I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 4866
To direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-
istration to establish a program to improve fire weather and fire environ-
ment forecasting, detection, and local collaboration, and for other pur-
poses.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY25, 2023
Mr. M
IKEGARCIAof California (for himself, Ms. CARAVEO, and Mrs. KIMof
California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration to establish a program to
improve fire weather and fire environment forecasting,
detection, and local collaboration, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Fire Weather Develop-4
ment Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FIRE WEATHER FORECASTING AND DETECTION. 1
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Administrator of the Na-2
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shall es-3
tablish a program (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Pro-4
gram’’) to improve fire weather and fire environment fore-5
casting, detection, and delivery of products or services 6
through collaboration with Federal and State agencies or 7
departments, local emergency mangers, and relevant enti-8
ties. 9
(b) G
OALS.—The goals of the Program shall be to 10
develop and improve accurate fire weather and fire envi-11
ronment forecasts and warnings in order to reduce loss 12
of life, reduce injuries, protect property, and reduce dam-13
age to the economy from wildfires. The Program shall seek 14
to improve the assessment of fire weather and fire environ-15
ments, the understanding and prediction of wildfires, and 16
the communications regarding such assessments with 17
State and local emergency officials in a timely and stream-18
lined fashion, with a focus on improving the following: 19
(1) The prediction of ignition, intensification 20
and spread of wildfires. 21
(2) The observation and monitoring of fire 22
weather and fire environments. 23
(3) The forecast and communication of smoke 24
dispersion from wildfires. 25
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(4) Information dissemination and risk commu-1
nication to develop more effective watch and warning 2
products relating to wildfires. 3
(5) The early detection of wildfires, including 4
pre-ignition analysis and ground condition character-5
izations. 6
(6) The development, testing, and deployment 7
of novel tools and techniques related to under-8
standing, monitoring, and predicting fire weather 9
and fire environments. 10
(7) The understanding and association of cli-11
mate change and its impacts on fire weather and 12
fire environments. 13
(8) The unique characteristics, including obser-14
vation or modeling requirements, related to fires at 15
the wildland-urban interface. 16
(9) The forecasting and understanding of the 17
impacts of prescribed burns (as such term is defined 18
in section 2 of the Prescribed Burn Approval Act of 19
2016 (16 U.S.C. 551c–1 note)). 20
(c) C
OLLABORATIONWITHSTAKEHOLDERS.—In de-21
veloping the Program required under this section, the Ad-22
ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-23
ministration shall solicit and take into consideration input 24
from the weather industry, such academic entities as the 25
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Administrator considers appropriate, and other relevant 1
stakeholders. 2
(d) A
CTIVITIES.—To achieve the goals specified in 3
subsection (b), the Administrator of the National Oceanic 4
and Atmospheric Administration may conduct research, 5
development, testing, demonstration, and operational 6
transition activities related to fire weather and fire envi-7
ronments, including regarding the following: 8
(1) Tools and services to inform, support, and 9
complement active land management, local emer-10
gency personnel, the United States Forest Service, 11
and State, local, and Tribal entities during their re-12
sponse and mitigation efforts. 13
(2) Sensing technologies, such as infrared, 14
microwave, and active sensors suitable for potential 15
deployment on spacecraft, aircraft, and unmanned 16
aircraft systems, to improve the monitoring and 17
forecasting of fire fuel and active wildfires, wildfire 18
behavior models and forecasts, mapping efforts, and 19
the prediction of wildfires and the impacts of such. 20
(3) Grid-based assessments and outlooks of fuel 21
moisture and danger levels. 22
(4) Social and behavior sciences related to fire 23
weather and fire environment warning products. 24
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(5) Advanced satellite detection products cou-1
pled with atmosphere and fire weather modeling sys-2
tems. 3
(6) Education and training to expand the num-4
ber of students and researchers in areas of study 5
and research related to wildfires, fire weather, and 6
fire environments. 7
(7) Modeling systems to link long-term climate 8
predictions to localized or general land management 9
decisions. 10
(8) Communication and outreach to commu-11
nities, energy utilities, owners and operators of crit-12
ical infrastructure, and other relevant stakeholders 13
regarding fire weather and fire environment risk. 14
(9) Stewardship and dissemination, to the ex-15
tent practicable, of National Oceanic and Atmos-16
pheric Administration scientific data and related 17
products and services in formats meeting shared 18
standards to enhance the interoperability, usability, 19
and accessibility of such data in order to better meet 20
the needs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 21
Administration, other Federal agencies, and relevant 22
stakeholders. 23
(10) Improvement of spatial and temporal reso-24
lution observations. 25
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(11) Any other topic or activity the Adminis-1
trator determines relevant. 2
(e) N
OVELTOOLS FOR MONITORING AND PRE-3
DICTION.—The Administrator of the National Oceanic 4
and Atmospheric Administration, in consultation with the 5
