"While the Forest Service's recent accounting problems may have grabbed Montana's attention, difficulties with balancing their checkbook is nothing new for the federal agency.
"In fact, other than in the past two years, the Forest Service hasn't had a clean audit in the past decade. A report released last year by the General Accounting Office notes that historically, the Forest Service hasn't been able to provide Congress or the public 'with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service's 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the agency receives every year.'
"And although the federal agency says it is taking significant steps toward resolving accountability problems, the GAO's office said the Forest Service has made 'little real progress' and remains years away from implementing a credible accounting system."
Is anyone surprised? These federal agencies do not have to worry about how the money is squandered. There's plenty more from where it came. There is always the deep pockets of the American taxpayer from which to draw. When it isn't your money, you aren't near as concerned about accountability.
Why do we even need these federal agencies? Do we need a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controlling 261 million acres of our land. That's 261,000,000 acres that neither you nor your children can ever live on, or use for any reason.
As long as these agencies exist, they will always increase their size and budget. For example, a quick trip to the BLM website yields the following headline: BLM Proposes $1.7 Billion for FY 2005 Budget To Enhance Multiple-Use Management through Conservation Partnerships.
It reads:
"To promote conservation partnerships that enhance its multiple-use management of the public lands, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today proposed a Fiscal Year 2005 budget of $1.7 billion. The BLM's FY 2005 budget proposal, which is a $53 million programmatic increase over the FY 2004 enacted level of funding, would provide increases of $4.8 million for the agency's resource-restoration Challenge Cost Share program and $3.2 million for its sage-grouse conservation and restoration efforts. The budget request also includes increases of $5.6 million for land acquisition and $4 million for monitoring the implementation of new land-use plans. The Bureau's 2005 budget proposal redirects $10.5 million for management of the more than 39,000 wild horses and burros that roam the public lands. Through a combination of new funds and redirected funds, the budget proposes an increase of $12 million to improve the health of forest lands in western Oregon." —Emphasis that of D.W.
Notice that the BLM isn't interested in just managing the land they currently control. No, they have to acquire more land. And they are using American tax dollars to buy the land from Americans who then have to pay for it's management, and are not allowed to use it. The more land the federal agencies buy, the less Americans have to own.
If there are any special areas of land that might need special protection, such as the Grand Canyon, that can be handled by state governments, legislatively. There would be local control, and the decision-makers would be accountable to the voters — not unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats.
The Independent Record notes that both the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have had problems keeping track of money. The Forest Service has sent out several wrong bills to the state of Montana. Luckily, for residents there, the state has a review process which checks the bills and catches at least some of the errors.
Bob Harrington is a state forester. He says that the review of the federal agency's bills are necessary, due to routine overbilling.
"We do that (the reviews) because of the history, that every year there have been elements of those bills that were charges that were either mistakenly charged to the fire or weren't legitimate fire costs for us," Harrington said. "This year, I think that as the result of their new (computer) software, there were additional problems."
As long as the states will pay these federal bills, it is to the advantage of the agencies to keep the process "sloppy". And the difficult part of the equation is that these agencies are run by unelected bureaucrats who are not accountable. A lack of accountability equals a lack of concern.
And the people who ultimately are hurt are always the taxpayer. Because as far as federal agencies like the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service are concerned, taxpayer dollars grow on trees. And there are plenty of trees in the forest.
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