Four federal agencies administer about 95% of the approximately 653 million acres of federal land in the United States: the Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior (DOI). These agencies manage the federal lands for a variety of purposes related to preserving, conserving, and developing natural resources. Each agency has specific statutory mandates and responsibilities for the lands it administers. (See Appendix A for historical background on the agencies.) The FS and BLM are both directed to manage their lands for multiple uses and for sustained yields of resource outputs without impairing resource productivity. Both agencies sell timber, permit or lease lands for livestock grazing, allow mineral exploration and development in many areas, protect watersheds, manage wildlife habitats, administer recreation uses, and preserve wilderness areas, although they often have different rules and regulations governing these activities. The similarity of their missions, the proximity of many of their lands and offices, and the existence of only one major federal resource land manager outside of DOI (the FS) have led to frequent proposals to transfer FS lands to DOI and to merge the BLM and FS. (See Appendix B for a chronological description of these proposals.) The possibility of transferring the FS to DOI and/or merging the FS and BLM has gained some congressional attention. At an oversight hearing on wildfire suppression costs on February 12, 2008, several Members of the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies questioned whether reorganizing the wildfire and land management responsibilities might be more cost-effective. The subcommittee also has asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess the benefits and limitations of consolidating the FS in DOI. News stories and other public commentaries have since raised the possibility of a merger. In addition, some assert that wildfire suppression has become such an overwhelming influence that the agencies are no longer effective at achieving other goals and outputs, and thus a new "U.S. Fire Service" is perhaps warranted. This report discusses potential benefits and limitations of merging the FS and the BLM and assesses the ramifications of a separate U.S. Fire Service. Appendixes provide historical background on the two agencies and on historical transfer and merger proposals. The FS and BLM have similar management responsibilities, and many issues affect both agencies' lands. However, each agency also has unique emphases and functions. For instance, most federal rangelands are administered by the BLM, and the BLM oversees mineral development on all federal lands. Most federal forests are managed by the FS, and only the FS has programs to assist nonfederal landowners. Also, development of the two agencies has differed, and historically they have focused on different issues. Nonetheless, there are also many management parallels, the lands are often intermingled, and the agencies sometimes have offices in the same towns. These factors have led to sporadic discussions of consolidating the agencies. The historical efforts to move one of the agencies and possibly to merge the FS and BLM suggest that numerous possibilities exist. The simplest option would be to expand efforts to increase the number of offices and employees shared by the two agencies. The agencies, as authorized in § 331 of the FY1998 Interior appropriations act ( P.L. 105-83 ) and subsequently extended, have initiated a cooperative program known as Service First. It allows pilot tests of joint permitting and leasing programs, reciprocal delegations of duties and responsibilities (e.g., having a BLM employee conduct the cultural resource assessment for an FS timber sale), and co-locating facilities. One advantage of this idea is that it is currently feasible; no new law would be required to implement the option, although its authorization would need to be extended beyond FY2008 and legislative support or direction could expand the program. Another advantage is its simplicity for users—one office and one person ("one-stop shopping") for dealing with grazing or recreation permits, regardless of the history of the lands. However, having individuals implementing two different sets of laws, depending on the history of the land, could also confuse users and would likely make the job more complex for employees. For example, a rancher with both BLM and FS grazing permits could meet with one range conservationist, but have different laws applied to the different permits. It could also increase contractual difficulties and litigation if, for example, BLM grazing regulations were unintentionally applied to a national forest grazing permit. Agency transfers—FS to DOI or BLM to USDA—have been proposed in the past. Such a transfer would presumably place both agencies under the purview of a single Deputy or Under Secretary, of Agriculture or of Interior. The principal advantage of a transfer would likely be greater inter-agency coordination and consistency in annual planning and budgeting, and in implementing common laws and regulations (e.g., the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act). However, such a transfer could only be effected by enacting a law making the transfer. Congressional committee jurisdictions could remain unaffected by a transfer; jurisdiction over FS lands and programs is already split between the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committees, and FS funding is under the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. However, the departments might be less sanguine about the possible loss of a major agency. The FS accounted for 6% of the FY2007 USDA budget authority ($5.7 billion out of $93.6 billion) and 36% of FY2007 USDA staff years (33,912 out of 94,818). The BLM accounted for 14% of the FY2007 DOI budget authority ($2.3 billion out of $15.8 billion) and 16% of FY2007 DOI staff years (10,577 out of 67,429). Presuming that a transfer would entail no change in the legal mandates for administering the lands, such a transfer would probably have relatively limited impact on land management or users, except through increased inter-agency coordination and consistency. However, whether or not the legal mandates are retained, consolidated, or merged and simplified is a critical issue, discussed below. Merging the agencies has also been proposed several times. (See Appendix B ) The consequences of a merger depend partly on the nature of the merger: would the FS and BLM both be merged into a new agency, or would one agency be absorbed by the other? Would the merged agency be in DOI or in USDA, or would it be in a new Cabinet department, possibly with energy and/or environmental agencies? Because the ramifications of a merger would be more significant than a transfer or some joint operations, the rest of this section discusses the possible impacts of a merger on users, on the agencies, on the federal budget, and on political structures. A merger of the FS and the BLM possibly could improve the quality of the agencies' performance. The existence of two agencies, each managing federal lands for multiple uses, has been regarded by some as inefficient and duplicative—two agencies with two sets of laws, policies, and regulations are seen as leading to public confusion and poor service. Differences between the agencies are especially graphic when they promulgate different regulations under one law that applies to both, such as the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act or the Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Merging the agencies would likely lead to a common set of laws, policies, and regulations that might enhance service and reduce duplication (or at least the appearance of duplication). For certain resources—leasable and locatable minerals—a merger seems likely to at least improve consistency in management decisions. BLM currently administers the mineral activities on all federal lands, including the national forests. FS responsibility in minerals management is limited to administering access and surface land use. A merger would eliminate the current situation in which two different agencies manage different aspects of the same resource on the national forests. Finally, merger proponents have asserted that consolidating federal multiple-use land management in one agency could lead to a greater focus and higher priority for land and resource management. Such an agency would have more comprehensive authority and responsibility, and its proponents have argued that this would lead to more effective control and more consistent direction. According to merger supporters, concentrating federal multiple-use land management in one agency would lead to formulation and implementation of a more comprehensive, effective national natural resources policy. Improvements in public service and resource management have long been argued to be the principal benefits of such a merger. This has been a principal motivation behind the Service First Initiative, described above. On the other hand, some of the benefits of coordinated service and management efforts clearly do not require a agency merger, since these benefits are already occurring without a merger. It is unclear how many additional benefits could result from expanding the Service First Initiative, and how many further benefits could only result from a merger. Opponents, however, might maintain that a merger could reduce agency responsiveness to public concerns. A merger would create a larger agency. This could, arguably, stifle creativity and policy debates, because larger organization typically establish uniform, standardized policies that inhibit individual worker responsibility and creativity. Critics argue that the agencies are already unresponsive to public interests, and that a merger would create a larger and even less responsive bureaucracy. Furthermore, it is argued that the agencies should focus their efforts on improving management and public service within their current structures, rather than waste time trying to design "the perfect bureaucracy." The nature of the potential merger has particularly important ramifications for the institutions and employees. The FS may well dominate a combined agency, since it has more than three times as many employees as the BLM (33,912 to 10,577 in FY2007) and more than double the budget ($5.72 billion to $2.27 billion in FY2007).