management Program. But that action only combined firefighting resources of the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs — all Interior sub-agencies. It did not apply to the Forest Service, which handles more than two-thirds of the national firefighting personnel and contracting.
Meanwhile, both the House and Senate budget committees refused to fund the Forest Service/Interior transfer. In separate moves, House members demanded a Government Accountability Office study of how the proposal would work, while their Senate colleagues specifically prohibited using federal funds to transfer Forest Service firefighting resources to Interior.
Although Sheehy’s bill would have been the enabling legislation for the firefighting service, it never got a committee hearing. Sheehy did not respond to numerous Mountain Journal requests for comment about the status of his legislation.
On December 5, Sheehy did tell Roll Call news service he had placed a hold on the Interior spending bill in an effort to remove the blocking language to the wildfire consolidation plan. Sheehy said those committee decisions prevented the “combination of the multiple firefighting agencies that we have across the federal government into one singular agency — which is what we have advocated for on a bipartisan basis.” The move succeeded, as Sheehy told Roll Call. “We’ve cleared that language,” he said, “so we should be good now.”
However, Sheehy’s block was just one of several holds senators placed on the Interior budget bill for various reasons. Those must also be cleared before the bill can come to a full Senate vote. And Sheehy has no authority over the House obstacle, which would also have to be removed.
Congress has until January 30 to pass a 2026 federal spending plan or risk another budget crisis. The government ended the longest shutdown in U.S. history on November 13, spanning 43 days, after congressional Republicans and Democrats deadlocked on spending priorities. All spending is now run through a continuing resolution, that temporarily maintains budgets at fiscal 2025 levels.
