118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 4866
AN ACT
To direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administrator to improve fire weather and
fire environment forecasting, detection, and local collabo-
ration, 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 2
•HR 4866 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fire Weather Develop-2
ment Act of 2024’’. 3
SEC. 2. FIRE WEATHER FORECASTING AND DETECTION. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Administrator of the Na-5
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shall es-6
tablish a program (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Pro-7
gram’’) to improve fire weather and fire environment fore-8
casting, detection, and delivery of products or services 9
through collaboration with Federal and State agencies or 10
departments, local emergency mangers, and relevant enti-11
ties. 12
(b) G
OALS.—The goals of the Program shall be to 13
develop and improve accurate fire weather and fire envi-14
ronment forecasts and warnings in order to reduce loss 15
of life, reduce injuries, protect property, and reduce dam-16
age to the economy from wildfires. The Program shall seek 17
to improve the assessment of fire weather and fire environ-18
ments, the understanding and prediction of wildfires, and 19
the communications regarding such assessments with 20
State and local emergency officials in a timely and stream-21
lined fashion, with a focus on improving the following: 22
(1) The prediction of ignition, intensification 23
and spread of wildfires. 24
(2) The observation and monitoring of fire 25
weather and fire environments. 26 3
•HR 4866 EH
(3) The forecast and communication of smoke 1
dispersion from wildfires. 2
(4) Information dissemination and risk commu-3
nication to develop more effective watch and warning 4
products relating to wildfires. 5
(5) The early detection of wildfires, including 6
pre-ignition analysis and ground condition character-7
izations. 8
(6) The development, testing, and deployment 9
of novel tools and techniques related to under-10
standing, monitoring, and predicting fire weather 11
and fire environments. 12
(7) The understanding and association of cli-13
mate change and its impacts on fire weather and 14
fire environments. 15
(8) The unique characteristics, including obser-16
vation or modeling requirements, related to fires at 17
the wildland-urban interface. 18
(9) The forecasting and understanding of the 19
impacts of prescribed burns (as such term is defined 20
in section 2 of the Prescribed Burn Approval Act of 21
2016 (16 U.S.C. 551c–1 note)). 22
(c) C
OLLABORATIONWITHSTAKEHOLDERS.—In de-23
veloping the Program required under this section, the Ad-24
ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-25 4
•HR 4866 EH
ministration shall solicit and take into consideration input 1
from the weather industry, such academic entities as the 2
Administrator considers appropriate, and other relevant 3
stakeholders. 4
(d) A
CTIVITIES.—To achieve the goals specified in 5
subsection (b), the Administrator of the National Oceanic 6
and Atmospheric Administration may conduct research, 7
development, testing, demonstration, and operational 8
transition activities related to fire weather and fire envi-9
ronments, including regarding the following: 10
(1) Tools and services to inform, support, and 11
complement active land management, local emer-12
gency personnel, the United States Forest Service, 13
and State, local, and Tribal entities during their re-14
sponse and mitigation efforts. 15
(2) Sensing technologies, such as infrared, 16
microwave, and active sensors suitable for potential 17
deployment on spacecraft, aircraft, and unmanned 18
aircraft systems, to improve the monitoring and 19
forecasting of fire fuel and active wildfires, wildfire 20
behavior models and forecasts, mapping efforts, and 21
the prediction of wildfires and the impacts of such. 22
(3) Grid-based assessments and outlooks of fuel 23
moisture and danger levels. 24 5
•HR 4866 EH
(4) Social and behavior sciences related to fire 1
weather and fire environment warning products. 2
(5) Advanced satellite detection products cou-3
pled with atmosphere and fire weather modeling sys-4
tems. 5
(6) Education and training to expand the num-6
ber of students and researchers in areas of study 7
and research related to wildfires, fire weather, and 8
fire environments. 9
(7) Modeling systems to link long-term climate 10
predictions to localized or general land management 11
decisions. 12
(8) Communication and outreach to commu-13
nities, energy utilities, owners and operators of crit-14
ical infrastructure, and other relevant stakeholders 15
regarding fire weather and fire environment risk. 16
