USDA tied wildfire-prevention grants to unrelated DEI and immigration pledges, stalling fire-risk work

On December 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Secretary Brooke Rollins issued new general terms and conditions governing USDA grants and contracts, requiring recipients -- including Forest Service wildfire-risk-reduction and forest-health funding, Community Wildfire Defense Grants, and Good Neighbor Authority agreements between states and the Forest Service -- to pledge compliance with unrelated administration policy demands: eliminating "radical left ideology," restricting "promoting gender ideology," and barring "taxpayer-funded benefits" for people in the country illegally. USDA framed the changes as an effort to streamline regulations, protect national security, and "eliminate radical left ideology"; the department and the Forest Service declined interview requests about the policy.

Several Democratic-led states -- including Washington, Oregon, Michigan, and Maryland -- said the new conditions conflicted with state law and could not sign the agreements, stalling wildfire-prevention and forest-health work on national forest lands. "We're kind of at an impasse," said Washington State Forester George Geissler. "It's already starting to slow down or shut down work." Robert Bonnie, a former USDA undersecretary for natural resources and environment, called the conditions "significantly disruptive" and said they were "clearly targeted at Democratic states and Democratic partners."

Updates

2026-03-23 — A 21-state coalition sued USDA over the funding conditions [2]

California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 21 state attorneys general in filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, arguing the new conditions exceeded USDA's statutory authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act; the suit centered on food-assistance programs including SNAP and WIC, threatening billions of dollars in funding.

2026-06-05 — Court granted a preliminary injunction blocking the new conditions [2, 3]

A federal court granted a preliminary injunction barring USDA from enforcing the new conditions or taking adverse action against the plaintiff states, which Bonta's office described as requiring compliance with "vague, hateful, and unrelated policies on immigration, gender ideology, transgender athletes, and diversity, equity, and inclusion."

2026-08-07 — Wildfire grants remained undelivered as fires burned near Spokane [4]

With three wildfires burning near Spokane, Washington -- forcing the evacuation of 65,000 residents and burning more than 10,400 acres -- the Spokane Conservation District and Spokane Valley Fire Department were still awaiting roughly $15 million in wildfire-prevention grants the Forest Service had announced in September 2025. USDA did not answer questions about whether the disaster had prompted any change to the funding conditions.