heads of the agencies specified in section 3, or other ap-6
propriate stakeholders, including commercial partners, 7
shall develop novel tools and technologies to support the 8
activities of the Program and which may be applied to 9
broader wildland fire research, monitoring, and mitigation 10
activities, as practicable and appropriate. 11
(f) E
XTRAMURALRESEARCH.—The Administrator of 12
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 13
shall collaborate with and support the non-Federal 14
wildland fire research community, which includes institu-15
tions of higher education, private sector entities, non-16
governmental organizations, and other relevant stake-17
holders, by making funds available through competitive 18
grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. 19
(g) C
OMMERCIALDATA.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 21
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-22
ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-23
pheric Administration, in consultation with the 24
heads of other Federal agencies and relevant stake-25
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holders, may enter into contracts with one or more 1
private sector entities to obtain additional airborne 2
and space-based data and observations that may en-3
hance or supplement the understanding, monitoring, 4
and prediction, of fire weather and fire environ-5
ments, and the relevant Program activities under 6
this section. 7
(2) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out activities 8
under paragraph (1), the Administrator of the Na-9
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall 10
consult with private sector entities through the Na-11
tional Advisory Committee on Wildfires under sec-12
tion 4 to identify needed tools and data that can be 13
best provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric 14
Administration satellites and are most beneficial to 15
wildfire and smoke detection and monitoring. 16
(h) N
ONDUPLICATION.—To the maximum extent 17
practicable, the Administrator of the National Oceanic 18
and Atmospheric Administration shall consult with the 19
National Interagency Fire Center, including the Joint Fire 20
Science Program, to avoid duplication of activities under 21
this section and ensure the Administration’s focus on 22
unique research activities best suited for transition to op-23
erations. 24
(i) U
NMANNEDAIRCRAFTSYSTEMS.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the 1
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2
shall— 3
(A) assess the role and potential benefits 4
of unmanned aircraft systems to improve data 5
collection in support of fire weather and fire en-6
vironment modeling, meteorological observa-7
tions, predictions, and forecasts; 8
(B) identify objectives for testing such sys-9
tems’ use for obtaining fire weather and fire en-10
vironment observations, and other relevant ac-11
tivities; and 12
(C) transition unmanned aircraft systems 13
technologies from research to operations as the 14
Administrator considers appropriate. 15
(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 270 days after 16
the date of enactment of the Act, the Administrator 17
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-18
tration shall brief the appropriate committees of 19
Congress on the activities under paragraph (1). 20
(3) P
ILOT PROGRAMS.—Not later than 18 21
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, 22
the Administrator of the National Oceanic and At-23
mospheric Administration may conduct pilot pro-24
grams of unmanned aircraft systems for fire weather 25
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and fire environment observations, including relating 1
to the following: 2
(A) Testing of unmanned aircraft systems 3
in approximations of real-world scenarios. 4
(B) Assessment of the utility of meteoro-5
logical data collected from fire response and as-6
sessment aircraft. 7
(C) Input into appropriate models of col-8
lected data to predict fire behavior, including 9
coupled atmosphere and fire models. 10
(D) Collection of best management prac-11
tices for deployment of unmanned aircraft sys-12
tems for fire weather and fire environment ob-13
servations. 14
(4) P
ROHIBITION.— 15
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 16
under subparagraphs (B) and (C), the Adminis-17
trator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 18
Administration may not procure any unmanned 19
aircraft system that is manufactured or assem-20
bled by an entity in a foreign country of con-21
cern. 22
(B) E
XEMPTION.—The prohibition under 23
subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the Admin-24
istrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-25
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pheric Administration if the Administrator de-1
termines, in consultation with the Secretary of 2
Homeland Security, that the procurement of an 3
unmanned aircraft system is necessary for the 4
sole purpose of marine or atmospheric science 5
or management. 6
(C) W
AIVER.—The Administrator of the 7
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-8
tion may waive the prohibition under subpara-9
graph (A) on a case-by-case basis— 10
(i) with the approval of the Secretary 11
of Homeland Security; and 12
(ii) upon written or electronic notifica-13
tion to appropriate committees of Congress 14
not later than 30 days after any such waiv-15
er. 16
(5) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 17
From amounts made available for Procurement, Ac-18
quisition, and Construction of the National Oceanic 19
and Atmospheric Administration, there is authorized 20
to be appropriated $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 21
to carry out this section. 22
(j) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 23
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -24
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-25