(9) Stewardship and dissemination, to the ex-17
tent practicable, of National Oceanic and Atmos-18
pheric Administration scientific data and related 19
products and services in formats meeting shared 20
standards to enhance the interoperability, usability, 21
and accessibility of such data in order to better meet 22
the needs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 23
Administration, other Federal agencies, and relevant 24
stakeholders. 25 6
•HR 4866 EH
(10) Improvement of spatial and temporal reso-1
lution observations. 2
(11) Any other topic or activity the Adminis-3
trator determines relevant. 4
(e) N
OVELTOOLS FOR MONITORING AND PRE-5
DICTION.—The Administrator of the National Oceanic 6
and Atmospheric Administration, in consultation with the 7
heads of the agencies specified in section 3, or other ap-8
propriate stakeholders, including commercial partners, 9
shall develop novel tools and technologies to support the 10
activities of the Program and which may be applied to 11
broader wildland fire research, monitoring, and mitigation 12
activities, as practicable and appropriate. 13
(f) E
XTRAMURALRESEARCH.—The Administrator of 14
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 15
shall collaborate with and support the non-Federal 16
wildland fire research community, which includes institu-17
tions of higher education, private sector entities, non-18
governmental organizations, and other relevant stake-19
holders, by making funds available through competitive 20
grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. 21
(g) C
OMMERCIALDATA.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 23
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-24
ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-25 7
•HR 4866 EH
pheric Administration, in consultation with the 1
heads of other Federal agencies and relevant stake-2
holders, may enter into contracts with one or more 3
private sector entities to obtain additional airborne 4
and space-based data and observations that may en-5
hance or supplement the understanding, monitoring, 6
and prediction, of fire weather and fire environ-7
ments, and the relevant Program activities under 8
this section. 9
(2) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out activities 10
under paragraph (1), the Administrator of the Na-11
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall 12
consult with private sector entities through the Na-13
tional Advisory Committee on Wildfires under sec-14
tion 4 to identify needed tools and data that can be 15
best provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric 16
Administration satellites and are most beneficial to 17
wildfire and smoke detection and monitoring. 18
(h) N
ONDUPLICATION.—To the maximum extent 19
practicable, the Administrator of the National Oceanic 20
and Atmospheric Administration shall consult with the 21
National Interagency Fire Center, including the Joint Fire 22
Science Program, to avoid duplication of activities under 23
this section and ensure the Administration’s focus on 24 8
•HR 4866 EH
unique research activities best suited for transition to op-1
erations. 2
(i) U
NMANNEDAIRCRAFTSYSTEMS.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator of the 4
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 5
shall— 6
(A) assess the role and potential benefits 7
of unmanned aircraft systems to improve data 8
collection in support of fire weather and fire en-9
vironment modeling, meteorological observa-10
tions, predictions, and forecasts; 11
(B) identify objectives for testing such sys-12
tems’ use for obtaining fire weather and fire en-13
vironment observations, and other relevant ac-14
tivities; and 15
(C) transition unmanned aircraft systems 16
technologies from research to operations as the 17
Administrator considers appropriate. 18
(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 270 days after 19
the date of enactment of the Act, the Administrator 20
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-21
tration shall brief the appropriate committees of 22
Congress on the activities under paragraph (1). 23
(3) P
ILOT PROGRAMS.—Not later than 18 24
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, 25 9
•HR 4866 EH
the Administrator of the National Oceanic and At-1
mospheric Administration may conduct pilot pro-2
grams of unmanned aircraft systems for fire weather 3
and fire environment observations, including relating 4
to the following: 5
(A) Testing of unmanned aircraft systems 6
in approximations of real-world scenarios. 7
(B) Assessment of the utility of meteoro-8
logical data collected from fire response and as-9
sessment aircraft. 10
(C) Input into appropriate models of col-11
lected data to predict fire behavior, including 12
