I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 204
To require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior
submit accurate reports regarding hazardous fuels reduction activities,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. T
IFFANYintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-
retary of the Interior submit accurate reports regarding
hazardous fuels reduction activities, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accurately Counting 4
Risk Elimination Solutions Act’’ or the ‘‘ACRES Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ACCURATE HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION RE-1
PORTS. 2
(a) I
NCLUSION OFHAZARDOUSFUELSREDUCTION 3
R
EPORT INMATERIALSSUBMITTED INSUPPORT OF THE 4
P
RESIDENT’SBUDGET.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning with the first fis-6
cal year that begins after the date of the enactment 7
of this Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-8
retary concerned shall include in the materials sub-9
mitted in support of the President’s budget pursuant 10
to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, a re-11
port on the number of acres of Federal land on 12
which the Secretary concerned carried out hazardous 13
fuels reduction activities during the preceding fiscal 14
year. 15
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the re-16
port required under paragraph (1), the Secretary 17
concerned shall— 18
(A) in determining the number of acres of 19
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned 20
carried out hazardous fuels reduction activities 21
during the period covered by the report— 22
(i) record acres of Federal land on 23
which hazardous fuels reduction activities 24
were completed during such period; and 25
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(ii) record each acre described in 1
clause (i) once in the report, regardless of 2
whether multiple hazardous fuels reduction 3
activities were carried out on such acre 4
during such period; and 5
(B) with respect to the acres of Federal 6
land recorded in the report, include information 7
on— 8
(i) which such acres are located in the 9
wildland-urban interface; 10
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 11
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 12
of the period covered by the report; 13
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels ac-14
tivities completed for such acres, delin-15
eating between whether such activities 16
were conducted— 17
(I) in a wildfire managed for re-18
source benefits; or 19
(II) through a planned project; 20
(iv) the cost per acre of hazardous 21
fuels activities carried out during the pe-22
riod covered by the report; 23
(v) the region or system unit in which 24
the acres are located; and 25
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(vi) the effectiveness of the hazardous 1
fuels reduction activities on reducing the 2
risk of wildfire. 3
(3) T
RANSPARENCY.—The Secretary concerned 4
shall make each report submitted under paragraph 5
(1) publicly available on the website of the Depart-6
ment of Agriculture and the Department of the Inte-7
rior, as applicable. 8
(b) A
CCURATEDATACOLLECTION.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 10
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 11
concerned shall implement standardized procedures 12
for tracking data related to hazardous fuels reduc-13
tion activities carried out by the Secretary con-14
cerned. 15
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 16
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 17
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 18
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 19
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 20
(B) verification methods that validate 21
whether such data accurately correlates to the 22
hazardous fuels reduction activities carried out 23
by the Secretary concerned; 24
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(C) an analysis of the short- and long-term 1
effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction 2
activities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and 3
(D) for hazardous fuels reduction activities 4
that occur partially within the wildland-urban 5
interface, methods to distinguish which acres 6
are located within the wildland-urban interface 7
and which acres are located outside the 8
wildland-urban interface. 9
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 weeks after im-10
plementing the standardized procedures required 11
under paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned shall 12
submit to Congress a report that describes— 13
(A) such standardized procedures; and 14
(B) program and policy recommendations 15
to Congress to address any limitations in track-16
ing data related to hazardous fuels reduction 17
activities under this subsection. 18
(c) GAO S
TUDY.—Not later than 2 years after the 19
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 20
of the United States shall— 21
(1) conduct a study on the implementation of 22
this Act, including any limitations with respect to— 23
(A) reporting hazardous fuels reduction ac-24
tivities under subsection (a); or 25
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(B) tracking data related to hazardous 1
fuels reduction activities under subsection (b); 2
and 3
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 4
the results of the study under paragraph (1). 5
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 6
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -7
ITY.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activ-8
ity’’— 9
(A) means any vegetation management ac-10
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 11
mechanical treatments and prescribed burning; 12
and 13
(B) does not include the awarding of con-14
tracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction ac-15
tivities. 16
(2) F
EDERAL LANDS .—The term ‘‘Federal 17
lands’’ means lands under the jurisdiction of the 18
Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agri-19
culture. 20
(3) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-21
retary concerned’’ means— 22
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-23
spect to National Forest System lands; and 24
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(B) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-1
spect to public lands and units of the National 2
Park System. 3
(4) W
ILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE .—The term 4
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ has the meaning given 5
the term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Res-6
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511). 7
(e) N
OADDITIONALFUNDSAUTHORIZED.—No addi-8
tional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements 9
of this Act, and the activities authorized by this Act are 10
subject to the availability of appropriations made in ad-11
vance for such purposes. 12
Æ
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