| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 178 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress |
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| 6 | 6 | | wildfires, and for other purposes. |
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| 7 | 7 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 8 | 8 | | JANUARY3, 2025 |
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| 9 | 9 | | Mr. M |
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| 10 | 10 | | CCLINTOCK(for himself, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. BIGGSof |
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| 11 | 11 | | Arizona, Mr. S |
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| 12 | 12 | | TAUBER, and Mr. ISSA) introduced the following bill; which |
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| 13 | 13 | | was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the |
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| 14 | 14 | | Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently deter- |
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| 15 | 15 | | mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions |
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| 16 | 16 | | as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned |
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| 17 | 17 | | A BILL |
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| 18 | 18 | | To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities |
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| 19 | 19 | | to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes. |
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| 20 | 20 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 21 | 21 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 22 | 22 | | SECTION 1. SUPPRESSION OF WILDFIRES. 3 |
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| 23 | 23 | | (a) I |
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| 24 | 24 | | NGENERAL.—With respect to covered National 4 |
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| 25 | 25 | | Forest System lands, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 5 |
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| 26 | 26 | | through the Chief of the Forest Service— 6 |
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| 27 | 27 | | (1) shall— 7 |
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| 28 | 28 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:31 Jan 30, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H178.IH H178 |
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| 29 | 29 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 |
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| 30 | 30 | | •HR 178 IH |
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| 31 | 31 | | (A) use all available resources to carry out 1 |
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| 32 | 32 | | wildfire suppression with the purpose of extin-2 |
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| 33 | 33 | | guishing wildfires detected on such lands not 3 |
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| 34 | 34 | | later than 24 hours after such a wildfire is de-4 |
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| 35 | 35 | | tected; and 5 |
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| 36 | 36 | | (B) immediately suppress any prescribed 6 |
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| 37 | 37 | | fire that exceeds prescription; 7 |
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| 38 | 38 | | (2) shall not inhibit the suppression efforts of 8 |
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| 39 | 39 | | State or local firefighting agencies that are author-9 |
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| 40 | 40 | | ized to respond to wildfire on such lands; 10 |
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| 41 | 41 | | (3) may only use fire as a resource manage-11 |
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| 42 | 42 | | ment tool if the fire is a prescribed fire that com-12 |
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| 43 | 43 | | plies with applicable law and regulations; 13 |
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| 44 | 44 | | (4) may only initiate a backfire or burnout dur-14 |
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| 45 | 45 | | ing a wildfire— 15 |
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| 46 | 46 | | (A) by order of the responsible incident 16 |
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| 47 | 47 | | commander; or 17 |
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| 48 | 48 | | (B) in instances that are necessary to pro-18 |
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| 49 | 49 | | tect the health and safety of firefighting per-19 |
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| 50 | 50 | | sonnel; and 20 |
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| 51 | 51 | | (5) shall use all available resources to control 21 |
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| 52 | 52 | | any such initiated backfire or burnout until extin-22 |
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| 53 | 53 | | guished. 23 |
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| 55 | 55 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3 |
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| 56 | 56 | | •HR 178 IH |
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| 57 | 57 | | (b) COVEREDNATIONALFORESTSYSTEMLANDS 1 |
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| 58 | 58 | | D |
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| 59 | 59 | | EFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘covered National 2 |
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| 60 | 60 | | Forest System lands’’ means any area— 3 |
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| 61 | 61 | | (1) located within National Forest System 4 |
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| 62 | 62 | | lands; and 5 |
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| 63 | 63 | | (2) that— 6 |
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| 64 | 64 | | (A) the U.S. Drought Monitor has rated as 7 |
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| 65 | 65 | | having a D2 (severe drought) intensity, D3 (ex-8 |
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| 66 | 66 | | treme drought) intensity, or D4 (exceptional 9 |
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| 67 | 67 | | drought) intensity; 10 |
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| 68 | 68 | | (B) the National Interagency Fire Center 11 |
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| 69 | 69 | | declares has a National Wildland Fire Pre-12 |
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| 70 | 70 | | paredness level of 5; or 13 |
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| 71 | 71 | | (C) the Forest Service has identified as 14 |
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| 72 | 72 | | being located in a fireshed ranked in the top 10 15 |
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| 73 | 73 | | percent of wildfire exposure (as determined 16 |
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| 74 | 74 | | using the most recently published models of 17 |
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| 75 | 75 | | fireshed risk exposure published by the Forest 18 |
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| 76 | 76 | | Service). 19 |
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| 77 | 77 | | Æ |
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| 79 | 79 | | ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS |
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