coupled atmosphere and fire models. 13
(D) Collection of best management prac-14
tices for deployment of unmanned aircraft sys-15
tems for fire weather and fire environment ob-16
servations. 17
(4) P
ROHIBITION.— 18
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 19
under subparagraphs (B) and (C), the Adminis-20
trator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 21
Administration may not procure any unmanned 22
aircraft system that is manufactured or assem-23
bled by an entity in a foreign country of con-24
cern. 25 10
•HR 4866 EH
(B) EXEMPTION.—The prohibition under 1
subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the Admin-2
istrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-3
pheric Administration if the Administrator de-4
termines, in consultation with the Secretary of 5
Homeland Security, that the procurement of an 6
unmanned aircraft system is necessary for the 7
sole purpose of marine or atmospheric science 8
or management. 9
(C) W
AIVER.—The Administrator of the 10
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-11
tion may waive the prohibition under subpara-12
graph (A) on a case-by-case basis— 13
(i) with the approval of the Secretary 14
of Homeland Security; and 15
(ii) upon written or electronic notifica-16
tion to appropriate committees of Congress 17
not later than 30 days after any such waiv-18
er. 19
(5) A
IRSPACE OPERATIONS SYSTEM .—The Ad-20
ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-21
pheric Administration, in cooperation with the Ad-22
ministrator of the National Aeronautics and Space 23
Administration, shall utilize the capabilities of un-24
manned aircraft systems as appropriate for fire 25 11
•HR 4866 EH
weather and fire environment observations, and may 1
use a wildfire airspace operations system that ac-2
counts for piloted aircraft, unmanned aircraft sys-3
tems, and other new and emerging capabilities after 4
such airspace operations system is developed and de-5
termined ready for operational use by the Adminis-6
trator of the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-7
ministration. 8
(6) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 9
There is authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 10
for fiscal year 2025 to carry out this subsection. 11
(j) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -13
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-14
gress’’ means the Committee on Science, Space, and 15
Technology and the Committee on Homeland Secu-16
rity of the House of Representatives and the Com-17
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 18
and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-19
ernmental Affairs of the Senate. 20
(2) C
RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The term 21
‘‘critical infrastructure’’ has the meaning given such 22
term in section 1016(e) of Public Law 107–56 (42 23
U.S.C. 5195c(e)). 24 12
•HR 4866 EH
(3) FOREIGN COUNTRY OF CONCERN .—The 1
term ‘‘foreign country of concern’’ has the meaning 2
given such term in section 9901 of the William M. 3
(Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization 4
Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4651). 5
(4) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 6
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 7
meaning given such term in section 101 of the High-8
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 9
(5) U
NMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM .—The term 10
‘‘unmanned aircraft system’’ has the meaning given 11
such term in section 44801 of title 49, United 12
States Code. 13
(6) W
EATHER INDUSTRY.—The term ‘‘weather 14
industry’’ has the meaning given such term in sec-15
tion 2 of the Weather Research and Forecasting In-16
novation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501). 17
SEC. 3. INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COMMITTEE ON 18
WILDFIRES. 19
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 20
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the 21
Office of Science and Technology Policy shall establish an 22
interagency coordinating committee to be known as the 23
‘‘Interagency Coordinating Committee on Wildfires’’ (in 24
this section referred to as the ‘‘Committee’’). The chair 25 13
•HR 4866 EH
of the Committee shall be the Administrator of the Na-1
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2
(b) P
URPOSE.—The Committee shall coordinate the 3
development of accurate and timely wildfire forecasting, 4
detection, monitoring, and delivery of related products or 5
services that best assist State and local emergency officials 6
while avoiding duplication of activities. 7
(c) M
EMBERSHIP.—In addition to the chair, the 8
