Us Congress House Bill HB471 Introduced / Bill

                    I 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 471 
To expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and im-
prove forest management activities on National Forest System lands, 
on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment, and on Tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone 
forested lands, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY16, 2025 
Mr. W
ESTERMAN(for himself, Mr. PETERS, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. 
S
TAUBER, Mr. WHITESIDES, Mr. COLLINS, Mr. VASQUEZ, Mrs. KIM, Mr. 
C
OSTA, Mr. ZINKE, Mr. HARDERof California, Mr. JOHNSONof South 
Dakota, Mr. B
ERA, Mrs. KIGGANSof Virginia, Mr. GARAMENDI, Ms. 
M
ALOY, Mr. THOMPSONof California, Mr. BEGICH, Mr. CORREA, Mr. 
C
RANK, Mr. GOLDENof Maine, Mr. EZELL, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. HURDof 
Colorado, Ms. L
EEof Nevada, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. GRAY, Mr. BARR, Mr. 
H
OYER, Mr. CARTERof Georgia, Ms. PETTERSEN, Mr. JOYCEof Penn-
sylvania, Mr. O
BERNOLTE, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. GOSAR, 
Ms. B
OEBERT, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. ISSA, Mr. FONG, Ms. HAGEMAN, 
Mr. F
RY, and Mr. AMODEIof Nevada) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addi-
tion to the Committees on Agriculture, and Science, Space, and Tech-
nology, 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 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, 
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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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Fix Our Forests Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
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. Water source protection program. 
Sec. 119. Watershed condition framework technical corrections. 
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. 
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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. 
Sec. 206. Program to support priority reforestation and restoration projects of 
Department of the Interior. 
Sec. 207. Fire department repayment. 
TITLE III—TRANSPARENCY, TECHNOLOGY, AND PARTNERSHIPS 
Subtitle A—Transparency and Technology 
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. 
Subtitle B—White Oak Resilience 
Sec. 311. White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition. 
Sec. 312. Forest Service pilot program. 
Sec. 313. Department of the Interior white oak review and restoration. 
Sec. 314. White oak regeneration and upland oak habitat. 
Sec. 315. Tree nursery shortages. 
Sec. 316. White oak research. 
Sec. 317. USDA formal initiative. 
Sec. 318. Authorities. 
TITLE IV—ENSURING CASUALTY ASSISTANCE FOR OUR 
FIREFIGHTERS 
Sec. 401. Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program. 
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
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threat where a response strategy could influence the 1
wildfire outcome. 2
(3) F
IRESHED MANAGEMENT PROJECT .—The 3
term ‘‘fireshed management project’’ means a 4
project under section 106. 5
(4) F
IRESHED REGISTRY.—The term ‘‘Fireshed 6
Registry’’ means the fireshed registry established 7
under section 103. 8
(5) F
OREST PLAN.—The term ‘‘forest plan’’ 9
means— 10
(A) a land use plan prepared by the Bu-11
reau of Land Management for public lands pur-12
suant to section 202 of the Federal Land Policy 13
and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 14
1712); 15
(B) a land and resource management plan 16
prepared by the Forest Service for a unit of the 17
National Forest System pursuant to section 6 18
of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-19
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 20
1604); or 21
(C) a forest management plan (as defined 22
in section 304 of the National Indian Forests 23
Resources Management Act (25 U.S.C. 3104)) 24
with respect to Indian forest land or rangeland. 25
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(6) GOVERNOR.—The term ‘‘Governor’’ means 1
the Governor or any other appropriate executive offi-2
cial of an affected State or Indian Tribe or the Com-3
monwealth of Puerto Rico. 4
(7) H
AZARDOUS FUELS MANAGEMENT ACTIVI -5
TIES.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels management ac-6
tivities’’ means any vegetation management activities 7
(or combination thereof) that reduce the risk of 8
wildfire, including mechanical thinning, mastication, 9
prescribed burning, cultural burning (as determined 10
by the applicable Indian Tribe), timber harvest, and 11
