Us Congress House Bill HB8790 Latest Draft

                            118THCONGRESS 
2
DSESSION H. R. 8790 
AN ACT 
To expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act 
of 1969 and improve forest management activities on 
National Forest System lands, on public lands under 
the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, 
and on Tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, 
fire-prone forested lands, 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 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2
‘‘Fix Our Forests Act’’. 3
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 4
this Act is as follows: 5
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Definitions. 
TITLE I—LANDSCAPE-SCALE RESTORATION 
Subtitle A—Addressing Emergency Wildfire Risks in High Priority Firesheds 
Sec. 101. Designation of fireshed management areas. 
Sec. 102. Fireshed center. 
Sec. 103. Fireshed registry. 
Sec. 104. Shared stewardship. 
Sec. 105. Fireshed assessments. 
Sec. 106. Emergency fireshed management. 
Sec. 107. Sunset. 
Subtitle B—Expanding Collaborative Tools to Reduce Wildfire Risk and 
Improve Forest Health 
Sec. 111. Modification of the treatment of certain revenue and payments under 
good neighbor agreements. 
Sec. 112. Fixing stewardship end result contracting. 
Sec. 113. Intra-agency strike teams. 
Sec. 114. Locally-led restoration. 
Sec. 115. Joint Chiefs landscape restoration partnership program. 
Sec. 116. Collaborative forest landscape restoration program. 
Sec. 117. Utilizing grazing for wildfire risk reduction. 
Sec. 118. Program to support priority reforestation and restoration projects of 
Department of the Interior. 
Subtitle C—Litigation Reform 
Sec. 121. Commonsense litigation reform. 
Sec. 122. Consultation on forest plans. 
TITLE II—PROTECTING COMMUNITIES IN THE WILDLAND-URBAN 
INTERFACE 
Sec. 201. Community wildfire risk reduction program. 
Sec. 202. Community wildfire defense research program. 
Sec. 203. Vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and main-
tenance relating to electric transmission and distribution facil-
ity rights-of-way. 
Sec. 204. Categorical exclusion for electric utility lines rights-of-way. 
Sec. 205. Seeds of success. 
TITLE III—TRANSPARENCY AND TECHNOLOGY  3 
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Sec. 301. Biochar innovations and opportunities for conservation, health, and 
advancements in research. 
Sec. 302. Accurate hazardous fuels reduction reports. 
Sec. 303. Public-private wildfire technology deployment and demonstration 
partnership. 
Sec. 304. GAO study on Forest Service policies. 
Sec. 305. Forest Service Western headquarters study. 
Sec. 306. Keeping forest plans current and monitored. 
Sec. 307. Container Aerial Firefighting System (CAFFS). 
Sec. 308. Study on pine beetle infestation. 
TITLE IV—ENSURING CASUALTY ASSISTANCE FOR OUR 
FIREFIGHTERS 
Sec. 401. Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program. 
TITLE V—WHITE OAK RESILIENCE 
Sec. 501. White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition. 
Sec. 502. Forest Service pilot program. 
Sec. 503. Department of the Interior white oak review and restoration. 
Sec. 504. White oak regeneration and upland oak habitat. 
Sec. 505. Tree nursery shortages. 
Sec. 506. White oak research. 
Sec. 507. USDA formal initiative. 
Sec. 508. Authorities. 
TITLE VI—EXPANSION OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS 
UNDER WATER SOURCE PROTECTION PROGRAM 
Sec. 601. Water source protection program. 
Sec. 602. Watershed condition framework technical corrections. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
1
In this Act: 2
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 3
the Director of the Fireshed Center appointed under 4
section 102. 5
(2) F
IRESHED.—The term ‘‘fireshed’’ means a 6
landscape-scale area that faces similar wildfire 7
threat where a response strategy could influence the 8
wildfire outcome. 9 4 
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(3) FIRESHED MANAGEMENT PROJECT .—The 1
term ‘‘fireshed management project’’ means a 2
project under section 106. 3
(4) F
IRESHED REGISTRY.—The term ‘‘Fireshed 4
Registry’’ means the fireshed registry established 5
under section 103. 6
(5) F
OREST PLAN.—The term ‘‘forest plan’’ 7
means— 8
(A) a land use plan prepared by the Bu-9
reau of Land Management for public lands pur-10
suant to section 202 of the Federal Land Policy 11
and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 12
1712); 13
(B) a land and resource management plan 14
prepared by the Forest Service for a unit of the 15
National Forest System pursuant to section 6 16
of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-17
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 18
1604); or 19
(C) a forest management plan (as defined 20
in section 304 of the National Indian Forests 21
Resources Management Act (25 U.S.C. 3104)) 22
with respect to Indian forest land or rangeland. 23
(6) G
OVERNOR.—The term ‘‘Governor’’ means 24
the Governor or any other appropriate executive offi-25 5 
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cial of an affected State or Indian Tribe or the Com-1
monwealth of Puerto Rico. 2
(7) H
AZARDOUS FUELS MANAGEMENT ACTIVI -3
TIES.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels management ac-4
tivities’’ means any vegetation management activities 5
(or combination thereof) that reduce the risk of 6
wildfire, including mechanical thinning, mastication, 7
prescribed burning, cultural burning (as determined 8
by the applicable Indian Tribe), timber harvest, and 9
grazing. 10
(8) HFRA 
TERMS.—The terms ‘‘at-risk com-11
munity’’, ‘‘community wildfire protection plan’’, and 12
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ have the meanings given 13
such terms, respectively, in section 101 of the 14
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 15
6511). 16
(9) I
NDIAN FOREST LAND OR RANGELAND .— 17
The term ‘‘Indian forest land or rangeland’’ means 18
land that— 19
(A) is held in trust by, or with a restriction 20
against alienation by, the United States for an 21
Indian Tribe or a member of an Indian Tribe; 22
and 23
(B)(i)(I) is Indian forest land (as defined 24
in section 304 of the National Indian Forest 25 6 
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Resources Management Act (25 U.S.C. 3103)); 1
or 2
(II) has a cover of grasses, 3
brush, or any similar vegetation; or 4
(ii) formerly had a forest cover or veg-5
etative cover that is capable of restoration. 6
(10) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 7
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the 8
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 9
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 10
(11) N
ATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS .—The 11
term ‘‘National Forest System lands’’ has the mean-12
ing given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest 13
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 14
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609). 15
(12) P
UBLIC LANDS.—The term ‘‘public lands’’ 16
has the meaning given that term in section 103 of 17
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 18
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702), except that the term in-19
cludes Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant lands and Or-20
egon and California Railroad Grant lands. 21
(13) R
ELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -22
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant Congressional Commit-23
tees’’ means— 24 7 
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(A) the Committees on Natural Resources 1
and Agriculture of the House of Representa-2
tives; and 3
(B) the Committees on Energy and Nat-4
ural Resources and Agriculture, Nutrition, and 5
Forestry of the Senate. 6
(14) R
ESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL.—The term ‘‘re-7
sponsible official’’ means an employee of the Depart-8
ment of the Interior or Forest Service who has the 9
authority to make and implement a decision on a 10
proposed action. 11
(15) S
ECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 12
means each of— 13
(A) the Secretary of the Interior; and 14
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 15
(16) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 16
means the Secretary of Agriculture. 17
(17) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term 18
‘‘Secretary concerned’’ means— 19
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-20
spect to National Forest System lands; and 21
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-22
spect to public lands. 23 8 
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(18) SPECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘‘special 1
district’’ means a political subdivision of a State 2
that— 3
(A) has significant budgetary autonomy or 4
control; 5
(B) was created by or pursuant to the laws 6
of the State for the purpose of performing a 7
limited and specific governmental or proprietary 8
function; and 9
(C) is distinct from any other local govern-10
ment unit within the State. 11
(19) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 12
the several States, the District of Columbia, and 13
each territory of the United States. 14
TITLE I—LANDSCAPE-SCALE 15
RESTORATION 16
Subtitle A—Addressing Emergency 17
Wildfire Risks in High Priority 18
Firesheds 19
SEC. 101. DESIGNATION OF FIRESHED MANAGEMENT 20
AREAS. 21
(a) D
ESIGNATION OF FIRESHEDMANAGEMENT 22
A
REAS.— 23
(1) I
NITIAL DESIGNATIONS.—For the period be-24
ginning on the date of enactment of this Act and 25 9 
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ending on the date that is 5 years after the date of 1
enactment of this Act, there are designated fireshed 2
management areas, which— 3
(A) shall be comprised of individual land-4
scape-scale firesheds identified as being a high 5
risk fireshed in the ‘‘Wildfire Crisis Strategy’’ 6
published by the Forest Service in January 7
2022; 8
(B) shall be comprised of individual land-9
scape-scale firesheds identified by the Secretary, 10
in consultation with the Secretary of the Inte-11
rior, as being in the top 20 percent of the 7,688 12
firesheds published by the Rocky Mountain Re-13
search Station of the Forest Service in 2019 for 14
wildfire exposure based on the following cri-15
teria— 16
(i) wildfire exposure and cor-17
responding risk to communities, including 18
risk to structures and life; 19
(ii) wildfire exposure and cor-20
responding risk to municipal watersheds, 21
including tribal water supplies and sys-22
tems; and 23
(iii) risk of forest conversion due to 24
wildfire; 25 10 
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(C) shall not overlap with any other 1
fireshed management areas; 2
(D) may contain Federal and non-Federal 3
land, including Indian forest lands or range-4
lands; and 5
(E) where the Secretary concerned shall 6
carry out fireshed management projects. 7
(2) F
URTHER FIRESHED MANAGEMENT AREA 8
DESIGNATIONS.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—On the date that is 5 10
years after the date of the enactment of this 11
Act and every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary, 12
in consultation with the Secretary of the Inte-13
rior, shall submit to the relevant Congressional 14
Committees an updated map of firesheds based 15
on the Fireshed Registry maintained under sec-16
tion 103. 17
(B) D
ESIGNATION.—Not later than 60 18
days after submitting an updated fireshed map 19
under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall, 20
based on such map, designate additional 21
fireshed management areas that are identified 22
as being in the top 20 percent of firesheds at 23
risk of wildfire exposure based on the criteria 24 11 
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specified in subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), and 1
(E) of paragraph (1). 2
(b) A
PPLICABILITY OFNEPA.—The designation of 3
fireshed management areas under this section shall not 4
be subject to the requirements of the National Environ-5
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 6
SEC. 102. FIRESHED CENTER. 7
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting 9
through the Chief of the Forest Service, and the 10
Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Direc-11
tor of the U.S. Geological Survey, shall jointly estab-12
lish a Fireshed Center (hereinafter referred to as the 13
‘‘Center’’) comprised of at least one career rep-14
resentative from each of the following: 15
(A) The Forest Service. 16
(B) The Bureau of Land Management. 17
(C) The National Park Service. 18
(D) The Bureau of Indian Affairs. 19
(E) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 20
(F) The U.S. Geological Survey. 21
(G) The Department of Defense. 22
(H) The Department of Homeland Secu-23
rity. 24
(I) The Department of Energy. 25 12 
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(J) The Federal Emergency Management 1
Agency. 2
(K) The National Science Foundation. 3
(L) The National Oceanic and Atmos-4
pheric Administration. 5
(M) The National Aeronautics and Space 6
Administration. 7
(N) The National Institute of Standards 8
and Technology. 9
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The Secretary, acting through 10
the Chief of the Forest Service, and the Secretary 11
of the Interior, acting through the Director of the 12
U.S. Geological Survey, shall jointly appoint a Direc-13
tor of the Center, who— 14
(A) shall be an employee of the U.S. Geo-15
logical Survey or the Forest Service; 16
(B) shall serve an initial term of not more 17
than 7 years; and 18
(C) may serve one additional term of not 19
more than 7 years after the initial term de-20
scribed in subparagraph (B). 21
(3) A
DDITIONAL REPRESENTATION .—The Sec-22
retary, acting through the Chief of the Forest Serv-23
ice and the Secretary of the Interior, acting through 24
the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, may 25 13 
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jointly appoint additional representatives of Federal 1
agencies to the Center, as the Secretaries determine 2
necessary. 3
(b) P
URPOSES.—The purposes of the Center are to— 4
(1) comprehensively assess and predict, using 5
data tools (including artificial intelligence) and other 6
decision support products, fire and smoke in the 7
wildland and built environment interface across ju-8
risdictions to inform— 9
(A) land and fuels management; 10
(B) community (including at-risk commu-11
nities identified in fireshed assessments con-12
ducted under section 105), public health, and 13
built environment risk reduction; and 14
(C) fire response and post-fire recovery; 15
(2) provide data aggregation, real-time land 16
and fuels management services, and science-based 17
decision support services; 18
(3) reduce fragmentation and duplication across 19
Federal land management agencies with respect to 20
predictive service and decision support functions re-21
lated to wildland fire and smoke; 22
(4) promote coordination and sharing of data 23
regarding wildland fire and smoke decision making 24
between Federal agencies, States, Indian Tribes, 25 14 
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local governments, academic or research institutions, 1
and private entities; 2
(5) streamline procurement processes and cy-3
bersecurity systems related to addressing wildland 4
fire and smoke; 5
(6) amplify and distribute existing, and develop 6
as necessary, publicly accessible data, models, tech-7
nologies (including mapping technologies), assess-8
ments, and National Weather Service fire weather 9