Committee shall be composed of the heads or appropriate 9
designees of the following program agencies: 10
(1) The Federal Emergency Management Agen-11
cy. 12
(2) The United States Fire Administration. 13
(3) The United States Forest Service. 14
(4) The National Aeronautics and Space Ad-15
ministration. 16
(5) The Department of the Interior. 17
(6) The Department of Agriculture. 18
(7) The United States Geological Survey. 19
(8) The Office of Science and Technology Pol-20
icy. 21
(9) Any other Federal department or agency 22
the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 23
Policy considers appropriate. 24 14
•HR 4866 EH
(d) STRATEGICPLAN.—Not later than one year after 1
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Committee shall 2
submit to Congress a strategic plan for the Program that 3
includes the following: 4
(1) A description of short-term, mid-term, and 5
long-term objectives to achieve the purpose specified 6
in subsection (b). 7
(2) A description of how agencies specified in 8
subsection (c) will collaborate with stakeholders and 9
take into account stakeholder needs and rec-10
ommendations in developing such objectives. 11
(3) A description of existing and new observa-12
tional and data infrastructure needed to accomplish 13
such objectives. 14
(4) A description of the role of each such agen-15
cy in achieving such objectives. 16
(5) Guidance regarding how the Committee’s 17
recommendations are best used in climate adapta-18
tion planning for Federal, State, local, Tribal, and 19
territorial entities. 20
(e) I
NTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS.—The heads of 21
agencies specified in subsection (c) may enter into one or 22
more interagency agreements providing for cooperation 23
and collaboration in the development of wildfire fore-24
casting, detection, and monitoring tools, instruments, 25 15
•HR 4866 EH
technologies, and research to accomplish the purpose de-1
scribed in subsection (b). 2
(f) C
OLLABORATION.—The head of each agency spec-3
ified in subsection (c) shall, to the extent practicable, in-4
crease engagement and cooperation with international, 5
academic, State, and local communities regarding the in-6
frastructure, data, and scientific research necessary to 7
best advance the forecasting, detection, and monitoring of 8
and preparation for wildfires. 9
SEC. 4. NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON WILDFIRES. 10
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 12
the submission of the strategic plan required by sec-13
tion 3(d), the Director of the Office of Science and 14
Technology Policy shall establish a national advisory 15
committee to be known as the ‘‘National Advisory 16
Committee on Wildfires’’ (in this section referred to 17
as the ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). The Advisory Com-18
mittee shall consist of not fewer than seven and not 19
more than 15 members who are qualified to provide 20
advice regarding wildfire forecasting, detection, mon-21
itoring, and delivery of related products or services, 22
including from the following entities: 23
(A) Research and academic institutions. 24 16
•HR 4866 EH
(B) Public communication or broadcast en-1
tities. 2
(C) Emergency management agencies. 3
(D) State, local, or Tribal governments. 4
(E) The National Association of State For-5
esters. 6
(F) Business communities. 7
(G) Other entities as designated by the Di-8
rector of the Office of Science and Technology 9
Policy. 10
(2) P
ROHIBITION.—Members of the Advisory 11
Committee may not be employees of the Federal 12
Government. 13
(b) A
SSESSMENT.—The Advisory Committee shall 14
offer assessments and recommendations relating to the 15
following: 16
(1) Tailored forecasting, detection, and moni-17
toring products and tools. 18
(2) Communication and delivery methods of 19
wildfire forecasting, detection, and monitoring infor-20
mation. 21
(3) Opportunities to streamline Federal fore-22
casting, monitoring, and detection information to 23
local emergency personnel and communities. 24 17
•HR 4866 EH
(4) The management, coordination, implemen-1
tation, and activities of the Interagency Coordi-2
nating Committee on Wildfires under section 3. 3
(5) The effectiveness of the Interagency Coordi-4
nating Committee on Wildfires in meeting its pur-5
poses. 6
(c) C
OMPENSATION.—Members of the Advisory Com-7
mittee shall serve without compensation. 8
(d) R
EPORTS.—Not less frequently than biennially, 9
the Advisory Committee shall report to the Director of the 10
Office of Science and Technology Policy on the assess-11
ments carried out under subsection (b) and its rec-12
ommendations for ways to improve the coordination and 13
dissemination of wildfire forecasts, warnings, and detec-14