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gress’’ means the Committee on Science, Space, and 1
Technology and the Committee on Homeland Secu-2
rity of the House of Representatives and the Com-3
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 4
and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-5
ernmental Affairs of the Senate. 6
(2) C
RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The term 7
‘‘critical infrastructure’’ has the meaning given such 8
term in section 1016(e) of Public Law 107–56 (42 9
U.S.C. 5195c(e)). 10
(3) F
OREIGN COUNTRY OF CONCERN .—The 11
term ‘‘foreign country of concern’’ has the meaning 12
given such term in section 9901 of the William M. 13
(Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization 14
Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4651). 15
(4) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 16
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 17
meaning given such term in section 101 of the High-18
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 19
(5) U
NMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM .—The term 20
‘‘unmanned aircraft system’’ has the meaning given 21
such term in section 44801 of title 49, United 22
States Code. 23
(6) W
EATHER INDUSTRY.—The term ‘‘weather 24
industry’’ has the meaning given such term in sec-25
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tion 2 of the Weather Research and Forecasting In-1
novation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501). 2
SEC. 3. INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COMMITTEE ON 3
WILDFIRES. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 5
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the 6
Office of Science and Technology Policy shall establish an 7
interagency coordinating committee to be known as the 8
‘‘Interagency Coordinating Committee on Wildfires’’ (in 9
this section referred to as the ‘‘Committee’’). The chair 10
of the Committee shall be the Administrator of the Na-11
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 12
(b) P
URPOSE.—The Committee shall coordinate the 13
development of accurate and timely wildfire forecasting, 14
detection, monitoring, and delivery of related products or 15
services that best assist State and local emergency officials 16
while avoiding duplication of activities. 17
(c) M
EMBERSHIP.—In addition to the chair, the 18
Committee shall be composed of the heads or appropriate 19
designees of the following program agencies: 20
(1) The Federal Emergency Management Agen-21
cy. 22
(2) The United States Fire Administration. 23
(3) The United States Forest Service. 24
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(4) The National Aeronautics and Space Ad-1
ministration. 2
(5) The Department of the Interior. 3
(6) The Department of Agriculture. 4
(7) The United States Geological Survey. 5
(8) The Office of Science and Technology Pol-6
icy. 7
(9) Any other Federal department or agency 8
the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 9
Policy considers appropriate. 10
(d) S
TRATEGICPLAN.—Not later than one year after 11
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Committee shall 12
submit to Congress a strategic plan for the Program that 13
includes the following: 14
(1) A description of short-term, mid-term, and 15
long-term objectives to achieve the purpose specified 16
in subsection (b). 17
(2) A description of how agencies specified in 18
subsection (c) will collaborate with stakeholders and 19
take into account stakeholder needs and rec-20
ommendations in developing such objectives. 21
(3) A description of existing and new observa-22
tional and data infrastructure needed to accomplish 23
such objectives. 24
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(4) A description of the role of each such agen-1
cy in achieving such objectives. 2
(5) Guidance regarding how the Committee’s 3
recommendations are best used in climate adapta-4
tion planning for Federal, State, local, Tribal, and 5
territorial entities. 6
(e) I
NTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS.—The heads of 7
agencies specified in subsection (c) may enter into one or 8
more interagency agreements providing for cooperation 9
and collaboration in the development of wildfire fore-10
casting, detection, and monitoring tools, instruments, 11
technologies, and research to accomplish the purpose de-12
scribed in subsection (b). 13
(f) C
OLLABORATION.—The head of each agency spec-14
ified in subsection (c) shall, to the extent practicable, in-15
crease engagement and cooperation with international, 16
academic, State, and local communities regarding the in-17
frastructure, data, and scientific research necessary to 18
best advance the forecasting, detection, and monitoring of 19
and preparation for wildfires. 20
SEC. 4. NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON WILDFIRES. 21
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 23
the submission of the strategic plan required by sec-24
tion 3(d), the Director of the Office of Science and 25
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Technology Policy shall establish a national advisory 1
committee to be known as the ‘‘National Advisory 2
Committee on Wildfires’’ (in this section referred to 3
as the ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). The Advisory Com-4
mittee shall consist of not fewer than seven and not 5
more than 15 members who are qualified to provide 6
advice regarding wildfire forecasting, detection, mon-7
itoring, and delivery of related products or services, 8
including from the following entities: 9
(A) Research and academic institutions. 10
(B) Public communication or broadcast en-11
tities. 12
(C) Emergency management agencies. 13
(D) State, local, or Tribal governments. 14
(E) The National Association of State For-15
esters. 16
(F) Business communities. 17
(G) Other entities as designated by the Di-18
rector of the Office of Science and Technology 19