forecasts to support short- and long-term planning 10
regarding wildland fire and smoke risk reduction 11
and post-fire recovery while avoiding duplicative ef-12
forts; 13
(7) maintain the Fireshed Registry established 14
under section 103; and 15
(8) disseminate data tools (including artificial 16
intelligence) and other decision support products, for 17
use in manners consistent with the purposes de-18
scribed paragraphs (1) through (7), to the following: 19
(A) Federal agencies. 20
(B) Indian Tribes. 21
(C) State and local governments. 22
(D) Academic or research institutions. 23
(E) Other entities, public or private, iden-24
tified by the Director. 25 15 
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(c) MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Center 1
may enter into memorandums of understanding, con-2
tracts, or other agreements with State governments, In-3
dian Tribes, local governments, academic or research insti-4
tutions, and private entities to improve the information 5
and operations of the Center. 6
(d) A
DMINISTRATIVESUPPORT, TECHNICALSERV-7
ICES, ANDSTAFFSUPPORT.— 8
(1) USGS 
SUPPORT.—The Secretary of the In-9
terior shall make personnel of the U.S. Geological 10
Survey available to the Center for such administra-11
tive support, technical services, and development and 12
dissemination of data as the Secretary determines 13
necessary to carry out this section. 14
(2) USFS 
SUPPORT.—The Secretary shall 15
make personnel of the Forest Service available to 16
the Center for such administrative support, technical 17
services, and the development and dissemination of 18
information related to fireshed management and the 19
Fireshed Registry as the Secretary determines nec-20
essary to carry out this section. 21
SEC. 103. FIRESHED REGISTRY. 22
(a) F
IRESHEDREGISTRY.—The Secretary, acting 23
through the Director of the Fireshed Center appointed 24
under section 102, shall maintain a Fireshed Registry on 25 16 
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a publicly accessible website that provides interactive 1
geospatial data on individual firesheds, including informa-2
tion on— 3
(1) wildfire exposure delineated by ownership, 4
including rights-of-way for utilities and other public 5
or private purposes; 6
(2) any hazardous fuels management activities 7
that have occurred within an individual fireshed in 8
the past 10 years; 9
(3) wildfire exposure with respect to such 10
fireshed delineated by— 11
(A) wildfire exposure and corresponding 12
risk to communities, including risk to structures 13
and life; 14
(B) wildfire exposure and corresponding 15
risk to municipal watersheds, including tribal 16
water supplies and systems; and 17
(C) risk of forest conversion due to wild-18
fire; 19
(4) the percentage of the fireshed that has 20
burned in wildfires in the past 10 years, including, 21
to the extent practicable, delineations of acres that 22
have burned at a high severity; 23
(5) spatial patterns of wildfire exposure, includ-24
ing plausible extreme fire events; and 25 17 
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(6) any hazardous fuels management activities 1
planned for the fireshed, including fireshed manage-2
ment projects. 3
(b) C
OMMUNITYWILDFIREPROTECTIONPLANS.— 4
The Director shall make data from the Fireshed Registry 5
available to local communities developing or updating com-6
munity wildfire protection plans. 7
(c) R
EQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN.—As part of the 8
website containing the Fireshed Registry, the Director 9
shall— 10
(1) publish fireshed assessments created under 11
section 105; and 12
(2) maintain a searchable database to track— 13
(A) the status of Federal environmental re-14
views, permits, and authorizations for fireshed 15
management projects, including— 16
(i) a comprehensive permitting time-17
table; 18
(ii) the status of the compliance of 19
each lead agency, cooperating agency, and 20
participating agency with the permitting 21
timetable with respect to such fireshed 22
management projects; 23
(iii) any modifications of the permit-24
ting timetable required under clause (i), in-25 18 
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cluding an explanation as to why the per-1
mitting timetable was modified; and 2
(iv) information about project-related 3
public meetings, public hearings, and pub-4
lic comment periods, which shall be pre-5
sented in English and the predominant 6
language of the community or communities 7
most affected by the project, as that infor-8
mation becomes available; 9
(B) the projected cost of such fireshed 10
management projects; and 11
(C) in the case of completed fireshed man-12
agement projects, the effectiveness of such 13
projects in reducing the wildfire exposure within 14
an applicable fireshed, including wildfire expo-15
sure described in subparagraphs (A) through 16
(C) of subsection (a)(3). 17
(d) R
ELIANCE ONEXISTINGASSESSMENTS.—In car-18
rying out this section, the Director may rely on assess-19
ments completed or data gather through existing partner-20
ships, to the extent practicable. 21
SEC. 104. SHARED STEWARDSHIP. 22
(a) J
OINTAGREEMENTS.—Not later than 90 days 23
after receiving a written request from a Governor of a 24
State or an Indian Tribe, the Secretary concerned shall 25 19 
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enter into a shared stewardship agreement (or similar 1
agreement) with such Governor or Indian Tribe to joint-2
ly— 3
(1) promote the reduction of wildfire exposure, 4
based on the criteria in section 101(a)(1)(B), in 5
fireshed management areas across jurisdictional 6
boundaries; and 7
(2) conduct fireshed assessments under section 8
105. 9
(b) A
DDITIONALFIRESHEDMANAGEMENTAREAS.— 10
With respect to a shared stewardship agreement (or simi-11
lar agreement) with a Governor of a State or an Indian 12
Tribe entered into under subsection (a), the Secretary con-13
cerned, if requested by such Governor or Indian Tribe, 14
may— 15
(1) designate additional fireshed management 16
areas under such agreement; and 17
(2) update such agreement to address new wild-18
fire threats. 19
SEC. 105. FIRESHED ASSESSMENTS. 20
(a) F
IRESHEDASSESSMENTS.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 22
the date on which the Secretary concerned enters 23
into an agreement with a Governor of a State or an 24
Indian Tribe under section 104, the Secretary con-25 20 
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cerned and such Governor or Indian Tribe shall, 1
with respect to the fireshed management areas des-2
ignated in such State, jointly conduct a fireshed as-3
sessment that— 4
(A) identifies— 5
(i) using the best available science, 6
wildfire exposure risks within each such 7
fireshed management area, including sce-8
nario planning and wildfire hazard map-9
ping and models; and 10
(ii) each at-risk community within 11
each fireshed management area; 12
(B) identifies potential fireshed manage-13
ment projects to be carried out in such fireshed 14
management areas, giving priority— 15
(i) primarily, to projects with the pur-16
pose of reducing— 17
(I) wildfire exposure and cor-18
responding risk to communities, in-19
cluding risk to structures and life; 20
(II) wildfire exposure and cor-21
responding risk to municipal water-22
sheds, including tribal water supplies 23
and systems; 24 21 
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(III) risk of forest conversion due 1
to wildfire; or 2
(IV) any combination of purposes 3
described in subclauses (I) through 4
(III); and 5
(ii) secondarily, to projects with the 6
purpose of protecting— 7
(I) critical infrastructure, includ-8
ing utility infrastructure; 9
(II) wildlife habitats, including 10
habitat for species listed under the 11
Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 12
1531 et seq.); 13
(III) the built environment, in-14
cluding residential and commercial 15
buildings; 16
(IV) resources of an Indian 17
Tribe, as defined by the Indian Tribe; 18
or 19
(V) any combination of purposes 20
described in subclauses (I) through 21
(IV); 22
(C) includes— 23
(i) a strategy for reducing the threat 24
of wildfire to at-risk communities in the 25 22 
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wildland-urban interface on both Federal 1
and non-Federal land; 2
(ii) a timeline for the implementation 3
of fireshed management projects; 4
(iii) long-term benchmark goals for 5
the completion of fireshed management 6
projects in the highest wildfire exposure 7
areas so that such projects contribute to 8
the development and maintenance of 9
healthy and resilient landscapes; 10
(iv) policies to ensure fireshed man-11
agement projects comply with applicable 12
forest plans and incorporate the best avail-13
able science; and 14
(v) a strategy for reducing the threat 15
of wildfire to improve the effectiveness of 16
wildland firefighting, particularly the effec-17
tiveness of fuels treatments that would im-18
prove wildland firefighter safety during 19
wildfires; 20
(D) shall be regularly updated based on 21
the best available science, as determined by the 22
Secretary concerned; and 23
(E) shall be publicly available on a website 24
maintained by the Secretary concerned. 25 23 
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(2) LOCAL GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION .— 1
Upon the written request of a local government, the 2
Secretary concerned and the Governor of the State 3
in which the local government is located may allow 4
such local government to participate in producing 5
the fireshed assessment under paragraph (1) for 6
such State. 7
(3) I
NFORMATION IMPROVEMENT .— 8
(A) M
EMORANDUMS OF UNDER -9
STANDING.—In carrying out a fireshed assess-10
ment under this subsection, the Secretary con-11
cerned may enter into memorandums of under-12
standing with other Federal agencies or depart-13
ments (including the National Oceanic and At-14
mospheric Administration), States, Indian 15
Tribes, private entities, or research or edu-16
cational institutions to improve, with respect to 17
such assessment, the use and integration of— 18
(i) advanced remote sensing and 19
geospatial technologies; 20
(ii) statistical modeling and analysis; 21
or 22
(iii) any other technology or combina-23
tion of technologies and analyses that the 24
Secretary concerned determines will benefit 25 24 
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the quality of information of such an as-1
sessment. 2
(B) B
EST AVAILABLE SCIENCE .—In using 3
the best available science for the fireshed as-4
sessments completed under subsection (a)(1), 5
the Secretary concerned and Governor shall, to 6
the maximum extent practicable, incorporate— 7
(i) traditional ecological knowledge 8
from Indian Tribes; 9
(ii) data from State forest action 10
plans and State wildfire risk assessments; 11
(iii) data from the Fireshed Registry 12
maintained under section 103; and 13
(iv) data from other Federal, State, 14
Tribal, and local governments or agencies. 15
(b) A
PPLICABILITY OF NEPA.—Fireshed assess-16
ments conducted under this section shall not be subject 17
to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy 18
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 19
SEC. 106. EMERGENCY FIRESHED MANAGEMENT. 20
(a) F
IRESHEDMANAGEMENTPROJECTS.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary concerned, 22
acting through a responsible official, shall carry out 23
fireshed management projects in fireshed manage-24 25 
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ment areas designated under section 101 in accord-1
ance with this section. 2
(2) F
IRESHED MANAGEMENT PROJECTS .—The 3
responsible official shall carry out the following for-4
est and vegetation management activities as fireshed 5
management projects under this section: 6
(A) Conducting hazardous fuels manage-7
ment activities. 8
(B) Creating fuel breaks and fire breaks. 9
(C) Removing hazard trees, dead trees, 10
dying trees, or trees at risk of dying, as deter-11
mined by the responsible official. 12
(D) Developing, approving, or conducting 13
routine maintenance under a vegetation man-14
agement, facility inspection, and operation and 15
maintenance plan submitted under section 16
512(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and Man-17
agement Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(1)). 18
(E) Removing trees to address over-19
stocking or crowding in a forest stand, con-20
sistent with the appropriate basal area of the 21
forest stand as determined by the responsible 22
official. 23
(F) Using chemical or re-seeding and 24
planting treatments to address insects and dis-25 26 
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ease and control vegetation competition or 1
invasive species. 2
(G) Any activities recommended by an ap-3
plicable fireshed assessment carried out under 4
section 105. 5
(H) Any activities recommended by an ap-6
plicable community wildfire protection plan. 7
(I) Any combination of activities described 8
in this paragraph. 9
(3) E
MERGENCY FIRESHED MANAGEMENT .— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—For any fireshed man-11
agement area designated under section 101, the 12
following shall have the force and effect of law: 13
(i) Section 220.4(b) of title 36, Code 14
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 15
date of enactment of this Act), with re-16
spect to lands under the jurisdiction of the 17
Secretary. 18
(ii) Section 46.150 of title 43, Code of 19
Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 20
date of enactment of this Act), with re-21
spect to lands under the jurisdiction of the 22
Secretary of the Interior. 23 27 
•HR 8790 EH
(iii) Section 402.05 of title 50, Code 1
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 2
date of enactment of this Act). 3
(iv) Section 800.12 of title 36, Code 4
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 5
date of enactment of this Act). 6
(B) U
TILIZATION OF EXISTING STREAM -7
LINED AUTHORITIES IN FIRESHED MANAGE -8
MENT AREAS.— 9
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Fireshed manage-10
ment projects carried out under this sec-11
tion shall be considered authorized projects 12
under the following categorical exclusions: 13
(I) Section 603(a) of the Healthy 14
Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 15
U.S.C. 6591b(a)). 16
(II) Section 605(a) of the 17
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 18
2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591d(a)). 19
(III) Section 606(b) of the 20
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 21
2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591e(b)). 22
(IV) Section 40806(b) of the In-23
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act 24
(16 U.S.C. 6592b(b)). 25 28 
•HR 8790 EH
(V) Section 4(c)(4) of the Lake 1
Tahoe Restoration Act (Public Law 2
106–506; 114 Stat. 2353). 3
(VI) Subject to subsection (d) of 4
section 40807 of the Infrastructure 5
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6
6592c) in the same manner as author-7
ized emergency actions (as defined in 8
subsection (a) of such section) are 9
subject to such subsection. 10
(ii) U
SE OF EXPEDITED AUTHORI -11
TIES.—In carrying out a fireshed manage-12
ment project, the Secretary shall apply a 13
categorical exclusion under clause (i)— 14
(I) in a manner consistent with 15
the statute establishing such categor-16
ical exclusion; and 17
(II) in any area— 18
(aa) designated as suitable 19
for timber production within the 20
applicable forest plan; or 21
(bb) where timber harvest 22
activities are not prohibited. 23
(iii) F
ISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT RE -24
