Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee is working to move the U.S. Forest Service out of the Department of Agriculture and into the Department of the Interior. The Utah Republican is preparing legislation known as the “Forest Service Reorganization Act of 2025,” which would reverse a decision made more than a century ago under President Theodore Roosevelt, when the Forest Service was transferred to the USDA in 1905.
According to a draft obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, Lee’s proposal would return the Forest Service to its historic home under the Interior Department, aligning it more closely with agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. The draft also calls for the Forest Service chief to become a political appointee, subject to Senate confirmation—a significant shift from the current structure.
Another key feature of Lee’s legislation is the creation of a separate wildland fire agency within the Interior Department, an idea he has long promoted as a way to streamline and strengthen federal wildfire response efforts. The bill would also waive overtime pay caps for wildland firefighters, addressing ongoing concerns about workforce retention and pay equity amid increasingly severe fire seasons.
In June, President Donald Trump issued an executive order related to forest management but stopped short of calling for the creation of a dedicated wildland fire agency, signaling that such a move would likely be left to Congress. Lee’s plan would take that next step, reshaping how the federal government manages forests and wildland fire operations nationwide.