Forest Service could move from USDA to Interior

For 103 years, the U.S. Forest Service has been part of the Department of Agriculture, while the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service have been part of the Interior Department. Because the agencies have overlapping interests, "there is a belief that the U.S. Forest Service is out of place," and a move is being considered, reports Christopher Lee of The Washington Post.

"At the request of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, the Government Accountability Office this month began examining whether it would make sense to move the Forest Service to Interior's purview," Lee writes. "The subcommittee has jurisdiction over both agencies."

Supporters of the move say the Forest Service's mission has changed from a focus on production to preservation, a shift that puts it more in line with the activities of the Interior Department. Lee points out that such a move has been discussed before, such as in 1983 when a commission appointed by President Ronald Regan suggested combining the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management or in 1991 when then-Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Calif.) proposed creating a new Department of Natural Resources to gather similar agencies. "But transforming bureaucracies is easier said than done, and one reason is that the mere talk of it often generates anxiety among entrenched interests with something to lose, said Don Kettl, director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania." (Read more)