04 Nov Nicholas Pontejos: About My Site

Hello!

I am pleased to say that I have been enjoying the opportunity to work for NFS Budget in the Washington Office of the Forest Service. While my position is remote, I have still been able to take part much of what is happening.

There is a lot going on with budget in the Forest Service. We are continuing to take steps to modernize our budget practices, a process that started taking place only a couple of years ago. Modernizing our budgeting will allow us to better work with congress to discuss funding, more accurately report our activities, and prepare for our country to begin the massive undertaking that reopening post COVID 19 will pose. We have many goals and targets and it will be interesting to see how our completion of these objectives will allow our teams in the field to better serve our communities.

It has also been particularly interesting to see how congress affects us as an agency. We are currently operating under a continuing resolution in terms of our budget. This is what happens when Congress cannot finalize our budget on time due to disagreements, leading us to “carry on as before”. Hopefully Congress will be able to come to a decision so that The Forest Service can keep moving, changing, and growing.

This is only the beginning and hopefully as we move on, I will be able to observe and involve myself more in the planning of future fiscal years and management of the current one. While I am almost certain this is a strenuous time to be organizing all these plans and pieces, as an observer I think it is a very interesting time to be able to sit in and watch.

Can’t wait to get back with more updates in the future!

Nick Pontejos