QUIREMENTS.—In carrying out this sec-25 29 
•HR 8790 EH
tion, the Secretary concerned shall ensure 1
compliance with the amendments made to 2
the National Environmental Policy Act (42 3
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) by the Fiscal Respon-4
sibility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118–5). 5
(iv) U
SE OF OTHER AUTHORITIES .— 6
To the maximum extent practicable, the 7
Secretary concerned shall use the authori-8
ties provided under this section in com-9
bination with other authorities to carry out 10
fireshed management projects, including— 11
(I) good neighbor agreements en-12
tered into under section 8206 of the 13
Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 14
2113a) (as amended by this Act); 15
(II) stewardship contracting 16
projects entered into under section 17
604 of the Healthy Forests Restora-18
tion Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c) 19
(as amended by this Act); 20
(III) self-determination contracts 21
and self-governance compact agree-22
ments entered into under the Indian 23
Self-Determination and Education As-24 30 
•HR 8790 EH
sistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); 1
and 2
(IV) agreements entered into 3
under the Tribal Forest Protection 4
Act of 2004 (25 U.S.C. 3115a et 5
seq.). 6
(b) E
XPANSION.— 7
(1) HFRA 
AMENDMENTS.—The Healthy For-8
ests Restoration Act of 2003 is amended— 9
(A) in section 3 (16 U.S.C. 6502), by in-10
serting at the end the following: 11
‘‘(3) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘local 12
government’ means a county, municipality, or special 13
district. 14
‘‘(4) S
PECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘special dis-15
trict’ means a political subdivision of a State that— 16
‘‘(A) has significant budgetary autonomy 17
or control; 18
‘‘(B) was created by or pursuant to the 19
laws of the State for the purpose of performing 20
a limited and specific governmental or propri-21
etary function; and 22
‘‘(C) is distinct from any other local gov-23
ernment unit within the State.’’. 24 31 
•HR 8790 EH
(B) in section 603(c)(1) (16 U.S.C. 1
6591b(c)(1)), by striking ‘‘3000 acres’’ and in-2
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’; 3
(C) in section 603(c)(2)(B) (16 U.S.C. 4
6591b(c)(2)(B)), by striking ‘‘Fire Regime 5
Groups I, II, or III’’ and inserting ‘‘Fire Re-6
gime I, Fire Regime II, Fire Regime III, Fire 7
Regime IV, or Fire Regime V’’; 8
(D) in section 605(c)(1) (16 U.S.C. 9
6591d(c)(1)), by striking ‘‘3000 acres’’ and in-10
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’; and 11
(E) in section 606(g) (16 U.S.C. 12
6591e(g)), by striking ‘‘4,500 acres’’ and in-13
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’. 14
(2) I
NFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS 15
ACT AMENDMENT .—Section 40806(d)(1) of the In-16
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 17
6592b(d)(1)), by striking ‘‘3,000 acres’’ and insert-18
ing ‘‘10,000 acres’’. 19
(3) L
AKE TAHOE RESTORATION ACT AMEND -20
MENTS.—Section 4(c)(4)(C) of the Lake Tahoe Res-21
toration Act (Public Law 106–506; 114 Stat. 2353) 22
is amended— 23
(A) by striking ‘‘Lake Tahoe Basin Man-24
agement Unit’’; and 25 32 
•HR 8790 EH
(B) by inserting ‘‘applicable to the area’’ 1
before the period at the end. 2
SEC. 107. SUNSET. 3
The authority under this subtitle shall terminate on 4
the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of 5
this Act. 6
Subtitle B—Expanding Collabo-7
rative Tools to Reduce Wildfire 8
Risk and Improve Forest Health 9
SEC. 111. MODIFICATION OF THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN 10
REVENUE AND PAYMENTS UNDER GOOD 11
NEIGHBOR AGREEMENTS. 12
(a) G
OODNEIGHBORAUTHORITY.—Section 8206 of 13
the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a) is amend-14
ed— 15
(1) in subsection (a)(6), by striking ‘‘or Indian 16
tribe’’; 17
(2) in subsection (a), by inserting the following: 18
‘‘(11) S
PECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘special 19
district’ means a political subdivision of a State 20
that— 21
‘‘(A) has significant budgetary autonomy 22
or control; 23
‘‘(B) was created by or pursuant to the 24
laws of the State for the purpose of performing 25 33 
•HR 8790 EH
a limited and specific governmental or propri-1
etary function; and 2
‘‘(C) is distinct from any other local gov-3
ernment unit within the State.’’. 4
(3) in subsection (b)— 5
(A) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting ‘‘, 6
Indian tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (2)(C)— 8
(i) by striking clause (i) and inserting 9
the following: 10
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Funds received 11
from the sale of timber or forest product 12
by a Governor, an Indian tribe, a special 13
district, or a county under a good neighbor 14
agreement shall be retained and used by 15
the Governor, Indian tribe, special district, 16
or county, as applicable— 17
‘‘(I) to carry out authorized res-18
toration services under the good 19
neighbor agreement; 20
‘‘(II) to carry out reconstruction, 21
repair, and restoration of non-Na-22
tional Forest System roads necessary 23
to implement projects on Federal 24
lands; 25 34 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(III) to construct new perma-1
nent roads on Federal lands that 2
are— 3
‘‘(aa) necessary to imple-4
ment authorized restoration ac-5
tivities; and 6
‘‘(bb) approved by the Fed-7
eral agency through an environ-8
mental analysis or categorical ex-9
clusion decision; 10
‘‘(IV) to complete new permanent 11
road construction to replace and de-12
commission an existing permanent 13
road that is adversely impacting for-14
est, rangeland, or watershed health; 15
and 16
‘‘(V) if there are funds remaining 17
after carrying out subclauses (I) 18
through (IV), to carry out authorized 19
restoration services under other good 20
neighbor agreements and for the ad-21
ministration of a good neighbor au-22
thority program by a Governor, In-23
dian tribe, special district, or coun-24
ty.’’; and 25 35 
•HR 8790 EH
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘2024’’ 1
and inserting ‘‘2029’’; 2
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘, In-3
dian tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; 4
and 5
(D) by striking paragraph (4). 6
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 8206(a) 7
of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a(a)) is 8
amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting ‘‘, Indian 10
tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; and 11
(2) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, Indian 12
tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’. 13
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 14
this section apply to any project initiated pursuant to a 15
good neighbor agreement (as defined in section 8206(a) 16
of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a(a)))— 17
(1) before the date of enactment of this Act, if 18
the project was initiated after the date of enactment 19
of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Public 20
Law 115–334; 132 Stat. 4490); or 21
(2) on or after the date of enactment of this 22
Act. 23 36 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 112. FIXING STEWARDSHIP END RESULT CON-1
TRACTING. 2
Section 604 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 3
of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘, including 5
retaining and expanding existing forest products in-6
frastructure’’ before the period at the end; 7
(2) in subsection (d)(3)(B), by striking ‘‘10 8
years’’ and inserting ‘‘20 years’’; and 9
(3) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the 10
following: 11
‘‘(4) S
PECIAL RULE FOR LONG -TERM STEWARD-12
SHIP CONTRACTS.— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A long-term agree-14
ment or contract entered into with an entity 15
under subsection (b) by the Chief or the Direc-16
tor shall provide that in the case of the can-17
cellation or termination by the Chief or the Di-18
rector of such long-term agreement or contract, 19
the Chief or the Director, as applicable, shall 20
provide 10 percent of the agreement or contract 21
amount to such entity as cancellation or termi-22
nation costs. 23
‘‘(B) D
EFINITION OF LONG-TERM AGREE-24
MENT OR CONTRACT .—In this paragraph, the 25
term ‘long-term agreement or contract’ means 26 37 
•HR 8790 EH
an agreement or contract under subsection 1
(b)— 2
‘‘(i) with a term of more than 5 years; 3
and 4
‘‘(ii) entered into on or after the date 5
of the enactment of this paragraph.’’. 6
SEC. 113. INTRA-AGENCY STRIKE TEAMS. 7
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary concerned 8
shall establish intra-agency strike teams to assist the Sec-9
retary concerned with— 10
(1) any reviews, including analysis under the 11
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 12
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), consultations under the Na-13
tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 14
470 et seq.), and consultations under the Endan-15
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), 16
with the intent to accelerate and streamline inter-17
agency consultation processes; 18
(2) the implementation of any necessary site 19
preparation work in advance of or as part of a 20
fireshed management project; 21
(3) the implementation of fireshed management 22
projects under such section; and 23
(4) any combination of purposes under para-24
graphs (1) through (3). 25 38 
•HR 8790 EH
(b) MEMBERS.—The Secretary concerned may ap-1
point not more than 10 individuals to serve on an intra- 2
agency strike team comprised of— 3
(1) employees of the Department under the ju-4
risdiction of the Secretary concerned; 5
(2) employees of a different Federal agency, 6
with the consent of that agency’s Secretary; 7
(3) private contractors from any nonprofit orga-8
nization, State government, Indian Tribe, local gov-9
ernment, quasi-governmental agency, academic insti-10
tution, or private organization; and 11
(4) volunteers from any nonprofit organization, 12
State government, Indian Tribe, local government, 13
quasi-governmental agency, academic institution, or 14
private organization. 15
(c) S
UNSET.—The authority provided under this sec-16
tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 17
date of enactment of this Act. 18
SEC. 114. LOCALLY-LED RESTORATION. 19
(a) T
HRESHOLDADJUSTMENT.—Section 14(d) of the 20
National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 21
472a(d)) is amended by— 22
(1) striking ‘‘$10,000’’ and inserting 23
‘‘$55,000’’; and 24 39 
•HR 8790 EH
(2) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘Begin-1
ning on January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, 2
the amount in the first sentence of this subsection 3
shall be adjusted by the Secretary for changes in the 4
Consumer Price Index of All Urban Consumers pub-5
lished by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the De-6
partment of Labor.’’. 7
(b) F
IRESHEDMANAGEMENT PROJECTS.—Begin-8
ning on the date that is 30 days after the date of enact-9
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall solicit bids under sec-10
tion 14 of the National Forest Management Act of 1976 11
(16 U.S.C. 472a(d)) for fireshed management projects 12
under section 106. 13
SEC. 115. JOINT CHIEFS LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PART-14
NERSHIP PROGRAM. 15
Section 40808 of the Infrastructure Investment and 16
Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592d) is amended— 17
(1) in subsection (a)(2)— 18
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’ 19
at the end; 20
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 21
period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 22
and 23
(C) by adding at the end the following: 24
‘‘(D) to recover from wildfires; or 25 40 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(E) to enhance soil, water, and related 1
natural resources.’’; 2
(2) in subsection (d)(1)— 3
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 4
‘‘and post-wildfire impacts’’ after ‘‘wildfire 5
risk’’; and 6
(B) in subparagraph (F), by inserting ‘‘, 7
as identified in the corresponding State forest 8
action plan or similar priority plan (such as a 9
State wildlife or water plan)’’ before the semi-10
colon; 11
(3) in subsection (g)(2), by inserting ‘‘and at 12
least once every 2 fiscal years thereafter’’ after ‘‘and 13
2023’’; and 14
(4) in subsection (h)(1), by striking ‘‘and 15
2023’’ and inserting ‘‘through 2028’’. 16
SEC. 116. COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORA-17
TION PROGRAM. 18
Section 4003 of the Omnibus Public Land Manage-19
ment Act of 2009 (16 U.S.C. 7303) is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)(3)— 21
(A) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘spe-22
cies;’’ and inserting ‘‘species or pathogens;’’; 23
(B) in subparagraph (G), by striking 24
‘‘and’’ at the end; 25 41 
•HR 8790 EH
(C) in subparagraph (H), by adding ‘‘and’’ 1
after the semicolon at the end; and 2
(D) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(I) address standardized monitoring ques-4
tions and indicators;’’; 5
(2) in subsection (c)(3)(A)— 6
(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 7
end; 8
(B) in clause (ii), by adding ‘‘and’’ at the 9
end; and 10
(C) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(iii) include a plan to provide sup-12
port to collaborative processes established 13
pursuant to subsection (b)(2);’’; 14
(3) in subsection (d)— 15
(A) in paragraph (2)— 16
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 17
‘‘and’’ at the end; 18
(ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 19
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 20
and’’; and 21
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(G) proposals that seek to use innovative 24
implementation mechanisms, including good 25 42 
•HR 8790 EH
neighbor agreements entered into under section 1
8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 2
U.S.C. 2113a); 3
‘‘(H) proposals that seek to remove or 4
treat insects or diseases, including the removal 5
of trees killed by, or infested with, bark beetles 6
in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mon-7
tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, 8
South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyo-9
ming; 10
‘‘(I) proposals that seek to facilitate the 11
sale of firewood and Christmas trees on lands 12
under the jurisdiction of the Secretary or the 13
Secretary of the Interior; 14
‘‘(J) proposals that seek to reduce the risk 15
of uncharacteristic wildfire or increase ecologi-16
cal restoration activities— 17
‘‘(i) within areas across land owner-18
ships, including State, Tribal, and private 19
land; and 20
‘‘(ii) within the wildland-urban inter-21
face (as defined in section 101 of the 22
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 23
(16 U.S.C. 6511)); and 24 43 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(K) proposals that seek to enhance water-1
shed health and drinking water sources.’’; and 2
(B) in paragraph (3)— 3
(i) by amending subparagraph (A) to 4
read as follows: 5
‘‘(A) 4 proposals in any 1 region of the 6
National Forest System to be funded during 7
any fiscal year; and’’; 8
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B); and 9
(iii) by redesignating subparagraph 10
(C) as subparagraph (B); and 11
(4) in subsection (f)(6), by striking ‘‘2019 12
through 2023’’ and inserting ‘‘2023 through 2029’’. 13
SEC. 117. UTILIZING GRAZING FOR WILDFIRE RISK REDUC-14
TION. 15
The Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 16
Chief of the Forest Service, in coordination with holders 17