grazing. 12
(8) HFRA 
TERMS.—The terms ‘‘at-risk com-13
munity’’, ‘‘community wildfire protection plan’’, and 14
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ have the meanings given 15
such terms, respectively, in section 101 of the 16
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 17
6511). 18
(9) I
NDIAN FOREST LAND OR RANGELAND .— 19
The term ‘‘Indian forest land or rangeland’’ means 20
land that— 21
(A) is held in trust by, or with a restriction 22
against alienation by, the United States for an 23
Indian Tribe or a member of an Indian Tribe; 24
and 25
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(B)(i)(I) is Indian forest land (as defined 1
in section 304 of the National Indian Forest 2
Resources Management Act (25 U.S.C. 3103)); 3
or 4
(II) has a cover of grasses, 5
brush, or any similar vegetation; or 6
(ii) formerly had a forest cover or veg-7
etative cover that is capable of restoration. 8
(10) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 9
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the 10
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 11
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 12
(11) N
ATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS .—The 13
term ‘‘National Forest System lands’’ has the mean-14
ing given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest 15
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 16
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609). 17
(12) P
UBLIC LANDS.—The term ‘‘public lands’’ 18
has the meaning given that term in section 103 of 19
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 20
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702), except that the term in-21
cludes Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant lands and Or-22
egon and California Railroad Grant lands. 23
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(13) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant Congressional Commit-2
tees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committees on Natural Resources 4
and Agriculture of the House of Representa-5
tives; and 6
(B) the Committees on Energy and Nat-7
ural Resources and Agriculture, Nutrition, and 8
Forestry of the Senate. 9
(14) R
ESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL.—The term ‘‘re-10
sponsible official’’ means an employee of the Depart-11
ment of the Interior or Forest Service who has the 12
authority to make and implement a decision on a 13
proposed action. 14
(15) S
ECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 15
means each of— 16
(A) the Secretary of the Interior; and 17
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 18
(16) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 19
means the Secretary of Agriculture. 20
(17) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term 21
‘‘Secretary 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. 2
(18) S
PECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘‘special 3
district’’ means a political subdivision of a State 4
that— 5
(A) has significant budgetary autonomy or 6
control; 7
(B) was created by or pursuant to the laws 8
of the State for the purpose of performing a 9
limited and specific governmental or proprietary 10
function; and 11
(C) is distinct from any other local govern-12
ment unit within the State. 13
(19) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 14
the several States, the District of Columbia, and 15
each territory of the United States. 16
TITLE I—LANDSCAPE-SCALE 17
RESTORATION 18
Subtitle A—Addressing Emergency 19
Wildfire Risks in High Priority 20
Firesheds 21
SEC. 101. DESIGNATION OF FIRESHED MANAGEMENT 22
AREAS. 23
(a) D
ESIGNATION OF FIRESHEDMANAGEMENT 24
A
REAS.— 25
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(1) INITIAL DESIGNATIONS.—For the period be-1
ginning on the date of enactment of this Act and 2
ending on the date that is 5 years after the date of 3
enactment of this Act, there are designated fireshed 4
management areas, which— 5
(A) shall be comprised of individual land-6
scape-scale firesheds identified as being a high 7
risk fireshed in the ‘‘Wildfire Crisis Strategy’’ 8
published by the Forest Service in January 9
2022; 10
(B) shall be comprised of individual land-11
scape-scale firesheds identified by the Secretary, 12
in consultation with the Secretary of the Inte-13
rior, as being in the top 20 percent of the 7,688 14
firesheds published by the Rocky Mountain Re-15
search Station of the Forest Service in 2019 for 16
wildfire exposure based on the following cri-17
teria— 18
(i) wildfire exposure and cor-19
responding risk to communities, including 20