tion and monitoring information. 15
(e) C
HARTER.—Notwithstanding section 1013(b)(2) 16
of title 5, United States Code, the Advisory Committee 17
shall not be required to file a charter subsequent to its 18
initial charter, filed under section 1008(c) of such title, 19
before the termination date specified in subsection (f) of 20
this section. 21
(f) T
ERMINATION.—The Advisory Committee shall 22
terminate on September 30, 2028. 23
(g) C
ONFLICT OFINTEREST.—An Advisory Com-24
mittee member shall recuse himself or herself from any 25 18
•HR 4866 EH
Advisory Committee activity in which he or she has an 1
actual pecuniary interest. 2
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRE WEATHER TESTBED. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator of the Na-4
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall es-5
tablish a fire weather testbed to enable engagement across 6
the Federal Government, State and local governments, 7
academia, private and federally funded research labora-8
tories, the private sector, and end-users in order to evalu-9
ate the accuracy and usability of technology, models, fire 10
weather products and services, and other research to accel-11
erate the implementation, transition to operations, and use 12
of new capabilities by the National Oceanic and Atmos-13
pheric Administration, Federal and land management 14
agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. 15
(b) R
ESOURCES.—In carrying out this section, the 16
Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 17
Administration may not transfer or reprogram any funds, 18
detail any personnel, or make use of any infrastructure 19
from cooperative institutes of the National Oceanic and 20
Atmospheric Administration in existence as of the date of 21
the enactment of this Act for the fire weather testbed es-22
tablished under subsection (a). 23 19
•HR 4866 EH
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 1
authorized to be appropriated $4,000,000 for each of fis-2
cal years 2025 through 2028 to carry out this section. 3
SEC. 6. INCIDENT METEOROLOGIST WORKFORCE. 4
(a) W
ORKFORCE AND TRAININGASSESSMENT.—Not 5
later than six months after the date of the enactment of 6
this Act, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and 7
Atmospheric Administration shall submit to the Com-8
mittee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House 9
of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 10
Science, and Transportation of the Senate the results of 11
an assessment of National Weather Service workforce and 12
training challenges for Incident Meteorologists, and a 13
roadmap for overcoming such challenges. Such assessment 14
shall take into consideration information technology sup-15
port, logistical and administrative operations, anticipated 16
weather and climate conditions, and feedback from rel-17
evant stakeholders, and shall include, to the maximum ex-18
tent practicable, an identification by the National Weather 19
Service of the following: 20
(1) The expected number of Incident Meteorolo-21
gists needed over the next five years. 22
(2) Potential hiring authorities necessary to 23
overcome any identified workforce and training chal-24
lenges. 25 20
•HR 4866 EH
(3) Alternative services or assistance options 1
the National Weather Service could provide to meet 2
operational needs. 3
(b) O
VERTIMEPAY.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any premium pay for serv-5
ices performed by Incident Meteorologists of the Na-6
tional Weather Service that are determined by the 7
Secretary of Commerce to be primarily related to 8
emergency wildland fire suppression activities shall 9
be disregarded in calculating the aggregate of such 10
employee’s basic pay and premium pay for purposes 11
of a limitation under section 5547 of title 5, United 12
States Code, or under any other provision of law. 13
(2) R
ATES.—Section 5542(a)(5) of title 5, 14
United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘, the 15
National Weather Service,’’ after ‘‘Interior’’. 16
SEC. 7. RESEARCH ON WILDLAND FIRE COMMUNICATIONS 17
AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 19
(1) P
UBLIC SAFETY RESEARCH .—Not later 20
than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this 21
Act, the Director, acting through the head of the 22
Public Safety and Communications Research Divi-23
sion and in consultation with the Fire Research Di-24 21
•HR 4866 EH
vision and technology manufacturers, shall carry out 1
research on the following: 2
(A) Public safety communication coordina-3
tion standards among Federal, State, Tribal, 4
and local wildland firefighters, fire management 5
response officials, and member agencies. 6
(B) Improving and integrating existing 7
