\U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and other Senate Democrats are calling on the Forest Service chief to explain alleged discrepancies in his accounting for ongoing payouts of thousands of Forest Service employees who opted into early retirements or resignations earlier this year.
The lawmakers’ Sept. 9 letter notes that Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz has identified two contradictory funding sources for accrued sick leave and vacation payments to roughly 5,000 Forest Service employees who opted into the Deferred Resignation Program during government-wide buyouts this spring.
One of those funding sources, from an account typically used for forest research and local forestry, paid out more than federal Agriculture Department leaders said is necessary to cover the expenses. The other funding source imposes limits on the amount of spending for salaries, according to the letter.
“These significant discrepancies require clarification and accounting to Congress,” the senators wrote in the letter. Along with Heinrich, other signers included U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.)
According to the letter, the resignations require at least $48 million this fiscal year for Forest Service employees. However, the senators are calling on the Forest Service to account for exactly how much early retirements and resignations programs cost taxpayers.
The reduction in Forest Service employees, done at the urging of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” aimed to cut federal spending and occurred alongside widespread layoffs, including in New Mexico.
According to a spreadsheet Heinrich’s office provided to Source New Mexico, 372 Forest Service employees in New Mexico accepted the deferred resignation offer. They made up the vast majority of 500 New Mexico USDA employees who took the offer, according to the spreadsheet.
In addition to the resignations, several dozen Forest Service employees were fired in New Mexico, though many were later re-hired.
A spokesperson for the Forest Service did not immediately respond to Source New Mexico’s question about that number or a response to the senators’ letter.
The letter gives the Forest Service until Sept. 22 to reply to nine questions about the funding and where it comes from, including why Schultz gave different answers about the funding source. It also seeks a detailed accounting of how much will be required to pay out salaries, expenses and accrued leave as of the day they stopped reporting to work.