risk to life and structures; 21
(ii) wildfire exposure and cor-22
responding risk to municipal watersheds, 23
including tribal water supplies and sys-24
tems; and 25
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(iii) risk of forest conversion due to 1
wildfire; 2
(C) shall not overlap with any other 3
fireshed management areas; 4
(D) may contain Federal and non-Federal 5
land, including Indian forest lands or range-6
lands; and 7
(E) where the Secretary concerned shall 8
carry out fireshed management projects. 9
(2) F
URTHER FIRESHED MANAGEMENT AREA 10
DESIGNATIONS.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—On the date that is 5 12
years after the date of the enactment of this 13
Act and every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary, 14
in consultation with the Secretary of the Inte-15
rior, shall submit to the relevant Congressional 16
Committees an updated map of firesheds based 17
on the Fireshed Registry maintained under sec-18
tion 103. 19
(B) D
ESIGNATION.—Not later than 60 20
days after submitting an updated fireshed map 21
under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall, 22
based on such map, designate additional 23
fireshed management areas that are identified 24
as being in the top 20 percent of firesheds at 25
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risk of wildfire exposure based on the criteria 1
specified in subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), and 2
(E) of paragraph (1). 3
(b) A
PPLICABILITY OFNEPA.—The designation of 4
fireshed management areas under this section shall not 5
be subject to the requirements of the National Environ-6
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 7
SEC. 102. FIRESHED CENTER. 8
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting 10
through the Chief of the Forest Service, and the 11
Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Direc-12
tor of the U.S. Geological Survey, shall jointly estab-13
lish an interagency center, to be known as the 14
Fireshed Center (hereinafter referred to as the 15
‘‘Center’’) to carry out the purposes in subsection 16
(b). 17
(2) C
OMPOSITION.— 18
(A) D
IVISIONS.—The Center shall be com-19
prised of the following divisions: 20
(i) Technology and Engineering. 21
(ii) Data Services. 22
(iii) Analysis and Prediction. 23
(iv) Education and Consultation. 24
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(B) REPRESENTATIVES.—The Center shall 1
be comprised of at least one career representa-2
tive from each of the following: 3
(i) The Forest Service. 4
(ii) The Bureau of Land Manage-5
ment. 6
(iii) The National Park Service. 7
(iv) The Bureau of Indian Affairs. 8
(v) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv-9
ice. 10
(vi) The U.S. Geological Survey. 11
(vii) The Department of Defense. 12
(viii) The Department of Homeland 13
Security. 14
(ix) The Department of Energy. 15
(x) The Federal Emergency Manage-16
ment Agency. 17
(xi) The National Science Foundation. 18
(xii) The National Oceanic and At-19
mospheric Administration. 20
(xiii) The National Aeronautics and 21
Space Administration. 22
(xiv) The National Institute of Stand-23
ards and Technology. 24
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(xv) The United States Fire Adminis-1
tration. 2
(C) A
PPOINTMENTS.—Each representative 3
of a Department, Agency, or other entity speci-4
fied in subparagraph (B) shall be appointed by 5
the head of that Department, Agency, or other 6
entity, as applicable. 7
(3) D
IRECTOR.—The representatives appointed 8
under paragraph (2) shall, by majority vote, appoint 9
a Director of the Center, who— 10
(A) shall be an employee of the U.S. Geo-11
logical Survey or the Forest Service; 12
(B) shall serve an initial term of not more 13
than 7 years; 14
(C) may serve one additional term of not 15
more than 7 years after the initial term de-16
scribed in subparagraph (B); and 17
(D) shall be responsible for the manage-18
ment and operation of the Center. 19
(4) A
SSOCIATE DIRECTORS .—In consultation 20
with the representatives appointed under paragraph 21
(2), the Director may appoint such Associate Direc-22
tors as the Director determines necessary. 23
(5) A
DDITIONAL REPRESENTATION .—The Sec-24
retary, acting through the Chief of the Forest Serv-25
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ice, and the Secretary of the Interior, acting through 1
the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, may 2
jointly appoint additional representatives of Federal 3
agencies, States, Indian Tribes, or local governments 4
to the Center, as the Secretaries determine nec-5
essary. 6
(b) P
