Forest Service Appropriations: Five-Year Data and Trends and FY2017 Budget Request
Released: 2016-02-17T00:00:00

Introduction

The Forest Service (FS) is responsible for managing 193 million acres of the National Forest System, as well as for conducting forestry research and providing assistance to state, local, private, and international forest owners. Funding to complete such work is provided through both discretionary and mandatory appropriations (see Figure 1 ).

Although it is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the FS receives its discretionary appropriations through Title III of the regular Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. In some years, the FS has received additional discretionary monies through supplemental appropriations bills. In addition, continuing appropriations resolutions have been used to maintain funding for the agency when regular appropriations bills have not been enacted before the start of the fiscal year—and in some cases, such as with the FY2015 appropriations measure, to provide full-year funding.

The FS also receives annual mandatory appropriations under existing authorizing statutes. Laws authorizing mandatory appropriations allow the FS to spend money without further action by Congress. The budget authority for several of these mandatory spending accounts is dependent on revenue generated by activities on the national forests. Typically, these laws are permanent—such as the Timber Salvage Sale Fund—but sometimes the authorizations have a sunset date.

This report presents and analyzes the discretionary and mandatory appropriations for the FS over the five years from FY2012 to FY2016. It also includes a section on the President's FY2017 budget request.

Forest Service Discretionary Appropriations

FS discretionary appropriations—which account for 88% of total agency appropriations on average—are primarily divided among six main accounts, described below and listed in the same order as they generally appear in appropriations laws. The Wildland Fire Management and National Forest System accounts together receive nearly 85% of total FS discretionary appropriations (see Figure 2 ). FS budget requests and Interior Appropriations Subcommittee documents typically allocate monies at the account and subaccount levels, and in some cases, among specific programs and activities. Allocations below the account level generally are not addressed in this report.

The FS accounts are described briefly below:

Forest and Rangeland Research (FRR). The FRR account funds research and development efforts to provide scientific information and new technologies to support sustainable forest and rangeland management. Over the last five years, this account has averaged approximately 6% of FS discretionary appropriations. State and Private Forestry (S&PF). The S&PF account funds programs to provide financial and technical assistance to nonfederal forest owners and managers, and to protect communities and the environment from insects, diseases, and invasive plants. S&PF averages approximately 5% of FS discretionary appropriations. National Forest System (NFS). NFS appropriations fund management of the 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. This account includes several subaccounts, the largest of which is the Forest Products subaccount, which generally receives just over 20% of the NFS appropriation, and funds the Timber Sales program. The NFS account averaged approximately 28% of the FS discretionary appropriations over the last five years. Capital Improvement and Maintenance (CI&M). CI&M activities help the FS provide and maintain facilities, roads, trails, and other infrastructure needs. Over the last five years, the CI&M account received approximately 7% of FS discretionary appropriations. Land Acquisition (LA). LA activities allow the FS to acquire lands for conservation or ownership consolidation purposes. LA activities are funded primarily through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In addition to this LA account, Congress provides appropriations for two smaller land acquisition accounts. These two appropriations—one for special act land acquisitions and one to complete land exchanges—averaged $1.1 million annually over the last five years. For purposes of this report, those appropriations are included in the LA account. In total, LA received approximately 1% of FS discretionary appropriations on average over the last five years. Wildland Fire Management (WFM) and FLAME Wildfire Suppression Reserve Fund (FLAME) . The WFM account funds activities related to the management of unplanned and unwanted fires, including planning for and suppression of wildfires. The FLAME account was established under the Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Act of 2009 for emergency wildfire suppression activities. While FLAME is a separate account from WFM, for purposes of this report, the two accounts are combined. Funding for wildland fire management activities is sometimes provided outside of the regular Interior appropriations bills when there is a need (e.g., a severe fire season). In this report, these emergency or supplemental appropriations will be reflected in the WFM account. Together, WFM and FLAME appropriations, along with supplemental appropriations, averaged 54% of the FS discretionary appropriation over the last five years. Other. In addition to the larger accounts listed above, there are several relatively small accounts. They provide appropriations for the range betterment fund; the agency to give or receive gifts, donations, and bequests for research; and management of national forest lands for subsistence uses. Together, these "other" accounts received less than 0.5% of FS discretionary appropriations over the last five years.