of permits to graze livestock on Federal land, shall develop 18
a strategy to increase opportunities to utilize livestock 19
grazing as a wildfire risk reduction strategy, including— 20
(1) completion of reviews (as required under the 21
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (U.S.C. 22
4321 et seq.)) to allow permitted grazing on vacant 23
grazing allotments during instances of drought, wild-24 44 
•HR 8790 EH
fire, or other natural disasters that disrupt grazing 1
on allotments already permitted; 2
(2) use of targeted grazing; 3
(3) increased use of temporary permits to pro-4
mote targeted fuels reduction and reduction of 5
invasive annual grasses; 6
(4) increased use of grazing as a postfire recov-7
ery and restoration strategy, where appropriate; and 8
(5) use of all applicable authorities under the 9
law. 10
SEC. 118. PROGRAM TO SUPPORT PRIORITY REFOREST-11
ATION AND RESTORATION PROJECTS OF DE-12
PARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 14
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Inte-15
rior, in coordination with the heads of covered Federal 16
agencies, shall establish a program to provide support for 17
priority projects identified under subsection (c)(2), in ac-18
cordance with this section. 19
(b) S
UPPORT.—In carrying out the program under 20
subsection (a), the Secretary may provide support 21
through— 22
(1) cooperative agreements entered into in ac-23
cordance with processes established by the Sec-24
retary; and 25 45 
•HR 8790 EH
(2) contracts, including contracts established 1
pursuant to the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-2
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.). 3
(c) A
NNUAL IDENTIFICATION OF PRIORITY 4
P
ROJECTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enact-5
ment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Secretary 6
of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of covered 7
Federal agencies, shall— 8
(1) identify lands of the United States adminis-9
tered by, or under the jurisdiction of, the Secretary 10
of the Interior that require reforestation and res-11
toration due to unplanned disturbances and that are 12
unlikely to experience natural regeneration without 13
assistance; and 14
(2) establish a list of priority projects for refor-15
estation and restoration for the upcoming year, 16
which may include activities to ensure adequate and 17
appropriate seed and seedling availability to further 18
the objectives of other priority projects. 19
(d) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out the program 20
under subsection (a) and the requirements under sub-21
section (c), the Secretary shall consult or collaborate with, 22
as appropriate, and inform the following: 23
(1) State and local governments. 24
(2) Indian Tribes. 25 46 
•HR 8790 EH
(3) Covered institutions of higher education. 1
(4) Federal agencies that administer lands of 2
the United States that adjoin or are proximal to 3
lands that are the subject of priority projects and 4
potential priority projects. 5
(5) Other stakeholders, as determined by the 6
Secretary. 7
(e) A
NNUALREPORT.—Not later than 2 years after 8
the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 9
the Secretary of the Interior shall submit to the relevant 10
Congressional Committees a report that includes the fol-11
lowing: 12
(1) An accounting of all lands identified under 13
subsection (c)(1) for the period covered by the re-14
port. 15
(2) A list of priority projects identified under 16
subsection (c)(2) for the period covered by the re-17
port and, with respect to each such priority project, 18
any support issued under the program under sub-19
section (a) and any progress made towards reforest-20
ation and restoration. 21
(3) An accounting of each contract and cooper-22
ative agreement established under the program 23
under subsection (a). 24 47 
•HR 8790 EH
(4) A description of the actions taken in accord-1
ance with subsection (d). 2
(5) Assessments with respect to— 3
(A) gaps in— 4
(i) the implementation of the program 5
under subsection (a); and 6
(ii) the progress made under the pro-7
gram with respect to priority projects; and 8
(B) opportunities to procure funding nec-9
essary to address any such gaps. 10
(f) N
ONDUPLICATION.—In carrying out this section, 11
the Secretary of the Interior shall collaborate with the Sec-12
retary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Defense to en-13
sure the nonduplication of activities carried out under sec-14
tion 205. 15
(g) S
UNSET.—The authority provided under this sec-16
tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 17
date of enactment of this Act. 18
(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
(1) C
OVERED FEDERAL AGENCY .—The term 20
‘‘covered Federal agency’’ means the National Park 21
Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 22
the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of 23
Reclamation, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 24 48 
•HR 8790 EH
(2) COVERED INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -1
CATION.—The term ‘‘covered institution of higher 2
education’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘eligible 3
institutions’’ in section 301(e)(3)). 4
(3) N
ATURAL REGENERATION ; REFOREST-5
ATION.—The terms ‘‘natural regeneration’’ and ‘‘re-6
forestation’’ have the meanings given such terms in 7
section 3(e)(4)(A) of the Forest and Rangeland Re-8
newable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 9
1601(3)(4)(A)) 10
(4) R
ESTORATION.—The term ‘‘restoration’’ 11
means activities that facilitate the recovery of an 12
ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or de-13
stroyed, including the reestablishment of appropriate 14
plant species composition and community structure. 15
(5) U
NPLANNED ECOSYSTEM DISTURBANCE .— 16
The term ‘‘unplanned ecosystem disturbance’’ means 17
any unplanned disturbance that disrupts the struc-18
ture or composition of an ecosystem, including a 19
wildfire, an infestation of insects or disease, and a 20
weather event. 21
Subtitle C—Litigation Reform 22
SEC. 121. COMMONSENSE LITIGATION REFORM. 23
(a) I
NGENERAL.—A court shall not enjoin a covered 24
agency action if the court determines that the plaintiff is 25 49 
•HR 8790 EH
unable to demonstrate that the claim of the plaintiff is 1
likely to succeed on the merits. 2
(b) B
ALANCINGSHORT-ANDLONG-TERMEFFECTS 3
OFCOVEREDAGENCYACTION INCONSIDERINGINJUNC-4
TIVERELIEF.—As part of its weighing the equities while 5
considering any request for an injunction that applies to 6
a covered agency action, the court reviewing such action 7
shall balance the impact to the ecosystem likely affected 8
by such action of— 9
(1) the short- and long-term effects of under-10
taking such action; against 11
(2) the short- and long-term effects of not un-12
dertaking such action. 13
(c) L
IMITATIONS ONJUDICIALREVIEW.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 15
provision of law (except this section), in the case of 16
a claim arising under Federal law seeking judicial 17
review of a covered agency action— 18
(A) a court shall not hold unlawful, set 19
aside, or otherwise limit, delay, stay, vacate, or 20
enjoin such agency action unless the court de-21
termines that— 22
(i) such action poses or will pose a 23
risk of a proximate and substantial envi-24
ronmental harm; and 25 50 
•HR 8790 EH
(ii) there is no other equitable remedy 1
available as a matter of law; and 2
(B) if a court determines that subpara-3
graph (A) does not apply to the covered agency 4
action the only remedy the court may order 5
with regard to such agency action is to remand 6
the matter to the agency with instructions to, 7
during the 180-day period beginning on the 8
date of the order, take such additional actions 9
as may be necessary to redress any legal wrong 10
suffered by, or adverse effect on, the plaintiff, 11
except such additional actions may not include 12
the preparation of a new agency document un-13
less the court finds the agency was required 14
and failed to prepare such agency document. 15
(2) E
FFECT OF REMAND.—In the case of a cov-16
ered agency action to which paragraph (1)(B) ap-17
plies, the agency may— 18
(A) continue to carry out such agency ac-19
tion to the extent the action does not impact 20
the additional actions required pursuant to such 21
paragraph; and 22
(B) if the agency action relates to an agen-23
cy document, use any format to correct such 24
document (including a supplemental environ-25 51 
•HR 8790 EH
mental document, memorandum, or errata 1
sheet). 2
(d) L
IMITATIONS ONCLAIMS.—Notwithstanding any 3
other provision of law (except this section), a claim arising 4
under Federal law seeking judicial review of a covered 5
agency action shall be barred unless— 6
(1) with respect to an agency document or the 7
application of a categorical exclusion noticed in the 8
Federal Register, such claim is filed not later than 9
120 days after the date of publication of a notice in 10
the Federal Register of agency intent to carry out 11
the fireshed management project relating to such 12
agency document or application, unless a shorter pe-13
riod is specified in such Federal law; 14
(2) in the case of an agency document or the 15
application of a categorical exclusion not described 16
in paragraph (1), such claim is filed not later than 17
120 days after the date that is the earlier of— 18
(A) the date on which such agency docu-19
ment or application is published; and 20
(B) the date on which such agency docu-21
ment or application is noticed; and 22
(3) in the case of a covered agency action for 23
which there was a public comment period, such 24
claim— 25 52 
•HR 8790 EH
(A) is filed by a party that— 1
(i) participated in the administrative 2
proceedings regarding the fireshed man-3
agement project relating to such action; 4
and 5
(ii) submitted a comment during such 6
public comment period and such comment 7
was sufficiently detailed to put the applica-8
ble agency on notice of the issue upon 9
which the party seeks judicial review; and 10
(B) is related to such comment. 11
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—ln this section: 12
(1) A
GENCY DOCUMENT .—The term ‘‘agency 13
document’’ means, with respect to a fireshed man-14
agement project, a record of decision, environmental 15
document, or programmatic environmental docu-16
ment. 17
(2) C
OVERED AGENCY ACTION .—The term 18
‘‘covered agency action’’ means— 19
(A) the establishment of a fireshed man-20
agement project by an agency; 21
(B) the application of a categorical exclu-22
sion to a fireshed management project; 23
(C) the preparation of any agency docu-24
ment for a fireshed management project; or 25 53 
•HR 8790 EH
(D) any other agency action as part of a 1
fireshed management project. 2
(3) NEPA 
TERMS.—The terms ‘‘categorical ex-3
clusion’’, ‘‘environmental document’’, and ‘‘pro-4
grammatic environmental document’’ have the mean-5
ings given such terms, respectively, in section 111 of 6
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 7
U.S.C. 4336e). 8
SEC. 122. CONSULTATION ON FOREST PLANS. 9
(a) F
ORESTSERVICEPLANS.—Section 6(d)(2) of the 10
Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 11
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604(d)(2)) is amended to read as 12
follows: 13
‘‘(2) N
O ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION RE -14
QUIRED UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES .—Not-15
withstanding any other provision of law, the Sec-16
retary shall not be required to reinitiate consultation 17
under section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act 18
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536(a)(2)) or section 402.16 of 19
title 50, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor 20
regulation), on a land management plan approved, 21
amended, or revised under this section when— 22
‘‘(A) a new species is listed or critical habi-23
tat is designated under the Endangered Species 24
Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); or 25 54 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(B) new information reveals effects of the 1
land management plan that may affect a spe-2
cies listed or critical habitat designated under 3
that Act in a manner or to an extent not pre-4
viously considered.’’. 5
(b) B
UREAU OFLANDMANAGEMENTPLANS.—Sec-6
tion 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 7
of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) is amended by adding at the 8
end the following: 9
‘‘(g) N
OADDITIONALCONSULTATION REQUIRED 10
U
NDERCERTAINCIRCUMSTANCES.—Notwithstanding 11
any other provision of law, the Secretary shall not be re-12
quired to reinitiate consultation under section 7(a)(2) of 13
the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 14
1536(a)(2)) or section 402.16 of title 50, Code of Federal 15
Regulations (or a successor regulation), on a land use plan 16
approved, amended, or revised under this section when— 17
‘‘(1) a new species is listed or critical habitat 18
is designated under the Endangered Species Act of 19
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); or 20
‘‘(2) new information reveals effects of the land 21
use plan that may affect a species listed or critical 22
habitat designated under that Act in a manner or to 23
an extent not previously considered.’’. 24 55 
•HR 8790 EH
TITLE II—PROTECTING COMMU-1
NITIES IN THE WILDLAND- 2
URBAN INTERFACE 3
SEC. 201. COMMUNITY WILDFIRE RISK REDUCTION PRO-4
GRAM. 5
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 30 days after 6
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall 7
jointly establish an interagency program to be known as 8
the ‘‘Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program’’ that 9
shall consist of at least one representative from each of 10
the following: 11
(1) The Office of Wildland Fire of the Depart-12
ment of the Interior. 13
(2) The National Park Service. 14
(3) The Bureau of Land Management. 15
(4) The United States Fish and Wildlife Serv-16
ice. 17
(5) The Bureau of Indian Affairs. 18
(6) The Forest Service. 19
(7) The Federal Emergency Management Agen-20
cy. 21
(8) The United States Fire Administration. 22
(9) The National Institute of Standards and 23
Technology. 24 56 
•HR 8790 EH
(10) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 1
Administration. 2
(b) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of the program estab-3
lished under subsection (a) is to support interagency co-4
ordination in reducing the risk of, and the damages result-5
ing from, wildfires in communities (including tribal com-6
munities) in the wildland-urban interface through— 7
(1) advancing research and science in wildfire 8
resilience and land management, including support 9
for non-Federal research partnerships; 10
(2) supporting adoption by Indian Tribes and 11
local governmental entities of fire-resistant building 12
methods, codes, and standards; 13
(3) supporting efforts by Indian Tribes or local 14
governmental entities to address the effects of 15
wildland fire on such communities, including prop-16
erty damages, air quality, and water quality; 17
(4) encouraging public-private partnerships to 18
conduct hazardous fuels management activities in 19
the wildland-urban interface; 20
(5) providing technical and financial assistance 21
targeted towards communities, including tribal com-22
munities, through streamlined and unified technical 23
assistance and grant management mechanisms, in-24 57 
•HR 8790 EH
cluding the portal and grant application established 1
under subsection (c), to— 2
(A) encourage critical risk reduction meas-3
ures on private property with high wildfire risk 4
