To combat chronic and growing shortages of wildland firefighters, Oregon’s Congressional Democrats propose leveraging an existing federal jobs program to boost the workforce needed.

The Civilian Conservation Center Enhancement Act would direct the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to offer specialized training in wildland firefighting for teens and young adults each year who are enrolled at the Job Corps’ Civilian Conservation Centers, and get them directly hired into firefighting jobs.

The Jobs Corps was established in the 1960s to offer education and apprenticeship opportunities to low-income 16- to 24-year-olds, and nine of the Corps’ 24 Civilian Conservation Centers train students in work on public lands, including fire prevention and response. Three of them are in Oregon — in Yachats, Glide and Estacada.

The act is sponsored by Oregon’s U.S. Reps. Andrea Salinas and Val Hoyle and U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, as well as Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana.

The bill would also create a pilot program within the Job Corps to pay students to help build housing for wildland firefighters in areas experiencing shortages of available housing, a barrier to recruiting more people into the profession. Corps members make less than $200 per month while enrolled at a Civilian Conservation Center, and can qualify for housing, food, health and dental care while in the program.

Bill sponsors said in a news release the goal would be for the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to hire at least 300 graduates of the Civilian Conservation Centers’ wildfire training programs each year, and get them directly into permanent and seasonal wildland firefighting jobs across the U.S.

Salinas said in the news release the need for wildland firefighters is greater than it’s ever been.

“Wildfires are getting bigger, more dangerous, and more destructive every year due to climate change,” she said. “It’s a commonsense bill that will keep our communities safe from deadly blazes, and at the same time, create more job opportunities for Oregonians.”

The future of the Corps is uncertain, however. Trump’s May 2 budget request to Congress proposes eliminating the program entirely, calling it “a failed experiment.”

Merkley has tried to push the act for years, according to the senator’s spokesperson, Molly Prescott.

“The idea originated after Trump tried to eliminate CCCs in his first term,” Prescott told the Capital Chronicle in an email. “But as the Trump Administration is jeopardizing how we can prepare for and respond to wildfires amid deep cuts to federal funding and our workforce in public lands, it’s never been more needed to boost Job Corps CCC programs and get more wildland firefighters in the pipeline.”

Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers students do millions of dollars worth of public works and land management projects, according to agency reports, and hundreds of thousands of hours of wildland fire prevention and response work, including firefighting, prescribed burns and removing flammable materials. Students also construct and maintain buildings on public lands, build trails, and restore wildlife habitat and watersheds year round.

The National Job Corps Association, National Federation of Federal Employees, Wildland Firefighter Foundation and Western Fire Chiefs Association are also endorsing the bill.