URPOSES.—The purposes of the Center are to— 7
(1) comprehensively assess and predict, using 8
data tools (including artificial intelligence) and other 9
decision support products, fire and smoke in the 10
wildland and built environment interface across ju-11
risdictions to inform— 12
(A) land and fuels management; 13
(B) community (including at-risk commu-14
nities identified in fireshed assessments con-15
ducted under section 105) and built environ-16
ment risk reduction, including the support and 17
development of community wildfire protection 18
plans and evacuation decisions; and 19
(C) public health risk reduction related to 20
wildland fire and smoke, including air quality 21
monitoring and forecasting and smoke pre-22
diction models; 23
(D) fire response and management, includ-24
ing the pre-positioning of wildfire suppression 25
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personnel and assets based on real-time risk; 1
and 2
(E) post-fire recovery activities, including 3
activities related to vegetation recovery, debris 4
flows and flooding, watershed recovery and pro-5
tection, and ecosystem health; 6
(2) provide data aggregation, real-time land 7
and fuels management services, and science-based 8
decision support services to inform the purposes 9
specified in subparagraph (A) through (E) of para-10
graph (1); 11
(3) reduce fragmentation and duplication across 12
Federal land management agencies with respect to 13
predictive service and decision support functions re-14
lated to wildland fire and smoke, including through 15
the provision of data aggregation described in para-16
graph (2); 17
(4) promote coordination and sharing of data 18
regarding wildland fire and smoke decision making 19
(including through the provision of data aggregation 20
described in paragraph (2)) to each of the entities 21
specified in subparagraphs (A) through (F) of para-22
graph (8); 23
(5) streamline procurement processes for tech-24
nologies (including technologies identified under the 25
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pilot program established under section 303) and cy-1
bersecurity systems related to addressing wildland 2
fire and smoke for the purposes of scaling such tech-3
nologies and systems across Federal agencies; 4
(6) amplify and distribute existing, and develop 5
as necessary, publicly accessible data, models, tech-6
nologies (including mapping technologies), assess-7
ments, and National Weather Service fire weather 8
forecasts to support short- and long-term planning 9
regarding wildland fire and smoke risk reduction 10
and post-fire recovery while avoiding duplicative ef-11
forts, as determined by the Director; 12
(7) maintain the Fireshed Registry established 13
under section 103; and 14
(8) disseminate data tools (including artificial 15
intelligence) and other decision support products, for 16
use in manners consistent with the purposes de-17
scribed paragraphs (1) through (7), to the following: 18
(A) Federal agencies. 19
(B) Indian Tribes. 20
(C) State and local governments. 21
(D) Academic or research institutions. 22
(E) Wildland firefighting entities, includ-23
ing applicable incident management teams and 24
geographic coordination centers. 25
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(F) Other entities, including public, pri-1
vate, and nonprofit entities, with expertise in 2
land management, air quality, water manage-3
ment, or public health, as determined appro-4
priate by the Director. 5
(c) M
EMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING.—The Center 6
may enter into memoranda of understanding, contracts, 7
or other agreements with State governments, Indian 8
Tribes, local governments, academic or research institu-9
tions, and private entities to improve the information and 10
operations of the Center. 11
(d) A
DMINISTRATIVESUPPORT, TECHNICALSERV-12
ICES, ANDSTAFFSUPPORT.— 13
(1) USGS 
SUPPORT.—The Secretary of the In-14
terior shall make personnel of the U.S. Geological 15
Survey available to the Center for such administra-16
tive support, technical services, and development and 17
dissemination of data as the Secretary determines 18
necessary to carry out this section. 19
(2) USFS 
SUPPORT.—The Secretary shall 20
make personnel of the Forest Service available to 21
the Center for such administrative support, technical 22
services, and the development and dissemination of 23
information related to fireshed management and the 24
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Fireshed Registry as the Secretary determines nec-1
essary to carry out this section. 2
(3) F
UNDING.—Notwithstanding section 708 of 3
title VII of division E of the Consolidated Appro-4
