118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1567
AN ACT
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 2
•HR 1567 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accurately Counting 2
Risk Elimination Solutions Act’’ or the ‘‘ACRES Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. ACCURATE HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION RE-4
PORTS. 5
(a) I
NCLUSION OFHAZARDOUSFUELSREDUCTION 6
R
EPORT INMATERIALSSUBMITTED INSUPPORT OF THE 7
P
RESIDENT’SBUDGET.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning with the first fis-9
cal year that begins after the date of the enactment 10
of this Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-11
retary concerned shall include in the materials sub-12
mitted in support of the President’s budget pursuant 13
to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, a re-14
port on the number of acres of Federal land on 15
which the Secretary concerned carried out hazardous 16
fuels reduction activities during the preceding fiscal 17
year. 18
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the re-19
port required under paragraph (1), the Secretary 20
concerned shall— 21
(A) in determining the number of acres of 22
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned 23
carried out hazardous fuels reduction activities 24
during the period covered by the report— 25 3
•HR 1567 EH
(i) record acres of Federal land on 1
which hazardous fuels reduction activities 2
were completed during such period; and 3
(ii) record each acre described in 4
clause (i) once in the report, regardless of 5
whether multiple hazardous fuels reduction 6
activities were carried out on such acre 7
during such period; and 8
(B) with respect to the acres of Federal 9
land recorded in the report, include information 10
on— 11
(i) which such acres are located in the 12
wildland-urban interface; 13
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 14
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 15
of the period covered by the report; 16
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels ac-17
tivities completed for such acres, delin-18
eating between whether such activities 19
were conducted— 20
(I) in a wildfire managed for re-21
source benefits; or 22
(II) through a planned project; 23 4
•HR 1567 EH
(iv) the cost per acre of hazardous 1
fuels activities carried out during the pe-2
riod covered 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 reduc-18
tion activities carried out by the Secretary con-19
cerned. 20
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 21
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 22
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 23
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 24
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 25 5
•HR 1567 EH
(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 6
activities 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 10
are located within the wildland-urban interface 11
and which acres are located outside the 12
wildland-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 21
activities under this subsection. 22
(c) GAO S
TUDY.—Not later than 2 years after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 24
of the United States shall— 25 6
•HR 1567 EH
(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 5
fuels reduction activities under subsection (b); 6
and 7
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 8
the results of the study under paragraph (1). 9
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 10
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -11
ITY.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activ-12
ity’’— 13
(A) means any vegetation management ac-14
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 15
mechanical treatments and prescribed burning; 16
and 17
(B) does not include the awarding of con-18
tracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction ac-19
tivities. 20
(2) F
EDERAL LANDS .—The term ‘‘Federal 21
lands’’ means lands under the jurisdiction of the 22
Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agri-23
culture. 24 7
•HR 1567 EH
(3) SECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-1
retary concerned’’ means— 2
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-3
spect to National Forest System lands; and 4
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-5
spect to public lands and units of the National 6
Park System. 7
(4) W
ILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE .—The term 8
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ has the meaning given 9
the term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Res-10
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511). 11
(e) N
OADDITIONALFUNDSAUTHORIZED.—No addi-12
tional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements 13
of this Act, and the activities authorized by this Act are 14
subject to the availability of appropriations made in ad-15
vance for such purposes. 16
Passed the House of Representatives September 13,
2023.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1567
AN ACT
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.