The Forest Service just told Congress to go pound sand. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz appeared before the House Appropriations Committee this week and made it clear the agency is moving forward with its full reorganization (headquarters to Salt Lake City, 57 of 77 research stations closed, all nine regional offices shut down) with or without Congressional approval.

Here’s the thing. Congress already passed laws specifically designed to stop this. Section 716 of the appropriations law says you can’t create any new organizational entity with five or more employees without committee approval. The administration is creating 15 new state director offices. Every single one triggers that provision.

There’s also a standstill clause. During the required 30-day notification period, the agency can’t take any action to begin implementation and can’t make any public announcement “in any form.” They announced it with a press release, a fact sheet, a memo to all employees, and a dedicated webpage. They violated the standstill the moment they hit publish.

Then in January 2026, Congress passed a spending bill with Section 421, which says none of the Forest Service’s funds can be moved around without advance approval from appropriations committees.

So what did USDA do? Their lawyers wrote an internal memo declaring both laws unconstitutional. They didn’t go to court. They just decided the laws don’t apply to them and kept moving.

The union that represents Forest Service employees estimates 6,500 workers will be affected by the headquarters move. Another 2,700 will be impacted by the research station closures. Most of them will quit rather than uproot their lives.

This isn’t efficiency or modernization. This is the dismantling of a 120-year-old agency done illegally, done deliberately, and done fast enough that most people won’t notice until it’s too late.


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