priations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117–328), the Sec-5
retary of the Interior and Secretary may enter into 6
agreements to share the management and oper-7
ational costs of the Center. 8
(e) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-9
tion shall be construed to affect the ownership of any data 10
sources. 11
SEC. 103. FIRESHED REGISTRY. 12
(a) F
IRESHEDREGISTRY.—The Secretary, acting 13
through the Director of the Fireshed Center appointed 14
under section 102, shall maintain a Fireshed Registry on 15
a publicly accessible website that provides interactive 16
geospatial data on individual firesheds, including informa-17
tion on— 18
(1) wildfire exposure delineated by ownership, 19
including rights-of-way for utilities and other public 20
or private purposes; 21
(2) any hazardous fuels management activities 22
that have occurred within an individual fireshed in 23
the past 10 years; 24
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(3) wildfire exposure with respect to such 1
fireshed delineated by— 2
(A) wildfire exposure and corresponding 3
risk to communities, including risk to life and 4
structures; 5
(B) wildfire exposure and corresponding 6
risk to municipal watersheds, including tribal 7
water supplies and systems; and 8
(C) risk of forest conversion due to wild-9
fire; 10
(4) the percentage of the fireshed that has 11
burned in wildfires in the past 10 years, including, 12
to the extent practicable, delineations of acres that 13
have burned at a high severity; 14
(5) spatial patterns of wildfire exposure, includ-15
ing plausible extreme fire events; and 16
(6) any hazardous fuels management activities 17
planned for the fireshed, including fireshed manage-18
ment projects. 19
(b) C
OMMUNITYWILDFIREPROTECTIONPLANS.— 20
The Director shall make data from the Fireshed Registry 21
available to local communities developing or updating com-22
munity wildfire protection plans. 23
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(c) REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN.—As part of the 1
website containing the Fireshed Registry, the Director 2
shall— 3
(1) publish fireshed assessments created under 4
section 105; and 5
(2) maintain a searchable database to track— 6
(A) the status of Federal environmental re-7
views, permits, and authorizations for fireshed 8
management projects, including— 9
(i) a comprehensive permitting time-10
table; 11
(ii) the status of the compliance of 12
each lead agency, cooperating agency, and 13
participating agency with the permitting 14
timetable with respect to such fireshed 15
management projects; 16
(iii) any modifications of the permit-17
ting timetable required under clause (i), in-18
cluding an explanation as to why the per-19
mitting timetable was modified; and 20
(iv) information about project-related 21
public meetings, public hearings, and pub-22
lic comment periods, which shall be pre-23
sented in English and the predominant 24
language of the community or communities 25
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most affected by the project, as that infor-1
mation becomes available; 2
(B) the projected cost of such fireshed 3
management projects; and 4
(C) in the case of completed fireshed man-5
agement projects, the effectiveness of such 6
projects in reducing the wildfire exposure within 7
an applicable fireshed, including wildfire expo-8
sure described in subparagraphs (A) through 9
(C) of subsection (a)(3). 10
(d) R
ELIANCE ONEXISTINGASSESSMENTS.—In car-11
rying out this section, the Director may rely on assess-12
ments completed or data gather through existing partner-13
ships, to the extent practicable. 14
SEC. 104. SHARED STEWARDSHIP. 15
(a) J
OINTAGREEMENTS.—Not later than 90 days 16
after receiving a written request from a Governor of a 17
State or an Indian Tribe, the Secretary concerned shall 18
enter into a shared stewardship agreement (or similar 19
agreement) with such Governor or Indian Tribe to joint-20
ly— 21
(1) promote the reduction of wildfire exposure, 22
based on the criteria in section 101(a)(1)(B), in 23
fireshed management areas across jurisdictional 24
boundaries; and 25
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(2) conduct fireshed assessments under section 1
105. 2
(b) A
DDITIONALFIRESHEDMANAGEMENTAREAS.— 3
With respect to a shared stewardship agreement (or simi-4
lar agreement) with a Governor of a State or an Indian 5
Tribe entered into under subsection (a), the Secretary con-6
cerned, if requested by such Governor or Indian Tribe, 7
may— 8
(1) designate additional fireshed management 9
areas under such agreement; and 10