exposure in such communities; and 5
(B) mitigate costs for and improve capac-6
ity among such communities. 7
(c) P
ORTAL ANDUNIFORMGRANTAPPLICATION.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—As part of the program es-9
tablished under subsection (a), the Secretaries and 10
the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Man-11
agement Agency shall establish a portal through 12
which a person may submit a single, uniform appli-13
cation for any of the following: 14
(A) A community wildfire defense grant 15
under section 40803(f) of the Infrastructure In-16
vestment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(f)). 17
(B) An emergency management perform-18
ance grant under section 662 of the Post- 19
Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 20
2006 (6 U.S.C. 761). 21
(C) A grant under section 33 of the Fed-22
eral Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 23
(15 U.S.C. 2229). 24 58 
•HR 8790 EH
(D) A grant under section 34 of the Fed-1
eral Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 2
(15 U.S.C. 2229a). 3
(E) Financial or technical assistance or a 4
grant under sections 203, 205, 404, 406, or 5
420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 6
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 7
5133, 5135, 5170c, 5172, 5187). 8
(2) S
IMPLIFICATION OF APPLICATION .—In es-9
tablishing the portal and application under para-10
graph (1), the Secretaries and the Administrator 11
shall seek to reduce the complexity and length of the 12
application process for the grants described in para-13
graph (1). 14
(3) T
ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE .—The Secretaries 15
shall provide technical assistance to communities or 16
persons seeking to apply for financial assistance 17
through the portal using the application established 18
under paragraph (1). 19
(d) S
UNSET.—The program established under this 20
section shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after 21
the date of enactment of this Act. 22 59 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 202. COMMUNITY WILDFIRE DEFENSE RESEARCH PRO-1
GRAM. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretaries shall, acting 3
jointly, expand the Joint Fire Science Program to include 4
a performance-driven research and development program 5
known as the ‘‘Community Wildfire Defense Research 6
Program’’ for the purpose of testing and advancing inno-7
vative designs to create or improve the wildfire-resistance 8
of structures and communities. 9
(b) P
ROGRAMPRIORITIES.—In carrying out the pro-10
gram established under subsection (a), the Secretaries 11
shall evaluate opportunities to create wildfire-resistant 12
structures and communities through— 13
(1) different affordable building materials, in-14
cluding mass timber; 15
(2) home hardening, including policies to 16
incentivize and incorporate defensible space; 17
(3) subdivision design and other land use plan-18
ning and design; 19
(4) landscape architecture; and 20
(5) other wildfire-resistant designs, as deter-21
mined by the Secretary. 22
(c) C
OMMUNITYWILDFIREDEFENSEINNOVATION 23
P
RIZE.— 24
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out the program 25
established under subsection (a), the Secretaries 26 60 
•HR 8790 EH
shall carry out a competition through which a person 1
may submit to the Secretaries innovative designs for 2
the creation or improvement of an ignition-resistant 3
structure or fire-adapted communities. 4
(2) P
RIZE.—Subject to the availability of ap-5
propriations made in advance for such purpose, the 6
Secretaries may award a prize under the competition 7
described in paragraph (1), based on criteria estab-8
lished by the Secretaries and in accordance with 9
paragraph (3). 10
(3) S
CALE.—In awarding a prize under para-11
graph (2), the Secretaries shall prioritize for an 12
award designs with the most potential to scale to ex-13
isting infrastructure. 14
(d) C
OLLABORATION AND NONDUPLICATION.—In 15
carrying out the program established under subsection (a), 16
the Secretaries shall ensure collaboration and nonduplica-17
tion of activities with the Building Technologies Office of 18
the Department of Energy. 19
(e) S
UNSET.—The program established under sub-20
section (a) shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after 21
the date of enactment of this Act. 22 61 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 203. VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FACILITY INSPEC-1
TION, AND OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE 2
RELATING TO ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION AND 3
DISTRIBUTION FACILITY RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 4
(a) H
AZARDTREESWITHIN150 FEET OFELECTRIC 5
P
OWERLINE.—Section 512(a)(1)(B)(ii) of the Federal 6
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 7
1772(a)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ‘‘10’’ and in-8
serting ‘‘150’’. 9
(b) C
ONSULTATIONWITHPRIVATELANDOWNERS.— 10
Section 512(c)(3)(E) of such Act (43 U.S.C. 11
1772(c)(3)(E)) is amended— 12
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 13
(2) in clause (ii), by striking the period and in-14
serting ‘‘; and’’; and 15
(3) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(iii) consulting with a private land-17
owner with respect to any hazard trees 18
identified for removal from land owned by 19
the private landowner.’’. 20
(c) R
EVIEW AND APPROVALPROCESS.—Section 21
512(c)(4)(A)(iv) of such Act (43 U.S.C. 22
1772(c)(4)(A)(iv)) is amended to read as follows: 23
‘‘(iv) ensures that— 24
‘‘(I) a plan submitted without a 25
modification under clause (iii) shall be 26 62 
•HR 8790 EH
automatically approved 120 days after 1
being submitted; and 2
‘‘(II) with respect to a plan sub-3
mitted with a modification under 4
clause (iii), if not approved within 120 5
days after being submitted, the Sec-6
retary concerned shall develop and 7
submit a letter to the owner and oper-8
ator describing— 9
‘‘(aa) a detailed timeline (to 10
conclude within 165 days after 11
the submission of the plan) for 12
completing review of the plan; 13
‘‘(bb) any identified defi-14
ciencies with the plan and spe-15
cific opportunities for the owner 16
and operator to address such de-17
ficiencies; and 18
‘‘(cc) any other relevant in-19
formation, as determined by the 20
Secretary concerned.’’. 21
SEC. 204. CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION FOR ELECTRIC UTIL-22
ITY LINES RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 23
(a) C
ATEGORICALEXCLUSIONESTABLISHED.—For-24
est management activities described in subsection (b) are 25 63 
•HR 8790 EH
a category of activities hereby designated as being cat-1
egorically excluded from the preparation of an environ-2
mental assessment or an environmental impact statement 3
under section 102 of the National Environmental Policy 4
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332). 5
(b) F
ORESTMANAGEMENTACTIVITIESDESIGNATED 6
FORCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.—The forest management 7
activities designated under subsection (a) for a categorical 8
exclusion are— 9
(1) the development and approval of a vegeta-10
tion management, facility inspection, and operation 11
and maintenance plan submitted under section 12
512(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-13
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(1)) by the 14
Secretary concerned; and 15
(2) the implementation of routine activities con-16
ducted under the plan referred to in paragraph (1). 17
(c) A
VAILABILITY OFCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.— 18
On and after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-19
retary concerned may use the categorical exclusion estab-20
lished under subsection (a) in accordance with this section. 21
(d) E
XCLUSION OFCERTAINAREASFROMCATEGOR-22
ICALEXCLUSION.—The categorical exclusion established 23
under subsection (a) shall not apply to any forest manage-24
ment activity conducted— 25 64 
•HR 8790 EH
(1) in a component of the National Wilderness 1
Preservation System; or 2
(2) on National Forest System lands on which 3
the removal of vegetation is restricted or prohibited 4
by an Act of Congress. 5
(e) P
ERMANENTROADS.— 6
(1) P
ROHIBITION ON ESTABLISHMENT .—A for-7
est management activity designated under subsection 8
(b) shall not include the establishment of a perma-9
nent road. 10
(2) E
XISTING ROADS.—The Secretary con-11
cerned may carry out necessary maintenance and re-12
pair on an existing permanent road for the purposes 13
of conducting a forest management activity des-14
ignated under subsection (b). 15
(3) T
EMPORARY ROADS .—The Secretary con-16
cerned shall decommission any temporary road con-17
structed for carrying out a forest management activ-18
ity designated under subsection (b) not later than 19
the date that is 3 years after the date on which the 20
forest management activity is completed. 21
(f) A
PPLICABLELAWS.—Clauses (iii) and (iv) of sec-22
tion 106(a)(3) shall apply to forest management activities 23
designated under subsection (b). 24 65 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 205. SEEDS OF SUCCESS. 1
(a) S
TRATEGYESTABLISHED.—Not later than 2 2
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secre-3
taries and the Secretary of Defense shall jointly develop 4
and implement a strategy, to be known as the ‘‘Seeds of 5
Success strategy’’, to enhance the domestic supply chain 6
of seeds. 7
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy required under sub-8
section (a) shall include a plan for each of the following: 9
(1) Facilitating sustained interagency coordina-10
tion in, and a comprehensive approach to, native 11
plant materials development and restoration. 12
(2) Promoting the re-seeding of native or fire- 13
resistant vegetation post-wildfire, particularly in the 14
wildland-urban interface. 15
(3) Creating and consolidating information on 16
native or fire-resistant vegetation and sharing such 17
information with State governments, Indian Tribes, 18
and local governments. 19
(4) Building regional programs and partner-20
ships to promote the development of materials made 21
from plants native to the United States and restore 22
such plants to their respective, native habitats within 23
the United States, giving priority to the building of 24
such programs and partnerships in regions of the 25
Bureau of Land Management where such partner-26 66 
•HR 8790 EH
ships and programs do not already exist as of the 1
date of enactment of this Act. 2
(5) Expanding seed storage and seed-cleaning 3
infrastructure. 4
(6) Expanding the Warehouse System of the 5
Bureau of Land Management, particularly the cold 6
storage capacity of the Warehouse System. 7
(7) Shortening the timeline for the approval of 8
permits to collect seeds on public lands managed by 9
the Bureau of Land Management. 10
(c) R
EPORT.—The Secretaries and the Secretary of 11
Defense shall submit to the relevant Congressional Com-12
mittees the strategy developed under paragraph (1). 13
TITLE III—TRANSPARENCY AND 14
TECHNOLOGY 15
SEC. 301. BIOCHAR INNOVATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES 16
FOR CONSERVATION, HEALTH, AND AD-17
VANCEMENTS IN RESEARCH. 18
(a) D
EMONSTRATIONPROJECTS.— 19
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the avail-21
ability of appropriations made in advance for 22
such purpose, not later than 2 years after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, the covered Sec-24
retaries shall establish a program to enter into 25 67 
•HR 8790 EH
partnerships with eligible entities to carry out 1
demonstration projects to support the develop-2
ment and commercialization of biochar in ac-3
cordance with this subsection. 4
(B) L
OCATION OF DEMONSTRATION 5
PROJECTS.—In carrying out the program estab-6
lished under subparagraph (A), the covered 7
Secretaries shall, to the maximum extent prac-8
ticable, enter into partnerships with eligible en-9
tities such that not fewer than one demonstra-10
tion project is carried out in each region of the 11
Forest Service and each region of the Bureau 12
of Land Management. 13
(2) P
ROPOSALS.—To be eligible to enter into a 14
partnership to carry out a biochar demonstration 15
project under paragraph (1)(A), an eligible entity 16
shall submit to the covered Secretaries a proposal at 17
such time, in such manner, and containing such in-18
formation as the covered Secretaries may require. 19
(3) P
RIORITY.—In selecting proposals under 20
paragraph (2), the covered Secretaries shall give pri-21
ority to entering into partnerships with eligible enti-22
ties that submit proposals to carry out biochar dem-23
onstration projects that— 24 68 
•HR 8790 EH
(A) have the most carbon sequestration po-1
tential; 2
(B) have the most potential to create new 3
jobs and contribute to local economies, particu-4
larly in rural areas; 5
(C) have the most potential to dem-6
onstrate— 7
(i) new and innovative uses of biochar; 8
(ii) market viability for cost effective 9
biochar-based products; 10
(iii) the ecosystem services created or 11
supported by the use of biochar; 12
(iv) the restorative benefits of biochar 13
with respect to forest heath and resiliency, 14
including forest soils and watersheds; or 15
(v) any combination of purposes speci-16
fied in clauses (i) through (iv); and 17
(D) are located in areas that have a high 18
need for biochar production, as determined by 19
the covered Secretaries, due to— 20
(i) nearby lands identified as having 21
high or very high or extreme risk of wild-22
fire; 23
(ii) availability of sufficient quantities 24
of feedstocks; 25 69 
•HR 8790 EH
(iii) a high level of demand for 1
biochar or other commercial byproducts of 2
biochar; or 3
(iv) any combination of purposes spec-4
ified in subparagraphs (A) through (D). 5
(4) U
SE OF FUNDS.—In carrying out the pro-6
gram established under paragraph (1)(A), the cov-7
ered Secretaries may enter into partnerships and 8
provide funding to such partnerships to carry out 9
demonstration projects to— 10
(A) acquire and test various feedstocks and 11
their efficacy; 12
(B) develop and optimize commercially and 13
technologically viable biochar production units, 14
including mobile and permanent units; 15
(C) demonstrate— 16
(i) the production of biochar from for-17
est residue; and 18
(ii) the use of biochar to restore forest 19
health and resiliency; 20
(D) build, expand, or establish biochar fa-21
cilities; 22
(E) conduct research on new and innova-23
tive uses of biochar; 24 70 
•HR 8790 EH
(F) demonstrate cost-effective market op-1
portunities for biochar and biochar-based prod-2
ucts; 3
(G) carry out any other activities the cov-4
ered Secretaries determine appropriate; or 5
(H) any combination of the purposes speci-6
fied in subparagraphs (A) through (F). 7
(5) F
EEDSTOCK REQUIREMENTS .—To the max-8
imum extent practicable, an eligible entity that car-9
ries out a biochar demonstration project under this 10
subsection shall, with respect to the feedstock used 11
under such project, derive at least 50 percent of 12
such feedstock from forest thinning and manage-13
ment activities, including mill residues, conducted on 14
National Forest System lands or public lands. 15
(6) R
EVIEW OF BIOCHAR DEMONSTRATION .— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The covered Secretaries 17
shall conduct regionally-specific research, in-18
cluding economic analyses and life-cycle assess-19
ments, on any biochar produced from a dem-20
onstration project carried out under the pro-21
gram established in paragraph (1)(A), includ-22
ing— 23
(i) the effects of such biochar on— 24
(I) forest health and resiliency; 25 71 