Policy. 20
(2) P
ROHIBITION.—Members of the Advisory 21
Committee may not be employees of the Federal 22
Government. 23
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(b) ASSESSMENT.—The Advisory Committee shall 1
offer assessments and recommendations relating to the 2
following: 3
(1) Tailored forecasting, detection, and moni-4
toring products and tools. 5
(2) Communication and delivery methods of 6
wildfire forecasting, detection, and monitoring infor-7
mation. 8
(3) Opportunities to streamline Federal fore-9
casting, monitoring, and detection information to 10
local emergency personnel and communities. 11
(4) The management, coordination, implemen-12
tation, and activities of the Interagency Coordi-13
nating Committee on Wildfires under section 3. 14
(5) The effectiveness of the Interagency Coordi-15
nating Committee on Wildfires in meeting its pur-16
poses. 17
(c) C
OMPENSATION.—Members of the Advisory Com-18
mittee shall serve without compensation. 19
(d) R
EPORTS.—Not less frequently than biennially, 20
the Advisory Committee shall report to the Director of the 21
Office of Science and Technology Policy on the assess-22
ments carried out under subsection (b) and its rec-23
ommendations for ways to improve the coordination and 24
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dissemination of wildfire forecasts, warnings, and detec-1
tion and monitoring information. 2
(e) C
HARTER.—Notwithstanding section 1013(b)(2) 3
of title 5, United States Code, the Advisory Committee 4
shall not be required to file a charter subsequent to its 5
initial charter, filed under section 1008(c) of such title, 6
before the termination date specified in subsection (f) of 7
this section. 8
(f) T
ERMINATION.—The Advisory Committee shall 9
terminate on September 30, 2028. 10
(g) C
ONFLICT OFINTEREST.—An Advisory Com-11
mittee member shall recuse himself or herself from any 12
Advisory Committee activity in which he or she has an 13
actual pecuniary interest. 14
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRE WEATHER TESTBED. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator of the Na-16
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall es-17
tablish a fire weather testbed to enable engagement across 18
the Federal Government, State and local governments, 19
academia, private and federally funded research labora-20
tories, the private sector, and end-users in order to evalu-21
ate the accuracy and usability of technology, models, fire 22
weather products and services, and other research to accel-23
erate the implementation, transition to operations, and use 24
of new capabilities by the National Oceanic and Atmos-25
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pheric Administration, Federal and land management 1
agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. 2
(b) R
ESOURCES.—In carrying out this section, the 3
Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 4
Administration may not transfer or reprogram any funds, 5
detail any personnel, or make use of any infrastructure 6
from cooperative institutes of the National Oceanic and 7
Atmospheric Administration in existence as of the date of 8
the enactment of this Act for the fire weather testbed es-9
tablished under subsection (a). 10
(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 11
amounts made available for Procurement, Acquisition, and 12
Construction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 13
Administration, there is authorized to be appropriated 14
$15,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 to carry out this section. 15
SEC. 6. INCIDENT METEOROLOGIST WORKFORCE. 16
Not later than six months after the date of the enact-17
ment of this Act, the Administrator of the National Oce-18
anic and Atmospheric Administration shall submit to the 19
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 20
House of Representatives and the Committee on Com-21
merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate the re-22
sults of an assessment of National Weather Service work-23
force and training challenges for Incident Meteorologists, 24
and a roadmap for overcoming such challenges. Such as-25
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sessment shall take into consideration information tech-1
nology support, logistical and administrative operations, 2
anticipated weather and climate conditions, and feedback 3
from relevant stakeholders, and shall include, to the max-4
imum extent practicable, an identification by the National 5
Weather Service of the following: 6
(1) The expected number of Incident Meteorolo-7
gists needed over the next five years. 8
(2) Potential hiring authorities necessary to 9
overcome any identified workforce and training chal-10
lenges. 11
(3) Alternative services or assistance options 12
the National Weather Service could provide to meet 13
operational needs. 14
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 15
In this Act: 16
(1) F
IRE ENVIRONMENT.—The term ‘‘fire envi-17
ronment’’ means— 18
(A) the environmental conditions, such as 19
soil moisture, vegetation, topography, snowpack, 20
atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind, 21
that influence— 22
(i) fuel and fire behavior; and 23
(ii) smoke dispersion and transport; 24
and 25
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(B) the associated environmental impacts 1
occurring during and after fire events. 2
(2) F
IRE WEATHER.—The term ‘‘fire weather’’ 3
means the weather conditions that influence the 4
start, spread, character, or behavior of wildfires or 5
fires at the wildland-urban interface and relevant 6
meteorological and chemical phenomena, including 7
air quality, smoke, and meteorological parameters 8
such as relative humidity, air temperature, wind 9
speed and direction, and atmospheric composition 10
and chemistry, including emissions and mixing 11
heights. 12
Æ
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