communications systems to transmit secure 8
real-time data, alerts, and advisories to and 9
from fire management response officials and 10
wildland firefighters. 11
(2) F
IELD TESTING AND MEASUREMENT OF IN -12
FORMATION DISSEMINATION AND TECHNOLOGY .— 13
The Public Safety and Communications Research 14
Division, in consultation with the Fire Research Di-15
vision and member agencies, shall conduct both live 16
and virtual field testing of equipment, software, and 17
other technologies to determine current times of in-18
formation dissemination and develop standards for 19
the delivery of useful and secure real-time data 20
among member agencies, fire management response 21
officials, and wildland firefighters, based on findings 22
from research under paragraph (1). 23
(b) R
ECOMMENDATIONS .— 24 22
•HR 4866 EH
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall develop 1
and publish recommendations to improve public safe-2
ty communication coordination standards among 3
wildland first responders and fire management re-4
sponse officials. 5
(2) T
RANSMITTAL.—The Director shall trans-6
mit the recommendations under paragraph (1) to 7
the Office of Management and Budget and the Of-8
fice of Science and Technology Policy for member 9
agencies to implement. 10
(3) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENTS .— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall sub-12
mit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 13
Technology of the House of Representatives 14
and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 15
Transportation of the Senate a report con-16
taining the recommendations published under 17
paragraph (1). 18
(B) I
MPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 1 19
year after the date of the publication of the Di-20
rector’s recommendations under paragraph (1), 21
the Comptroller General of the United States 22
shall submit to the Committee on Science, 23
Space, and Technology of the House of Rep-24
resentatives and the Committee on Commerce, 25 23
•HR 4866 EH
Science, and Transportation of the Senate a re-1
port on the extent to which member agencies 2
have implemented such recommendations. 3
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 5
the Director of the National Institute of Standards 6
and Technology. 7
(2) M
EMBER AGENCY .—The term ‘‘member 8
agency’’ means a member agency of the National 9
Interagency Fire Center, including the Bureau of In-10
dian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National 11
Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 12
Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, For-13
est Service, United States Fire Administration, and 14
the Department of Defense. 15
(3) W
ILDLAND FIREFIGHTER .—The term 16
‘‘wildland firefighter’’ means any person who partici-17
pates in wildland firefighting activities. 18
(4) F
IRE MANAGEMENT RESPONSE OFFI -19
CIALS.—The term ‘‘fire management response offi-20
cials’’ means regional fire directors, deputy regional 21
fire directors, agency officials who directly oversee 22
fire operations, fire management officers, and indi-23
viduals serving on incident management teams. 24 24
•HR 4866 EH
(5) TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURERS .—The term 1
‘‘technology manufacturers’’ means private sector 2
entities that manufacture communications tech-3
nologies used by Federal, State, Tribal, or local 4
wildland fire authorities. 5
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
(1) F
IRE ENVIRONMENT.—The term ‘‘fire envi-8
ronment’’ means— 9
(A) the environmental conditions, such as 10
soil moisture, vegetation, topography, snowpack, 11
atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind, 12
that influence— 13
(i) fuel and fire behavior; and 14
(ii) smoke dispersion and transport; 15
and 16
(B) the associated environmental impacts 17
occurring during and after fire events. 18
(2) F
IRE WEATHER.—The term ‘‘fire weather’’ 19
means the weather conditions that influence the 20
start, spread, character, or behavior of wildfires or 21
fires at the wildland-urban interface and relevant 22
meteorological and chemical phenomena, including 23
air quality, smoke, and meteorological parameters 24
such as relative humidity, air temperature, wind 25 25
•HR 4866 EH
speed and direction, and atmospheric composition 1
and chemistry, including emissions and mixing 2
heights. 3
Passed the House of Representatives April 29, 2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 4866
AN ACT
To direct the Administrator of the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administrator to improve
fire weather and fire environment forecasting, de-
tection, and local collaboration, and for other
purposes.