•HR 8790 EH
(II) carbon capture and seques-1
tration, including increasing soil car-2
bon in the short-term and long-term; 3
(III) productivity, reduced input 4
costs, and water retention in agricul-5
tural practices; 6
(IV) the health of soil and grass-7
lands used for grazing activities, in-8
cluding grazing activities on National 9
Forest System land and public land; 10
(V) environmental remediation 11
activities, including abandoned mine 12
land remediation; and 13
(VI) other ecosystem services cre-14
ated or supported by the use of 15
biochar; 16
(ii) the effectiveness of biochar as a 17
co-product of biofuels or in biochemicals; 18
and 19
(iii) the effectiveness of other poten-20
tial uses of biochar to determine if any 21
such use is technologically and commer-22
cially viable. 23
(B) C
OORDINATION.—The covered Secre-24
taries shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 25 72 
•HR 8790 EH
provide data, analyses, and other relevant infor-1
mation collected under subparagraph (A) with 2
recipients of a grant under subsection (b). 3
(7) L
IMITATION ON FUNDING FOR ESTAB -4
LISHING BIOCHAR FACILITIES .—If the covered Sec-5
retaries provide to an eligible entity that enters into 6
a partnership with the covered Secretaries under 7
paragraph (1)(A) funding for establishing a biochar 8
facility, such funding may not exceed 35 percent of 9
the total capital cost of establishing such biochar fa-10
cility. 11
(b) B
IOCHARRESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENTGRANT 12
P
ROGRAM.— 13
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the In-14
terior, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, 15
shall establish or expand an existing applied biochar 16
research and development grant program to make 17
competitive grants to eligible institutions to carry 18
out the activities described in paragraph (3). 19
(2) A
PPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a 20
grant under this subsection, an eligible institution 21
shall submit to the Secretary a proposal at such 22
time, in such manner, and containing such informa-23
tion as the Secretary may require. 24 73 
•HR 8790 EH
(3) USE OF FUNDS.—An eligible institution 1
that receives a grant under this subsection shall use 2
the grant funds to conduct applied research on— 3
(A) the effect of biochar on forest health 4
and resiliency, accounting for variations in 5
biochar, soil, climate, and other factors; 6
(B) the effect of biochar on soil health and 7
water retention, accounting for variations in 8
biochar, soil, climate, and other factors; 9
(C) the long-term carbon sequestration po-10
tential of biochar; 11
(D) the best management practices with 12
respect to biochar and biochar-based products 13
that maximize— 14
(i) carbon sequestration benefits; and 15
(ii) the commercial viability and appli-16
cation of such products in forestry, agri-17
culture, environmental remediation, water 18
quality improvement, and any other similar 19
uses, as determined by the Secretary; 20
(E) the regional uses of biochar to increase 21
productivity and profitability, including— 22
(i) uses in agriculture and environ-23
mental remediation; and 24 74 
•HR 8790 EH
(ii) use as a co-product in fuel produc-1
tion; 2
(F) new and innovative uses for biochar 3
byproducts; and 4
(G) opportunities to expand markets for 5
biochar and create related jobs, particularly in 6
rural areas. 7
(c) R
EPORTS.— 8
(1) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS .—Not later than 2 9
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 10
covered Secretaries shall submit to Congress a re-11
port that— 12
(A) includes policy and program rec-13
ommendations to improve the widespread use of 14
biochar; 15
(B) identifies any area of research needed 16
to advance biochar commercialization; and 17
(C) identifies barriers to further biochar 18
commercialization, including permitting and 19
siting considerations. 20
(2) M
ATERIALS SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT OF 21
THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET.—Beginning with the 22
second fiscal year that begins after the date of en-23
actment of this Act and annually thereafter until the 24
date described in subsection (d), the covered Secre-25 75 
•HR 8790 EH
taries shall include in the materials submitted to 1
Congress in support of the President’s budget pursu-2
ant to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, 3
a report describing, for the fiscal year covered by the 4
report, the status of each demonstration project car-5
ried out under subsection (a) and each research and 6
development grant carried out under subsection (b). 7
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority to carry out this section 8
shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date 9
of enactment of this Act. 10
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) B
IOCHAR.—The term ‘‘biochar’’ means car-12
bonized biomass produced by converting feedstock 13
through reductive thermal processing for non-fuel 14
uses. 15
(2) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-16
ty’’ means— 17
(A) a State, local, special district, or Tribal 18
government; 19
(B) an eligible institution; 20
(C) a private, non-private, or cooperative 21
entity or organization; 22
(D) a National Laboratory (as such term 23
is defined in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act 24
of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801)); or 25 76 
•HR 8790 EH
(E) a partnership or consortium of two or 1
more entities described in subparagraphs (A) 2
through (D). 3
(3) E
LIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘eligi-4
ble institution’’ means land-grant colleges and uni-5
versities, including institutions eligible for funding 6
under the— 7
(A) Act of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat. 503, 8
chapter 130; 7 U.S.C. 301 et seq.); 9
(B) Act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. 417, 10
chapter 841; 7 U.S.C. 321 et seq.), including 11
Tuskegee University; 12
(C) Public Law 87–788 (commonly known 13
as the ‘‘McIntire-Stennis Act of 1962’’); or 14
(D) Equity in Educational Land-Grant 15
Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 301 note; Public 16
Law 103–382). 17
(4) F
EEDSTOCK.—The term ‘‘feedstock’’ means 18
excess biomass in the form of plant matter or mate-19
rials that serves as the raw material for the produc-20
tion of biochar. 21
(5) C
OVERED SECRETARIES .—The term ‘‘cov-22
ered Secretaries’’ means— 23
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 24
through the Chief of the Forest Service; 25 77 
•HR 8790 EH
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, acting 1
through the Director of the Bureau of Land 2
Management; and 3
(C) the Secretary of Energy, acting 4
through the Director of the Office of Science. 5
SEC. 302. 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 fis-11
cal year that begins after the date of enactment of 12
this Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-13
retary concerned shall include in the materials sub-14
mitted to Congress in support of the President’s 15
budget pursuant to section 1105 of title 31, United 16
States Code, a report on the number of acres of 17
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned car-18
ried out hazardous fuels reduction activities during 19
the preceding fiscal year. 20
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the re-21
port required under paragraph (1), the Secretary 22
concerned shall— 23
(A) in determining the number of acres of 24
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned 25 78 
•HR 8790 EH
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 9
during such period; and 10
(B) with respect to the acres of Federal 11
land recorded in the report, include information 12
on— 13
(i) which such acres are located in the 14
wildland-urban interface; 15
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 16
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 17
of the period covered by the report; 18
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels ac-19
tivities completed for such acres, delin-20
eating between whether such activities 21
were conducted— 22
(I) in a wildfire managed for re-23
source benefits; or 24
(II) through a planned project; 25 79 
•HR 8790 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 websites 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 enactment of this Act, the Secretary con-16
cerned shall implement standardized procedures for 17
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 80 
•HR 8790 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 81 
•HR 8790 EH
(1) conduct a study on the implementation of 1
this section, including any limitations with respect 2
to— 3
(A) reporting hazardous fuels reduction ac-4
tivities under subsection (a); or 5
(B) tracking data related to hazardous 6
fuels reduction activities under subsection (b); 7
and 8
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 9
the results of the study under paragraph (1). 10
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -12
ITY.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activ-13
ity’’— 14
(A) means any vegetation management ac-15
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 16
mechanical treatments, grazing, and prescribed 17
burning; and 18
(B) does not include the awarding of con-19
tracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction ac-20
tivities. 21
(2) F
EDERAL LANDS .—The term ‘‘Federal 22
lands’’ means lands under the jurisdiction of the 23
Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agri-24
culture. 25 82 
•HR 8790 EH
(e) NOADDITIONALFUNDSAUTHORIZED.—No addi-1
tional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements 2
of this section, and the activities authorized by this section 3
are subject to the availability of appropriations made in 4
advance for such purposes. 5
SEC. 303. PUBLIC-PRIVATE WILDFIRE TECHNOLOGY DE-6
PLOYMENT AND DEMONSTRATION PARTNER-7
SHIP. 8
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
(1) C
OVERED AGENCY .—The term ‘‘covered 10
agency’’ means— 11
(A) each Federal land management agency 12
(as such term is defined in the Federal Lands 13
Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 14
6801)); 15
(B) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 16
Administration; 17
(C) the United States Fire Administration; 18
(D) the Federal Emergency Management 19
Agency; 20
(E) the National Aeronautics and Space 21
Administration; 22
(F) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 23
(G) the Department of Defense; 24 83 
•HR 8790 EH
(H) a State, Tribal, county, or municipal 1
fire department or district operating through 2
the United States Fire Administration or pur-3
suant to an agreement with a Federal agency; 4
and 5
(I) any other Federal agency involved in 6
wildfire response. 7
(2) C
OVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-8
tity’’ means— 9
(A) a private entity; 10
(B) a nonprofit organization; or 11
(C) an institution of higher education (as 12
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 13
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)). 14
(b) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 15
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries, in coordina-16
tion with the heads of the covered agencies, shall establish 17
a deployment and demonstration pilot program (in this 18
section referred to as ‘‘Pilot Program’’) for new and inno-19
vative wildfire prevention, detection, communication, and 20
mitigation technologies. 21
(c) F
UNCTIONS.—In carrying out the Pilot Program, 22
the Secretaries shall— 23
(1) incorporate the Pilot Program into the Na-24
tional Wildfire Coordinating Group; 25 84 
•HR 8790 EH
(2) in consultation with the heads of covered 1
agencies, identify and advance the demonstration 2
and deployment of key technology priority areas with 3
respect to wildfire prevention, detection, communica-4
tion, and mitigation technologies, including— 5
(A) hazardous fuels reduction treatments 6
or activities; 7
(B) dispatch communications; 8
(C) remote sensing, detection, and track-9
ing; 10
(D) safety equipment; 11
(E) common operating pictures or oper-12
ational dashboards; and 13
(F) interoperable commercial data; and 14
(3) connect each covered entity selected to par-15
ticipate in the Pilot Program with the appropriate 16
covered agency to coordinate real-time and on-the- 17
ground testing of technology during wildland fire 18
mitigation activities and training. 19
(d) A
PPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to be selected to 20
participate in the Pilot Program, a covered entity shall 21
submit to the Secretaries an application at such time, in 22
such manner, and containing such information as the Sec-23
retaries may require, including a proposal to demonstrate 24 85 
•HR 8790 EH
technologies specific to the key technology priority areas 1
identified pursuant to subsection (c)(2). 2
(e) P
RIORITIZATION OF EMERGING TECH-3
NOLOGIES.—In selecting covered entities to participate in 4
the Pilot Program, the Secretaries shall give priority to 5
covered entities— 6
(1) that have participated in the Fire Weather 7
Testbed of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 8
Administration; or 9
(2) developing and applying emerging tech-10
nologies for wildfire mitigation, including artificial 11
intelligence, quantum sensing, computing and quan-12
tum-hybrid applications, thermal mid-wave infrared 13
equipped low earth orbit satellites, augmented re-14
ality, 5G private networks, and device-to-device com-15
munications supporting nomadic mesh networks and 16
detection. 17
(f) O
UTREACH.—The Secretaries, in coordination 18
with the heads of covered agencies, shall make public the 19
key technology priority areas identified pursuant to sub-20
section (c)(2) and invite covered entities to apply under 21
subsection (d) to deploy and demonstrate their tech-22
nologies to address such priority areas. 23
(g) R
EPORTS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later 24
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and 25 86 
•HR 8790 EH
annually thereafter for the duration of the Pilot Program, 1
the Secretaries shall submit to the relevant Congressional 2
Committees, the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-3
nology of the House of Representatives, and the Com-4
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 5
Senate a report that includes, with respect to the Pilot 6
Program, the following: 7
(1) A list of participating covered entities. 8
(2) A brief description of the technologies de-9
ployed and demonstrated by each such covered enti-10
ty. 11
(3) An estimate of the cost of acquiring each 12
such technology and applying the technology at 13
scale. 14
(4) Outreach efforts by Federal agencies to cov-15
ered entities developing wildfire technologies. 16
(5) Assessments of, and recommendations relat-17
ing to, new technologies with potential adoption and 18
application at-scale in Federal land management 19
agencies’ wildfire prevention, detection, communica-20
tion, and mitigation efforts. 21
(6) A description of the relationship and coordi-22
nation between the Pilot Program and the activities 23
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-24
tration, including the Fire Weather Testbed. 25 87 
•HR 8790 EH
(h) SUNSET.—The authority to carry out this section 1
shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date 2
of enactment of this Act. 3
SEC. 304. GAO STUDY ON FOREST SERVICE POLICIES. 4
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 5
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 6
shall— 7
