IB
Union Calendar No. 149
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1567
[Report No. 118–186, Part I]
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
S
EPTEMBER8, 2023
Additional sponsor: Mr. N
EWHOUSE
S
EPTEMBER8, 2023
Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
SEPTEMBER8, 2023
Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 10, 2023]
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•HR 1567 RH
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.
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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
SEC. 2. ACCURATE HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION RE-6
PORTS. 7
(a) I
NCLUSION OFHAZARDOUSFUELSREDUCTION 8
R
EPORT INMATERIALSSUBMITTED INSUPPORT OF THE 9
P
RESIDENT’SBUDGET.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning with the first fiscal 11
year that begins after the date of the enactment of this 12
Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Secretary con-13
cerned shall include in the materials submitted in 14
support of the President’s budget pursuant to section 15
1105 of title 31, United States Code, a report on the 16
number of acres of Federal land on which the Sec-17
retary concerned carried out hazardous fuels reduc-18
tion activities during the preceding fiscal year. 19
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the report 20
required under paragraph (1), the Secretary con-21
cerned shall— 22
(A) in determining the number of acres of 23
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned 24
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•HR 1567 RH
carried out hazardous fuels reduction activities 1
during the period covered by the report— 2
(i) record acres of Federal land on 3
which hazardous fuels reduction activities 4
were completed during such period; and 5
(ii) record each acre described in 6
clause (i) once in the report, regardless of 7
whether multiple hazardous fuels reduction 8
activities were carried out on such acre dur-9
ing such period; and 10
(B) with respect to the acres of Federal land 11
recorded in the report, include information on— 12
(i) which such acres are located in the 13
wildland-urban interface; 14
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 15
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 16
of the period covered by the report; 17
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels ac-18
tivities completed for such acres, delineating 19
between whether such activities were con-20
ducted— 21
(I) in a wildfire managed for re-22
source benefits; or 23
(II) through a planned project; 24
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•HR 1567 RH
(iv) the cost per acre of hazardous fuels 1
activities carried out during the period cov-2
ered by the report; 3
(v) the region or system unit in which 4
the acres are located; and 5
(vi) the effectiveness of the hazardous 6
fuels reduction activities on reducing the 7
risk of wildfire. 8
(3) T
RANSPARENCY.—The Secretary concerned 9
shall make each report submitted under paragraph 10
(1) publicly available on the website of the Depart-11
ment of Agriculture and the Department of the Inte-12
rior, as applicable. 13
(b) A
CCURATEDATACOLLECTION.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 15
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 16
concerned shall implement standardized procedures 17
for tracking data related to hazardous fuels reduction 18
activities carried out by the Secretary concerned. 19
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 20
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 21
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 22
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 23
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 24
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•HR 1567 RH
(B) verification methods that validate 1
whether such data accurately correlates to the 2
hazardous fuels reduction activities carried out 3
by the Secretary concerned; 4
(C) an analysis of the short- and long-term 5
effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction ac-6
tivities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and 7
(D) for hazardous fuels reduction activities 8
that occur partially within the wildland-urban 9
interface, methods to distinguish which acres are 10
located within the wildland-urban interface and 11
which acres are located outside the wildland- 12
urban interface. 13
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 weeks after im-14
plementing the standardized procedures required 15
under paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned shall 16
submit to Congress a report that describes— 17
(A) such standardized procedures; and 18
(B) program and policy recommendations 19
to Congress to address any limitations in track-20
ing data related to hazardous fuels reduction ac-21
tivities under this subsection. 22
(c) GAO S
TUDY.—Not later than 2 years after the date 23
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 24
United States shall— 25
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•HR 1567 RH
(1) conduct a study on the implementation of 1
this Act, including any limitations with respect to— 2
(A) reporting hazardous fuels reduction ac-3
tivities under subsection (a); or 4
(B) tracking data related to hazardous fuels 5
reduction activities under subsection (b); and 6
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes the 7
results of the study under paragraph (1). 8
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 9
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIVITY .— 10
The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activity’’— 11
(A) means any vegetation management ac-12
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 13
mechanical treatments and prescribed burning; 14
and 15
(B) does not include the awarding of con-16
tracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction ac-17
tivities. 18
(2) F
EDERAL LANDS.—The term ‘‘Federal lands’’ 19
means lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of 20
the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture. 21
(3) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-22
retary concerned’’ means— 23
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-24
spect to National Forest System lands; and 25
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•HR 1567 RH
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-1
spect to public lands and units of the National 2
Park System. 3
(4) W
ILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE.—The term 4
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ has the meaning given the 5
term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Restora-6
tion Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511). 7
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pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB Union Calendar No.
149
118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1567
[Report No. 118–186, Part I]
A BILL
To require that the Secretary of Agriculture and
the Secretary of the Interior submit accurate re-
ports regarding hazardous fuels reduction activi-
ties, and for other purposes.
S
EPTEMBER
8, 2023
Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources with
an amendment
S
EPTEMBER
8, 2023
Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union and ordered to be printed
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 Sep 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H1567.RH H1567
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB