Congressman's Battle With Forest Service Extinguished

After the whistle-blower complaint was filed, Forest Service officials canceled earlier internal directives to "take no action" and announced that Brown would be sent a violation notice.

Brown kept fighting. In January 2005, three days after he received a bill from the Forest Service for $4,747, he demanded that the agency pay him $9,040 for a fire on federal land that spread to his property in 1989. The agency denied the claim, saying the two-year statute of limitations had run out.

On March 12, the Forest Service sent Brown an overdue notice demanding payment of $5,773.03, including interest and penalties, within 30 days. It warned that the debt could be referred to a private collection agency and that Brown's wages might be garnished. On April 9, however, the Forest Service sent another letter agreeing to waive more than $1,000 in penalties and interest, leaving the final bill at $4,747.18.

Brown scored a small victory. After discussions with the lawmaker, the Forest Service modified its regulations last month to make it more difficult for the government to seek criminal penalties against violators who allow fires to burn out of control onto federal land. Now the government must show criminal negligence on the part of the landowner, the same standard that landowners must show when prescribed burns on federal property jump to their land.

Ruch, head of the watchdog group, maintained that "Representative Brown got more than kid-glove treatment in this case. He was handled with asbestos mittens by a Forest Service petrified of enraging its political bosses. . . . Only repeated threats of exposure have kept even anemic enforcement against Representative Brown moving."

Stewart, the Forest Service spokeswoman, said the case was handled like any other. The agency has 321 similar open cases, she said, including 94 that predate Brown's.

"We just want to make sure that these sorts of actions are done safely and that the taxpayers of America don't get stuck" with the bill, she said.