Trump Admin Grants Columbia One-Day Extension To Implement Reforms...

Boeing Will Build US Air Force's Next-Gen Stealth Fighter Jet, Trump Announces...

Trump defends efforts to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua...

'Rumor Has It' Judge Boasberg 'Requested' Rmvl of Wife's Pro-Abortion, Trump Trashing Podcast Video...

Congressional Republicans threaten revolt over Trump-led defence shake-up...

Trump secures pay increase for wildland firefighters while DOGE fires critical support staff

Wildland firefighters will keep a 4-year-old pay hike under a GOP-led spending bill signed by President Donald Trump, but many worry that mass federal worker firings will leave the nation more vulnerable to wildfires.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday credited Trump with securing the pay increase in a post on the social media site X. He said the administration is grateful to firefighters who he said "embody the American spirit by selflessly risking their lives to protect their neighbors, protect their communities and preserve our natural heritage."

The permanent pay raise comes as Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has cut about 3,400 workers at the U.S. Forest Service, about 1,000 at the National Park Service and another 1,000 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Many of those workers kept trails free of debris, oversaw prescribed burns, thinned forests and were specially trained to work with firefighters. They say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires.

Indiscriminate firings

"What I'm hearing from my constituents who actually fight fires in Washington state is that Trump and Elon are making wildland firefighters' jobs far more difficult and far more dangerous by indiscriminately firing thousands of Forest