(1) conduct a study evaluating— 8
(A) the effectiveness of Forest Service 9
wildland firefighting operations; 10
(B) transparency and accountability meas-11
ures in the Forest Service’s budget and ac-12
counting process; and 13
(C) the suitability and feasibility of estab-14
lishing a new Federal agency with the responsi-15
bility of responding and suppressing wildland 16
fires on Federal lands; and 17
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 18
the results of the study required under paragraph 19
(1). 20
SEC. 305. FOREST SERVICE WESTERN HEADQUARTERS 21
STUDY. 22
Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment 23
of this Act, the Chief of the Forest Service shall— 24
(1) conduct a study evaluating— 25 88 
•HR 8790 EH
(A) potential locations for a Western head-1
quarters for the Forest Service, including po-2
tential locations in at least 3 different States lo-3
cated west of the Mississippi river; and 4
(B) the potential benefits of creating a 5
Western headquarters for the Forest Service, 6
including expected— 7
(i) improvements to customer service; 8
(ii) improvements to employee recruit-9
ment and retention; and 10
(iii) operational efficiencies and cost 11
savings; and 12
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 13
the results of the study required under paragraph 14
(1). 15
SEC. 306. KEEPING FOREST PLANS CURRENT AND MON-16
ITORED. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary— 18
(1) to the greatest extent practicable and sub-19
ject to the availability of appropriations made in ad-20
vance for such purpose— 21
(A) ensure forest plans comply with the re-22
quirements of section 6(f)(5)(A) of the Forest 23
and Rangeland Resources Planning Act of 1974 24
(16 U.S.C. 1604(f)(5)(A)); and 25 89 
•HR 8790 EH
(B) prioritize revising any forest plan not 1
in compliance with such section 6(f)(5)(A); 2
(2) not be considered to be in violation of sec-3
tion 6(f)(5)(A) of the Forest and Rangeland Renew-4
able Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 5
1604(f)(5)(A)) solely because more than 15 years 6
have passed without revision of the plan for a unit 7
of the National Forest System; 8
(3) not later than 120 days after the date of 9
the enactment of this Act, submit to the relevant 10
Congressional Committees the date on which each 11
forest plan required by such section 6 was most re-12
cently revised, amended, or modified; 13
(4) seek to publish a new, complete version of 14
a forest plan that the Secretary has been directed to 15
amend, revise, or modify by a court order within 60 16
days of such amendment, revision, or modification, 17
subject to the availability of appropriations made in 18
advance for such purpose; and 19
(5) maintain a central, publicly accessible 20
website with links to— 21
(A) the most recently available forest plan 22
adopted, amended, or modified by a court order 23
as a single document; and 24 90 
•HR 8790 EH
(B) the most recently published forest plan 1
monitoring report for each unit of the National 2
Forest System. 3
(b) G
OODFAITHUPDATES.—If the Secretary is not 4
acting expeditiously and in good faith, within the funding 5
available to revise, amend, or modify a plan for a unit 6
of the National Forest System as required by law or a 7
court order, subsection (a) shall be void with respect to 8
such plan and a court of proper jurisdiction may order 9
completion of the plan on an accelerated basis. 10
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 11
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 12
a report to the relevant Congressional Committees sum-13
marizing the implementation of this section. 14
SEC. 307. CONTAINER AERIAL FIREFIGHTING SYSTEM 15
(CAFFS). 16
(a) E
VALUATION.—Not later than 90 days after the 17
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agri-18
culture and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation 19
with the National Interagency Aviation Committee and the 20
Interagency Airtanker Board, shall jointly conduct an 21
evaluation of the container aerial firefighting system to as-22
sess the use of such system to mitigate and suppress 23
wildfires. 24 91 
•HR 8790 EH
(b) REPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the date 1
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 2
and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the 3
National Interagency Aviation Committee and the Inter-4
agency Airtanker Board, shall jointly submit to the appro-5
priate committees a report that includes the results of the 6
evaluation required under subsection (a). 7
(c) A
PPROPRIATECOMMITTEESDEFINED.—In this 8
section, the term ‘‘appropriate committees’’ means— 9
(1) the Committees on Agriculture and Natural 10
Resources of the House of Representatives; and 11
(2) the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, 12
and Forestry and Energy and Natural Resources of 13
the Senate. 14
SEC. 308. STUDY ON PINE BEETLE INFESTATION. 15
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 16
of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 17
the Chief of the Forest Service, shall— 18
(1) carry out a study on the causes and effects 19
of, and solutions for, the infestation of pine beetles 20
in the North Eastern region of the United States; 21
and 22
(2) submit to the relevant Congressional Com-23
mittees a report that includes the results of the 24
study required under paragraph (1). 25 92 
•HR 8790 EH
TITLE IV—ENSURING CASUALTY 1
ASSISTANCE FOR OUR FIRE-2
FIGHTERS 3
SEC. 401. WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT CASUALTY AS-4
SISTANCE PROGRAM. 5
(a) D
EVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM.—Not later than 6 6
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 7
Secretary of the Interior shall develop a Wildland Fire 8
Management Casualty Assistance Program (referred to in 9
this section as the ‘‘Program’’) to provide assistance to 10
the next-of-kin of— 11
(1) firefighters who, while in the line of duty, 12
suffer illness or are critically injured or killed; and 13
(2) wildland fire support personnel critically in-14
jured or killed in the line of duty. 15
(b) A
SPECTS OFPROGRAM.—The Program shall ad-16
dress the following: 17
(1) The initial and any subsequent notifications 18
to the next-of-kin of a firefighter or wildland fire 19
support personnel who— 20
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or 21
(B) requires hospitalization or treatment 22
at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury 23
or illness. 24 93 
•HR 8790 EH
(2) The reimbursement of next-of-kin for ex-1
penses associated with travel to visit a firefighter or 2
wildland fire support personnel who— 3
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or 4
(B) requires hospitalization or treatment 5
at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury 6
or illness. 7
(3) The qualifications, assignment, training, du-8
ties, supervision, and accountability for the perform-9
ance of casualty assistance responsibilities. 10
(4) The relief or transfer of casualty assistance 11
officers, including notification to survivors of critical 12
injury or illness in the line of duty and next-of-kin 13
of the reassignment of such officers to other duties. 14
(5) Centralized, short-term and long-term case 15
management procedures for casualty assistance, in-16
cluding rapid access by survivors of firefighters or 17
wildland fire support personnel and casualty assist-18
ance officers to expert case managers and coun-19
selors. 20
(6) The provision, through a computer acces-21
sible website and other means and at no cost to sur-22
vivors and next-of-kin of firefighters or wildland fire 23
support personnel, of personalized, integrated infor-24 94 
•HR 8790 EH
mation on the benefits and financial assistance avail-1
able to such survivors from the Federal Government. 2
(7) The provision of information to survivors 3
and next-of-kin of firefighters or wildland fire sup-4
port personnel on mechanisms for registering com-5
plaints about, or requests for, additional assistance 6
related to casualty assistance. 7
(8) Liaison with the Department of the Inte-8
rior, the Department of Justice, and the Social Se-9
curity Administration to ensure prompt and accurate 10
resolution of issues relating to benefits administered 11
by those agencies for survivors of firefighters or 12
wildland fire support personnel. 13
(9) Data collection, in consultation with the 14
United States Fire Administration and the National 15
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, re-16
garding the incidence and quality of casualty assist-17
ance provided to survivors of firefighters or wildland 18
fire support personnel. 19
(c) L
INE OFDUTYDEATHBENEFITS.—The Pro-20
gram shall not affect existing authorities for Line of Duty 21
Death benefits for Federal firefighters and wildland fire 22
support personnel. 23
(d) N
EXT-OF-KINDEFINED.—In this section, the 24
term ‘‘next-of-kin’’ means person or persons in the highest 25 95 
•HR 8790 EH
category of priority as determined by the following list 1
(categories appear in descending order of priority): 2
(1) Surviving legal spouse. 3
(2) Children (whether by current or prior mar-4
riage) age 18 years or older in descending prece-5
dence by age. 6
(3) Father or mother, unless by court order 7
custody has been vested in another (adoptive parent 8
takes precedence over natural parent). 9
(4) Siblings (whole or half) age 18 years or 10
older in descending precedence by age. 11
(5) Grandfather or grandmother. 12
(6) Any other relative (precedence to be deter-13
mined in accordance with the civil law of descent of 14
the deceased former member’s State of domicile at 15
time of death). 16
TITLE V—WHITE OAK 17
RESILIENCE 18
SEC. 501. WHITE OAK RESTORATION INITIATIVE COALI-19
TION. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The White Oak Restoration Ini-21
tiative Coalition shall be established— 22
(1) as a voluntary collaborative group of Fed-23
eral, State, Tribal, and local governments and pri-24 96 
•HR 8790 EH
vate and non-governmental organizations to carry 1
out the duties described in subsection (b); and 2
(2) in accordance with the charter titled ‘‘White 3
Oak Initiative Coalition Charter’’ adopted by the 4
White Oak Initiative Board of Directors on March 5
21, 2023 (or a successor charter). 6
(b) D
UTIES.—In addition to the duties specified in 7
the charter described in subsection (a)(2), the duties of 8
the White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition are— 9
(1) to coordinate Federal, State, Tribal, local, 10
private, and non-governmental restoration of white 11
oak in the United States; and 12
(2) to make program and policy recommenda-13
tions, consistent with applicable forest management 14
plans, with respect to— 15
(A) changes necessary to address Federal 16
and State policies that impede activities to im-17
prove the health, resiliency, and natural regen-18
eration of white oak; 19
(B) adopting or modifying Federal and 20
State policies to increase the pace and scale of 21
white oak regeneration and resiliency of white 22
oak; 23
(C) options to enhance communication, co-24
ordination, and collaboration between forest 25 97 
•HR 8790 EH
land owners, particularly for cross-boundary 1
projects, to improve the health, resiliency, and 2
natural regeneration of white oak; 3
(D) research gaps that should be ad-4
dressed to improve the best available science on 5
white oak; 6
(E) outreach to forest landowners with 7
white oak or white oak regeneration potential; 8
and 9
(F) options and policies necessary to im-10
prove the quality and quantity of white oak in 11
tree nurseries. 12
(c) A
DMINISTRATIVESUPPORT, TECHNICALSERV-13
ICES, ANDSTAFFSUPPORT.—The Secretary of the Inte-14
rior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall make such per-15
sonnel available to the White Oak Restoration Initiative 16
Coalition for administrative support, technical services, 17
and development and dissemination of educational mate-18
rials as the Secretaries determine necessary to carry out 19
this section. 20
(d) P
RIVATEFUNDING OFWHITEOAKRESTORA-21
TIONPROJECTS.—Subject to the availability of appropria-22
tions made in advance for such purpose, the Secretary of 23
Agriculture may make funds available to the White Oak 24
Restoration Initiative Coalition to carry out this section 25 98 
•HR 8790 EH
from the account established pursuant to section 1241(f) 1
of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841(f)). 2
SEC. 502. FOREST SERVICE PILOT PROGRAM. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture, act-4
ing through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall establish 5
and carry out 5 pilot projects in national forests to restore 6
white oak in such forests through white oak restoration 7
and natural regeneration practices that are consistent with 8
applicable forest management plans. 9
(b) N
ATIONALFORESTSRESERVED ORWITHDRAWN 10
F
ROM THEPUBLICDOMAIN.—At least 3 pilot projects re-11
quired under subsection (a) shall be carried out on na-12
tional forests reserved or withdrawn from the public do-13
main. 14
(c) A
UTHORITYTOENTERINTOCOOPERATIVE 15
A
GREEMENTS.—The Secretary of Agriculture may enter 16
into cooperative agreements to carry out the pilot projects 17
required under subsection (a). 18
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 19
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 20
the enactment of this Act. 21
SEC. 503. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WHITE OAK RE-22
VIEW AND RESTORATION. 23
(a) A
SSESSMENT.— 24 99 
•HR 8790 EH
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Inte-1
rior shall carry out an assessment of land under the 2
administrative jurisdiction of the Department of the 3
Interior, including fish and wildlife refuges and 4
abandoned mine land, to evaluate— 5
(A) whether white oak is present on such 6
land; and 7
(B) the potential to restore white oak for-8
ests on such land. 9
(2) U
SE OF INFORMATION.—In carrying out the 10
assessment under paragraph (1), the Secretary may 11
use information from sources other than the Depart-12
ment of the Interior, including from the White Oak 13
Initiative and the Forest Service. 14
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the 15
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary 16
shall submit to Congress, and make publicly avail-17
able on the website of the Department of the Inte-18
rior, a report regarding the results of the assessment 19
carried out under this subsection. 20
(b) P
ILOTPROJECTS.—After the date on which the 21
report required under subsection (a)(3) is submitted, the 22
Secretary shall establish and carry out 5 pilot projects in 23
different areas of land described in subsection (a)(1) to 24
restore and naturally regenerate white oak. 25 100 
•HR 8790 EH
(c) AUTHORITY TO ENTERINTOCOOPERATIVE 1
A
GREEMENTS.—The Secretary of the Interior may enter 2
into cooperative agreements to carry out the pilot projects 3
required under subsection (b). 4
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 5
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 6
the enactment of this Act. 7
SEC. 504. WHITE OAK REGENERATION AND UPLAND OAK 8
HABITAT. 9
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 10
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 11
Agriculture (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 12
shall establish a non-regulatory program to be known as 13
the ‘‘White Oak and Upland Oak Habitat Regeneration 14
Program’’ (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Program’’). 15
(b) D
UTIES.—In carrying out the Program, the Sec-16
retary shall— 17
(1) draw upon the best available science and 18
