Texas cut wildfire-battling agency budget this year

As Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stayed in-state for the past two days dealing with the record forest fires there, a reader pointed out to me the fact that the state was set earlier this year to cut the budget of the agency that deals with fighting such blazes.

Texas lawmakers are set to slash funding for the agency responsible for fighting wildfires in the midst of a historic wildfire season in which some 2.5 million acres have burned. Advertisement The Texas Forest Service faces almost $34 million in budget cuts over the next two years, roughly a third of the agency's total budget. The cuts are in both the House and Senate versions of the proposed state budget. The Forest Service has about 200 firefighters and offers assistance grants to volunteer fire departments. Assistance grants are likely to take the biggest hit. Volunteers — two of whom were killed in fighting this year's fires — make up nearly 80 percent of the state's fire-fighting force and are first responders to roughly 90 percent of wildfires in Texas. "Volunteer programs are our No. 1 defense," Forest Service Director Tom Boggus told Reuters.

A month earlier, Perry and the Texas congressional delegation had asked President Obama to "grant a disaster declaration" that would have brought federal funds to cover much of the fire-fighting.

It's not immediately clear what the outcome of the proposed budget slashing, and a Perry spokesman didn't respond to an email for comment earlier today.

But, putting aside the seriousness of the situation in Texas, this is a problem that many small-government state chief executives find themselves in at a national level - squaring budget cuts with federal asks.