(2) update such agreement to address new wild-11
fire threats. 12
SEC. 105. FIRESHED ASSESSMENTS. 13
(a) F
IRESHEDASSESSMENTS.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 15
the date on which the Secretary concerned enters 16
into an agreement with a Governor of a State or an 17
Indian Tribe under section 104, the Secretary con-18
cerned and such Governor or Indian Tribe shall, 19
with respect to the fireshed management areas des-20
ignated in such State, jointly conduct a fireshed as-21
sessment that— 22
(A) identifies— 23
(i) using the best available science, 24
wildfire exposure risks within each such 25
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fireshed management area, including sce-1
nario planning and wildfire hazard map-2
ping and models; and 3
(ii) each at-risk community within 4
each fireshed management area; 5
(B) identifies potential fireshed manage-6
ment projects to be carried out in such fireshed 7
management areas, giving priority— 8
(i) primarily, to projects with the pur-9
pose of reducing— 10
(I) wildfire exposure and cor-11
responding risk to communities, in-12
cluding risk to life and structures; 13
(II) wildfire exposure and cor-14
responding risk to municipal water-15
sheds, including tribal water supplies 16
and systems; 17
(III) risk of forest conversion due 18
to wildfire; or 19
(IV) any combination of purposes 20
described in subclauses (I) through 21
(III); and 22
(ii) secondarily, to projects with the 23
purpose of protecting— 24
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(I) critical infrastructure, includ-1
ing utility infrastructure; 2
(II) wildlife habitats, including 3
habitat for species listed under the 4
Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 5
1531 et seq.); 6
(III) the built environment, in-7
cluding residential and commercial 8
buildings; 9
(IV) resources of an Indian 10
Tribe, as defined by the Indian Tribe; 11
or 12
(V) any combination of purposes 13
described in subclauses (I) through 14
(IV); 15
(C) includes— 16
(i) a strategy for reducing the threat 17
of wildfire to at-risk communities in the 18
wildland-urban interface on both Federal 19
and non-Federal land; 20
(ii) a timeline for the implementation 21
of fireshed management projects; 22
(iii) long-term benchmark goals for 23
the completion of fireshed management 24
projects in the highest wildfire exposure 25
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areas so that such projects contribute to 1
the development and maintenance of 2
healthy and resilient landscapes; 3
(iv) policies to ensure fireshed man-4
agement projects comply with applicable 5
forest plans and incorporate the best avail-6
able science; and 7
(v) a strategy for reducing the threat 8
of wildfire to improve the effectiveness of 9
wildland firefighting, particularly the effec-10
tiveness of fuels treatments that would im-11
prove wildland firefighter safety during 12
wildfires; 13
(D) shall be regularly updated based on 14
the best available science, as determined by the 15
Secretary concerned; and 16
(E) shall be publicly available on a website 17
maintained by the Secretary concerned. 18
(2) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION .— 19
Upon the written request of a local government, the 20
Secretary concerned and the Governor of the State 21
in which the local government is located may allow 22
such local government to participate in producing 23
the fireshed assessment under paragraph (1) for 24
such State. 25
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(3) INFORMATION IMPROVEMENT .— 1
(A) M
EMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING .— 2
In carrying out a fireshed assessment under 3
this subsection, the Secretary concerned may 4
enter into memoranda of understanding with 5
other Federal agencies or departments (includ-6
ing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-7
ministration), States, Indian Tribes, private en-8
tities, or research or educational institutions to 9
improve, with respect to such assessment, the 10
use and integration of— 11
(i) advanced remote sensing and 12
geospatial technologies; 13
(ii) statistical modeling and analysis; 14
or 15
(iii) any other technology or combina-16
tion of technologies and analyses that the 17
Secretary concerned determines will benefit 18
the quality of information of such an as-19
sessment. 20
(B) B
EST AVAILABLE SCIENCE .—In using 21
the best available science for the fireshed as-22
sessments completed under subsection (a)(1), 23
the Secretary concerned and Governor shall, to 24
the maximum extent practicable, incorporate— 25
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(i) traditional ecological knowledge 1