The FS allocates the appropriations from these accounts among the nine FS regions, five research stations, two service centers and laboratories, and the national headquarters office in Washington, DC. For most accounts, once the funds have been allocated to the regions, the money is then further allocated to each national forest. Some accounts, however, are managed at a national level. For example, the wildfire suppression account is allocated based on need throughout the wildfire season. This can make analyzing appropriations by region or by forest challenging. Further, FS regions do not follow state boundaries, and many national forests cross state boundaries, which can make analyzing FS appropriations by state challenging. This level of detail is beyond the scope of this report.

Forest Service Mandatory Appropriations

The FS has more than 20 permanent appropriations accounts and 4 trust funds that constitute mandatory spending. Together, they account on average for about 12% of total agency appropriations. Budget authority for these accounts is provided in authorizing laws. For several of these accounts, the budget authority is dependent on the level of receipts received for specific National Forest System activities, and some may even have geographic or programmatic expenditure restrictions. For example, the Timber Sales Pipeline Restoration Fund authorizes the FS to collect a portion of the revenue from a specific set of national forest timber sales. The revenue is available in the FS region where it was generated for preparing future timber sales or conducting recreation projects.

Another example of a permanent appropriation is the Payments to States fund, which consists of several programs that are partially dependent on receipts. More specifically, the Payments to States Act of 1908 authorizes the FS to make payments to states—to be distributed to counties—based on a percentage of the revenue generated by activities in the national forests within those counties. The Payments to States fund also consists of payments authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, which are based on a formula dependent in part on historical receipts. The authorization for the Secure Rural Schools Act expired at the end of FY2013, but it was reauthorized in April 2015 ( P.L. 114-10 ). The reauthorization provided a makeup payment to be made in FY2015 for the payment missed during the period the program was expired, as well as a payment to be made in FY2016.

Appropriations Data and Analysis

Forest Service requested and enacted discretionary appropriations and mandatory appropriations for FY2012 through FY2016 are provided in several figures and tables. Specifically,

Figure 1 and Table 1 provide FS total discretionary and mandatory appropriations in current and constant dollars; Figure 2 shows enacted discretionary appropriations by WFM, NFS, and all other FS accounts in current and constant dollars; Figure 3 and Table 4 (at the end of the report) provide side-by-side comparisons of FS discretionary budget requests and discretionary appropriations; Figure 4 shows the difference between requested and enacted discretionary appropriations by WFM, NFS, and all other FS accounts; Table 2 contains enacted FS discretionary appropriations, listed by account, with five-year change in current and constant dollars; and Table 3 contains FS discretionary budget requests, listed by account.

In FY2016, total FS enacted appropriations (discretionary and mandatory) were $7.065 billion, 25% higher than the FY2012 total appropriation of $5.655 billion (in current dollars, see Table 1 and Figure 1 ). When adjusted for inflation, total FS appropriations have increased by 17% since FY2012. The FY2016 level was also higher than the five-year average total appropriation of $6.089 billion and is the largest appropriation over the five-year period. The FY2012 appropriation of $5.655 billion in FY2012 was the smallest appropriation over the same period. After FY2012, total FS appropriations increased annually for two years, decreased in FY2015, and then increased in FY2016. On average over the five-year period, FS mandatory spending constituted about 12% of total FS appropriations, or about $755.0 million (see Table 1 ). In FY2016, FS estimates its mandatory spending will be approximately $700.8 million.

From FY2012 to FY2016, FS discretionary appropriations increased 32%, from $4.834 billion in FY2012 to $6.364 billion in FY2016 (in current dollars; see Table 1 , Table 2 , and Figure 2 ). Within the five-year period, however, appropriations have been variable. Appropriations increased after FY2012 for two consecutive years until decreasing in FY2015 and then increasing by more than $1 billion in FY2016. Over the five years, FS discretionary appropriations have averaged $5.334 billion in current dollars. All but two of the accounts decreased over this period, although not equally. For example, CI&M appropriations had the largest decline—9% since FY2012—whereas NFS appropriations decreased at a slower rate of 3% over that same time period. In contrast, total WFM appropriations have increased by 71% since FY2012. When adjusted for inflation to 2015 dollars, FS total discretionary appropriations have increased by 24% since FY2012 (see Table 1 , Table 2 , and Figure 2 ).

