Internal NFFE News
January 13, 2026
One year after the highly destructive Palisades Fire broke out through California, Congressman George Whitesides (CA. – D) traveled to Castaic, Calif. to meet with The National Federation of Federal Employees’ (NFFE) National Business Representative Steven Gutierrez.
Whitesides and Gutierrez drove to various burn sites together and discussed the importance of Congress and wildlife firefighters on the frontlines fostering a relationship that leads to broader infrastructural changes.
“The scope of this challenge is huge. Right? And right now we don’t have enough people to deal with it – we’re hamstringing the people we do have with a lot of red tape, without the resources that they need to get it done …” Whitesides said.
“We need to be on the offensive, and then the defensive,” Gutierrez responded.
Whitesides discussed one of the bills he is working on right now called the Fix Our Forests Act – a bipartisan bill that hopes to make it easier for impacted communities to deal with field management.
The two agreed that wildfires breaking out in California is inevitable. But, impacted communities need to “build more resiliency.”
“For too long, folks in the Forest Service have not been treated fairly,” Whitesides said.
Gutierrez shared his experience working 1,000 hours of overtime in a given year and still needing to work multiple jobs to cover expenses. He hopes that continued conversation and collaboration change bring positive change to wildlife firefighters.