Rob Reiner -- the legendary director -- and his wife Michele Singer Reiner have died ... TMZ has confirmed.

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The Interior Department and the Agriculture Department’s U.S. Forest Service are expected to soon merge their federal wildland firefighting programs, according to an executive order President Donald Trump signed last week. Trump’s order gave the two agencies 90 days to combine the offices, programs, budgets and other resources of each wildfire management program “to the maximum degree practicable and consistent with applicable law.” The White House said the order is an effort toward a more efficient and effective response to wildland fires, which have been increasing in frequency and severity in recent years. “In too many cases, including in California, a slow and inadequate response to wildfires is a direct result of reckless mismanagement and lack of preparedness,” Trump wrote in Thursday’s executive order. “The federal government can empower state and local leaders by streamlining federal wildfire capabilities to improve their effectiveness and promoting commonsense, technology-enabled local strategies for land management and wildfire response and mitigation.” The efforts of the executive order mirror the White House’s plans for wildfire response as part of the fiscal 2026 budget request — although the budget request takes the effort a step further. The White House proposed a full unification of the federal government’s wildfire management programs into a single agency, called the “U.S. Wildland Fire Service,” which would fold the Forest Service’s current program into a newly created agency within the Interior Department. “This integrated, cost-efficient and operationally more effective organization will streamline federal wildfire suppression response, risk mitigation efforts and coordination with non-federal partners to combat the wildfire crisis,” the 2026 budget request states. The White House did not request any new funding for the Forest Service’s wildland fire management program due to the intended move of the program over to Interior. The 2026 budget request would also maintain the permanent pay increase that federal wildland firefighters secured in March. The International Association of Fire Fighters expressed support for Trump’s consolidation efforts. “We must ensure firefighters have the resources, training and coordination needed to safely combat wildfires and protect their communities,” IAFF President Edward Kelly said, calling the executive order “a major step forward in our shared mission to reduce wildfire threats across the country and keep our communities safe.” But some federal wildland firefighters cast doubt that combining the two agencies’ resources and staffing would prove more effective. They worried about costs and disruptions to the current setup, especially with wildfire season already underway. The move to a consolidated program would affect the logistics of how, when and where to station wildland firefighters. “Why are we spending money to create a new agency when we already have something that is functional?” one Forest Service firefighter, speaking anonymously for fear of professional retribution, told Federal News Network. “We will always do the mission, but this just means more work for the people on the ground.” Combined, the Forest Service and Interior Department employ around 17,000 federal wildland firefighters, including both permanent employees and seasonal workers. The Forest Service reported that as of June 1, the agency has 10,856 wildland firefighters employed across the country. The Interior Department employs close to 6,000 firefighters. But in the past several months, many federal employees have left their jobs — including about 4,200 employees who have left the Forest Service through the deferred resignation program (DRP) or through other separation incentives. Another 600 employees took a voluntary early retirement option. There are also currently 37 incident management teams at the Forest Service — down from 42 the agency had last year. “Even though this isn’t enough capacity to meet the needs of the continuing wildfire crisis, this is the number of firefighters we are able to support with existing infrastructure, funding and other resources,” the Forest Service wrote on its website. During a budget hearing last week, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee that a restructuring of the agency was expected while assuring lawmakers that the agency is prepared for the current wildfire season. “The Forest Service has known for quite some time that there was some reckoning that was coming in terms of restructuring effort,” Schultz said. “Regardless of broader issues across government, the Forest Service has a necessity to restructure the agency to better align with the budget that we do have.” But bipartisan lawmakers on the committee raised concerns about the Forest Service’s abilities following the recent staffing reductions. “I am profoundly concerned about this administration’s reckless decision to push out essential Forest Service employees across the country,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee’s vice chairwoman, said during the hearing. “The administration claimed that no firefighters have been fired. But the reality is on the ground, we have lost workers whose jobs are absolutely essential. Nearly every single Forest Service worker supports fire operations in some capacity.” When asked about the staffing reductions, Schultz told the committee, “I can’t guarantee there won’t ever be any impacts.” “But I can tell you if we do have impacts, we will correct those as we learn information,” he added. “Where we do have impacts — and there are impacts when people leave — we’re trying to fill those as quickly as we can.” The Forest Service said no wildland firefighters were removed from their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s workforce reductions, and full-time wildland firefighters were exempted from the DRP. But about 1,400 employees with “red cards” — or those who are qualified wildland firefighters despite it not being their main job title — voluntarily left the Forest Service in the past few months by opting into the DRP. The agency is now attempting to recall those 1,400 employees as wildfire season ramps up across the country. “The secretary has been very clear that she wants them to come back if they have an interest, and we are going to work through that process,” Schultz said. “The numbers are still in flux. We’ll know more in the next week to two weeks.” The Forest Service is also “laddering” about 600 to 700 current agency employees to fill critical vacancies that arose after nearly 5,000 employees left the agency. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) questioned Schultz on whether firefighters could be effectively transferred to other positions and still meet the agency’s mission. “All employees within the forest service are not necessarily fungible,” she said. “In other words, if you are losing an individual in the Mendenhall area who is trained in dealing with bear avoidance with the public and I take somebody from headquarters in Indianapolis and put them out there — I don’t want that situation.”The post Trump tells Forest Service, Interior to merge wildfire management programs first appeared on Federal News Network.