In FY2016, the FS requested $5.797 billion in discretionary appropriations (see Table 3 ), 26% more than the FY2012 request in current dollars. When adjusted to constant dollars, the overall FS budget request for FY2016 was 18% more than the FY2012 request. Although total budget requests appear to have exceeded the pace of inflation, there are some variances at the account level. The " FY2017 Budget Request " section contains more information on the agency's budget requests.

The distribution of FS discretionary appropriations among the WFM accounts, the NFS account, and the total of the remaining accounts is provided in Figure 2 . The WFM appropriation has a five-year average of $2.892 billion in current dollars, ranging from a low of $2.290 billion in FY2012 to a high of $3.909 billion in FY2016. The FY2016 WFM appropriation is the largest appropriation going back to at least FY2004. On average over the last five years, the WFM accounts have received 54% of the total FS discretionary appropriation. They account for 61% of FS discretionary appropriations in FY2016. The next-largest account, NFS, received on average $1.502 billion, or 28% of the total FS discretionary appropriation. The FY2013 NFS appropriation of $1.455 billion included post-sequester reductions. The FY2016 appropriation of $1.509 billion (24% of FS discretionary appropriations) is a slight increase from the FY2015 appropriation of $1.494 billion.

Requested and Enacted Appropriations Comparisons

The difference between the Administration's requested appropriations and the enacted appropriations for a fiscal year may reflect many factors, including differing Administration and congressional priorities and budgetary directives; supplemental appropriations enacted to address emergency wildfire suppression needs; or account restructuring. Total enacted appropriations for the FS exceeded the amount requested four out of the last five years: in FY2012, FY2013, FY2014, and FY2016. However, enacted appropriations were less than the amount the FS requested in FY2015 (see Table 4 and Figure 3 ). At the account level, however, the trend was more variable ( Figure 4 ). For example, the enacted appropriation was less than the amount requested for the NFS account for all five years and for all other FS accounts combined for three out of the five years, but that trend was not observed for WFM. The varied differences between the enacted and requested appropriations for WFM may be attributable to the enactment of supplemental appropriations (e.g., $700 million in FY2016 and $600 million in FY2014) or to account restructuring proposals (e.g., in FY2015 and FY2016).

FY2017 Budget Request

For FY2017, the Administration is requesting $5.757 billion in discretionary appropriations for the FS (see Table 3 ). The FY2017 request is $40.0 million below the FY2016 request and $606.9 million below the FY2016 enacted discretionary appropriation.

Starting in FY2015 and continuing in FY2017, the FS has proposed a new funding mechanism for wildfire suppression activities, which included eliminating the FLAME reserve account. Therefore, the FS did not request an appropriation to the FLAME reserve account. For FY2017, the FS is requesting $2.451 billion for WFM. In addition, it is requesting up to $864.1 million to be available in FY2017 upon request for emergency suppression operations (for a total of $3.315 billion). As part of the proposal, any funds for emergency suppression operations up to the maximum $864.1 million would be provided as an adjustment to the statutory discretionary limits established in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. Similar legislative proposals have been introduced in the 114 th Congress ( H.R. 167 and S. 235 ).

Conclusion

Overall agency appropriations for the FS increased in FY2016 after decreasing in FY2015. However, funds provided for wildfire management (supplemental and regular appropriations) are responsible for much of the observed differences. Funding for many of the other FS accounts has decreased. Furthermore, funding for wildfire management activities accounts for an increasing percentage of agency appropriations, which may raise questions about the amount of funding necessary to adequately address wildland fire management issues or about the extent to which wildfire management activities direct agency resources—financial and otherwise—away from other FS statutory obligations.