I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1567
To require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior
submit accurate reports regarding hazardous fuels reduction activities,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2023
Mr. T
IFFANYintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-
retary of the Interior submit accurate reports regarding
hazardous fuels reduction activities, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accurately Counting 4
Risk Elimination Solutions Act’’ or the ‘‘ACRES Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ACCURATE HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION RE-1
PORTS. 2
(a) I
NCLUSION OFHAZARDOUSFUELSREDUCTION 3
R
EPORT INMATERIALSSUBMITTED INSUPPORT OF THE 4
P
RESIDENT’SBUDGET.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning with the first fis-6
cal year that begins after the date of the enactment 7
of this Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-8
retary concerned shall include in the materials sub-9
mitted in support of the President’s budget pursuant 10
to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, a re-11
port on the number of acres on which the Secretary 12
concerned carried out hazardous fuels reduction ac-13
tivities during the preceding fiscal year. 14
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the re-15
port required under paragraph (1), the Secretary 16
concerned shall— 17
(A) in determining the number of acres on 18
which the Secretary concerned carried out haz-19
ardous fuels reduction activities during the pe-20
riod covered by the report— 21
(i) record acres on which hazardous 22
fuels reduction activities were completed 23
during such period; and 24
(ii) record each acre described in 25
clause (i) once in the report, regardless of 26
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•HR 1567 IH
whether multiple hazardous fuels reduction 1
activities were carried out on such acre 2
during such period; and 3
(B) with respect to the acres recorded in 4
the report, include information on— 5
(i) which such acres are located in the 6
wildland-urban interface; 7
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 8
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 9
of the period covered by the report; 10
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels ac-11
tivities completed for such acres; 12
(iv) the cost per acre of hazardous 13
fuels activities carried out during the pe-14
riod covered by the report; 15
(v) the region or system unit in which 16
the acres are located; and 17
(vi) the effectiveness of the hazardous 18
fuels reduction activities on reducing the 19
risk of wildfire. 20
(3) T
RANSPARENCY.—The Secretary concerned 21
shall make each report submitted under paragraph 22
(1) publicly available on the website of the Depart-23
ment of Agriculture and the Department of the Inte-24
rior, as applicable. 25
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(b) ACCURATEDATACOLLECTION.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 2
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 3
concerned shall implement standardized procedures 4
for tracking data related to hazardous fuels reduc-5
tion activities carried out by the Secretary con-6
cerned. 7
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 8
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 9
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 10
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 11
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 12
(B) verification methods that validate 13
whether such data accurately correlates to the 14
hazardous fuels reduction activities carried out 15
by the Secretary concerned; 16
(C) an analysis of the short- and long-term 17
effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction 18
activities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and 19
(D) for hazardous fuels reduction activities 20
that occur partially within the wildland-urban 21
interface, methods to distinguish which acres 22
are located within the wildland-urban interface 23
and which acres are located outside the 24
wildland-urban interface. 25
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(3) REPORT.—Not later than 2 weeks after im-1
plementing the standardized procedures required 2
under paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned shall 3
submit to Congress a report that describes— 4
(A) such standardized procedures; and 5
(B) program and policy recommendations 6
to Congress to address any limitations in track-7
ing data related to hazardous fuels reduction 8
activities under this subsection. 9
(c) GAO S
TUDY.—Not later than 2 years after the 10
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 11
of the United States shall— 12
(1) conduct a study on the implementation of 13
this Act, including any limitations with respect to— 14
(A) reporting hazardous fuels reduction ac-15
tivities under subsection (a); or 16
(B) tracking data related to hazardous 17
fuels reduction activities under subsection (b); 18
and 19
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 20
the results of the study under paragraph (1). 21
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 22
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -23
ITY.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activ-24
ity’’— 25
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(A) means any vegetation management ac-1
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 2
mechanical treatments and prescribed burning; 3
and 4
(B) does not include— 5
(i) a wildland fire managed for re-6
source benefits; and 7
(ii) the awarding of contracts to con-8
duct hazardous fuels reduction activities. 9
(2) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-10
retary concerned’’ means— 11
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-12
spect to National Forest System lands; and 13
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-14
spect to public lands and units of the National 15
Park System. 16
(3) W
ILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE .—The term 17
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ has the meaning given 18
the term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Res-19
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511). 20
Æ
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