management plans for species of white oak to iden-19
tify, prioritize, and implement restoration and con-20
servation activities that will improve the growth of 21
white oak within the United States; 22
(2) collaborate and coordinate with the White 23
Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition to prioritize 24
white oak restoration initiatives; 25 101 
•HR 8790 EH
(3) adopt a white oak restoration strategy 1
that— 2
(A) supports the implementation of a 3
shared set of science-based restoration and con-4
servation activities developed in accordance with 5
paragraph (1); 6
(B) targets cost effective projects with 7
measurable results; and 8
(C) maximizes restoration outcomes with 9
no net gain of Federal full-time equivalent em-10
ployees; and 11
(4) establish the voluntary grant and technical 12
assistance programs in accordance with subsection 13
(e). 14
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In establishing the Program 15
the Secretary, acting through the Chief of the Forest Serv-16
ice, shall consult with— 17
(1) the heads of Federal agencies, including— 18
(A) the Director of the United States Fish 19
and Wildlife Service; and 20
(B) the Chief of the Natural Resources 21
Conservation Service; and 22
(2) the Governor of each State in which res-23
toration efforts will be carried out pursuant to the 24
Program. 25 102 
•HR 8790 EH
(d) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the Program in-1
clude— 2
(1) coordinating restoration and conservation 3
activities among Federal, State, local, and Tribal en-4
tities and conservation partners to address white oak 5
restoration priorities; 6
(2) improving and regenerating white oak and 7
upland oak forests and the wildlife habitat such for-8
ests provide; 9
(3) carrying out coordinated restoration and 10
conservation activities that lead to the increased 11
growth of species of white oak in native white oak 12
regions on Federal, State, Tribal, and private land; 13
(4) facilitating strategic planning to maximize 14
the resilience of white oak systems and habitats 15
under changing climate conditions; 16
(5) engaging the public through outreach, edu-17
cation, and citizen involvement to increase capacity 18
and support for coordinated restoration and con-19
servation activities for species of white oak; and 20
(6) increasing scientific capacity to support the 21
planning, monitoring, and research activities nec-22
essary to carry out such coordinated restoration and 23
conservation activities. 24
(e) G
RANTS ANDASSISTANCE.— 25 103 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—To the extent that funds are 1
available to carry out this section, the Secretary 2
shall establish a voluntary grant and technical as-3
sistance program (in this section referred to as the 4
‘‘grant program’’) to achieve the purposes of the 5
Program described in subsection (d). 6
(2) A
DMINISTRATION.— 7
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 8
enter into a cooperative agreement with the Na-9
tional Fish and Wildlife Foundation (in this 10
subsection referred to as the ‘‘Foundation’’) to 11
manage and administer the grant program. 12
(B) F
UNDING.—Subject to the availability 13
of appropriations made in advance for such 14
purpose, after the Secretary enters into a coop-15
erative agreement with the Foundation under 16
subparagraph (A), the Foundation shall for 17
each fiscal year, receive amounts to carry out 18
this subsection in an advance payment of the 19
entire amount on October 1, or as soon as prac-20
ticable thereafter, of that fiscal year. 21
(3) A
PPLICATION OF NATIONAL FISH AND 22
WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT ACT .— 23
Amounts received by the Foundation to carry out 24
the grant program shall be subject to the National 25 104 
•HR 8790 EH
Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act (16 1
U.S.C. 3701 et seq.), excluding section 10(a) of that 2
Act (16 U.S.C. 3709(a)). 3
(f) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 4
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 5
the enactment of this Act. 6
SEC. 505. TREE NURSERY SHORTAGES. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 8
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary of Ag-9
riculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, 10
shall— 11
(1) develop and implement a national strategy 12
to increase the capacity of Federal, State, Tribal, 13
and private tree nurseries to address the nationwide 14
shortage of tree seedlings; and 15
(2) coordinate such strategy with— 16
(A) the national reforestation strategy of 17
the Forest Service; and 18
(B) each regional implementation plan for 19
National Forests. 20
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy required under sub-21
section (a) shall— 22
(1) be based on the best available science and 23
data; and 24
(2) identify and address— 25 105 
•HR 8790 EH
(A) regional seedling shortages of bareroot 1
and container tree seedlings; 2
(B) regional reforestation opportunities 3
and the seedling supply necessary to fulfill such 4
opportunities; 5
(C) opportunities to enhance seedling di-6
versity and close gaps in seed inventories; and 7
(D) barriers to expanding, enhancing, or 8
creating new infrastructure to increase nursery 9
capacity. 10
SEC. 506. WHITE OAK RESEARCH. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture may 12
enter into a memorandum of understanding with a Tribe 13
or institution, including a covered land grant college, to 14
collaboratively conduct research on— 15
(1) white oak genes with resistance or tolerance 16
to stress; 17
(2) white oak trees that exhibit vigor for the 18
purpose of increasing survival and growth; 19
(3) establishing a genetically diverse white oak 20
seeds bank capable of responding to stressors; 21
(4) providing a sustainable supply of white oak 22
seedlings and genetic resources; 23
(5) improved methods for aligning seed sources 24
with the future climate at planting sites; 25 106 
•HR 8790 EH
(6) reforestation of white oak through natural 1
and artificial regeneration; 2
(7) improved methods for retaining and increas-3
ing white oak trees in forests; 4
(8) improved methods for reforesting aban-5
doned mine land sites; and 6
(9) economic and social aspects of white oak 7
forest management across land ownerships. 8
(b) C
ONSULT.—In carrying out the research under 9
subsection (a), the Tribe or institution, including a cov-10
ered land grant college, that enters into the memorandum 11
of understanding under such subsection may consult with 12
such States, nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher 13
education, and other scientific bodies, as the entity subject 14
to such memorandum determines appropriate. 15
(c) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 16
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 17
the enactment of this Act. 18
(d) C
OVEREDLANDGRANTCOLLEGEDEFINED.— 19
In this section, the term ‘‘covered land grant college’’ 20
means an 1862 Institution, an 1890 Institution, or a 1994 21
Institution (as such terms are defined, respectively, in sec-22
tion 2 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Edu-23
cation Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7601)). 24 107 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 507. USDA FORMAL INITIATIVE. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture, act-2
ing through the Chief of the Natural Resources Conserva-3
tion Service and in coordination with the Chief of the For-4
est Service, shall establish a formal initiative on white oak 5
to— 6
(1) re-establish white oak forests where appro-7
priate; 8
(2) improve management of existing white oak 9
forests to foster natural regeneration of white oak; 10
(3) provide technical assistance to private land-11
owners to re-establish, improve management of, and 12
naturally regenerate white oak; 13
(4) improve and expand white oak nursery 14
stock; and 15
(5) adapt and improve white oak seedlings. 16
(b) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 17
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 18
the enactment of this Act. 19
SEC. 508. AUTHORITIES. 20
To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary of 21
the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall use the 22
authorities provided under this title in combination with 23
other authorities to carry out projects, including— 24 108 
•HR 8790 EH
(1) good neighbor agreements entered into 1
under section 8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 2
(16 U.S.C. 2113); and 3
(2) stewardship contracting projects entered 4
into under section 604 of the Healthy Forests Res-5
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591). 6
TITLE VI—EXPANSION OF PUB-7
LIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS 8
UNDER WATER SOURCE PRO-9
TECTION PROGRAM 10
SEC. 601. WATER SOURCE PROTECTION PROGRAM. 11
Section 303 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 12
of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6542(g)(4)(B)) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (a)— 14
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 15
through (7) as paragraphs (2) through (8), re-16
spectively; 17
(B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as 18
so redesignated, the following: 19
‘‘(1) A
DJACENT LAND.—The term ‘adjacent 20
land’ means non-Federal land, including State, local, 21
and private land, that is adjacent to, and within the 22
same watershed as, National Forest System land on 23
which a watershed protection and restoration project 24
is carried out under this section.’’; and 25 109 
•HR 8790 EH
(C) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated— 1
(i) by redesignating subparagraphs 2
(G) and (H) as subparagraphs (K) and 3
(L), respectively; and 4
(ii) by inserting after subparagraph 5
(F) the following: 6
‘‘(G) an acequia association; 7
‘‘(H) a local, regional, or other public enti-8
ty that manages stormwater or wastewater re-9
sources or other related water infrastructure; 10
‘‘(I) a land-grant mercedes; 11
‘‘(J) a local, regional, or other private enti-12
ty that has water delivery authority;’’; 13
(2) in subsection (b)— 14
(A) by striking ‘‘The Secretary shall’’ and 15
inserting the following: 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall’’; and 17
(B) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—A watershed protection 19
and restoration project under the Program shall be 20
designed to— 21
‘‘(A) protect and restore watershed health, 22
water supply and quality, a municipal or agri-23
cultural water supply system, and water-related 24
infrastructure; 25 110 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(B) protect and restore forest health from 1
insect infestation and disease or wildfire; or 2
‘‘(C) advance any combination of the pur-3
poses described in subparagraphs (A) and (B). 4
‘‘(3) P
RIORITIES.—In selecting watershed pro-5
tection and restoration projects under the Program, 6
the Secretary shall give priority to projects that 7
would— 8
‘‘(A) provide risk management benefits as-9
sociated with: drought; wildfire; post-wildfire 10
conditions; extreme weather; flooding; resilience 11
to climate change; and watershed and fire resil-12
ience, including minimizing risks to watershed 13
health, water supply and quality, and water-re-14
lated infrastructure, including municipal and 15
agricultural water supply systems; 16
‘‘(B) support aquatic restoration and con-17
servation efforts that complement existing or 18
planned forest restoration or wildfire risk re-19
duction efforts; or 20
‘‘(C) provide quantifiable benefits to water 21
supply or quality and include the use of nature- 22
based solutions, such as restoring wetland and 23
riparian ecosystems. 24 111 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(4) CONDITIONS FOR PROJECTS ON ADJACENT 1
LAND.— 2
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—No project or activity 3
may be carried out under this section on adja-4
cent land unless the owner of the adjacent land 5
agrees in writing that the owner is a willing and 6
engaged partner in carrying out that project or 7
activity. 8
‘‘(B) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this section 9
shall be construed to authorize any change in— 10
‘‘(i) the ownership of adjacent land on 11
which a project or activity is carried out 12
under this section; or 13
‘‘(ii) the management of adjacent land 14
on which a project or activity is carried out 15
under this section, except during the car-16
rying out of that project or activity.’’; 17
(3) in subsection (c)— 18
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘with 19
end water users’’ and inserting ‘‘with end water 20
users to protect and restore the condition of 21
National Forest watersheds and adjacent land 22
that provide water— 23
‘‘(A) to the end water users subject to the 24
agreement; or 25 112 
•HR 8790 EH
‘‘(B) for the benefit of another end water 1
user.’’; 2
(B) in paragraph (2)— 3
(i) in subparagraph (C), by striking 4
‘‘or’’ at the end; 5
(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 6
(D) as subparagraph (E); and 7
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 8
(C) the following: 9
‘‘(D) a good neighbor agreement entered 10
into under section 8206 of the Agricultural Act 11
of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a); or’’; and 12
(C) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(3) C
OOPERATION WITH NON -FEDERAL PART-14
NERS.—The Secretary shall cooperate with non-Fed-15
eral partners in carrying out assessments, planning, 16
project design, and project implementation under 17
this section.’’; 18
(4) in subsection (d)— 19
(A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as 20
follows: 21
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—A water source manage-22
ment plan shall be— 23
‘‘(A) designed to protect and restore eco-24
logical integrity (as defined in section 219.19 of 25 113 
•HR 8790 EH
title 36, Code of Federal Regulations (as in ef-1
fect on the date of enactment of this subpara-2
graph)); 3
‘‘(B) based on the best available scientific 4
information; and 5
‘‘(C) conducted in a manner consistent 6
with the forest plan applicable to the National 7
Forest System land on which the watershed 8
protection and restoration project is carried 9
out.’’; and 10
(B) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(4) R
EDUCING REDUNDANCY .—An existing 12
watershed plan, such as a watershed protection and 13
restoration action plan developed under section 14
304(a)(3), or other applicable watershed planning 15
documents as approved by the Secretary may be 16
used as the basis for a water source management 17
plan under this subsection.’’; and 18
(5) in subsection (e)(1), by striking ‘‘primary 19
purpose of’’ and all that follows through the period 20
at the end and inserting ‘‘primary purpose of ad-21
vancing any of the purposes described in subsection 22
(b)(2).’’. 23 114 
•HR 8790 EH
SEC. 602. WATERSHED CONDITION FRAMEWORK TECH-1
NICAL CORRECTIONS. 2
Section 304(a) of the Healthy Forests Restoration 3
Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6543(a)) is amended in para-4
graphs (3) and (5) by striking ‘‘protection and’’. 5
Passed the House of Representatives September 24, 
2024. 
Attest: 
Clerk.   118
TH
CONGRESS 
2
D
S
ESSION
 
H. R. 8790 
AN ACT 
To expedite under the National Environmental Pol-
icy Act of 1969 and improve forest management 
activities on National Forest System lands, on 
public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau 
of Land Management, and on Tribal lands to re-
turn resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested 
lands, and for other purposes.