from Indian Tribes; 2
(ii) data from State forest action 3
plans and State wildfire risk assessments; 4
(iii) data from the Fireshed Registry 5
maintained under section 103; and 6
(iv) data from other Federal, State, 7
Tribal, and local governments or agencies. 8
(b) A
PPLICABILITY OF NEPA.—Fireshed assess-9
ments conducted under this section shall not be subject 10
to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy 11
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 12
SEC. 106. EMERGENCY FIRESHED MANAGEMENT. 13
(a) F
IRESHEDMANAGEMENTPROJECTS.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary concerned, 15
acting through a responsible official, shall carry out 16
fireshed management projects in fireshed manage-17
ment areas designated under section 101 in accord-18
ance with this section. 19
(2) F
IRESHED MANAGEMENT PROJECTS .—The 20
responsible official shall carry out the following for-21
est and vegetation management activities as fireshed 22
management projects under this section: 23
(A) Conducting hazardous fuels manage-24
ment activities. 25
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(B) Creating fuel breaks and fire breaks. 1
(C) Removing hazard trees, dead trees, 2
dying trees, or trees at risk of dying, as deter-3
mined by the responsible official. 4
(D) Developing, approving, or conducting 5
routine maintenance under a vegetation man-6
agement, facility inspection, and operation and 7
maintenance plan submitted under section 8
512(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and Man-9
agement Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(1)). 10
(E) Removing trees to address over-11
stocking or crowding in a forest stand, con-12
sistent with the appropriate basal area of the 13
forest stand as determined by the responsible 14
official. 15
(F) Using chemical or re-seeding and 16
planting treatments to address insects and dis-17
ease and control vegetation competition or 18
invasive species. 19
(G) Any activities recommended by an ap-20
plicable fireshed assessment carried out under 21
section 105. 22
(H) Any activities recommended by an ap-23
plicable community wildfire protection plan. 24
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(I) Any combination of activities described 1
in this paragraph. 2
(3) E
MERGENCY FIRESHED MANAGEMENT .— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—For any fireshed man-4
agement area designated under section 101, the 5
following shall have the force and effect of law: 6
(i) Section 220.4(b) of title 36, Code 7
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 8
date of enactment of this Act), with re-9
spect to lands under the jurisdiction of the 10
Secretary. 11
(ii) Section 46.150 of title 43, Code of 12
Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 13
date of enactment of this Act), with re-14
spect to lands under the jurisdiction of the 15
Secretary of the Interior. 16
(iii) Section 402.05 of title 50, Code 17
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 18
date of enactment of this Act). 19
(iv) Section 800.12 of title 36, Code 20
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 21
date of enactment of this Act). 22
(B) U
TILIZATION OF EXISTING STREAM -23
LINED AUTHORITIES IN FIRESHED MANAGE -24
MENT AREAS.— 25
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(i) IN GENERAL.—Fireshed manage-1
ment projects carried out under this sec-2
tion shall be considered authorized projects 3
under the following categorical exclusions: 4
(I) Section 603(a) of the Healthy 5
Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 6
U.S.C. 6591b(a)). 7
(II) Section 605(a) of the 8
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 9
2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591d(a)). 10
(III) Section 606(b) of the 11
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 12
2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591e(b)). 13
(IV) Section 40806(b) of the In-14
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act 15
(16 U.S.C. 6592b(b)). 16
(V) Section 4(c)(4) of the Lake 17
Tahoe Restoration Act (Public Law 18
106–506; 114 Stat. 2353). 19
(ii) A
DDITIONAL EMERGENCY AC -20
TIONS.—Subsection (d) of section 40807 of 21
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 22
Act (16 U.S.C. 6592c) shall apply to 23
fireshed management projects under this 24
section in the same manner as such sub-25
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section applies to authorized emergency ac-1
tions (as defined in subsection (a) of such 2
section 40807) under such section 40807. 3
(iii) U
SE OF EXPEDITED AUTHORI -4
TIES.—In carrying out a fireshed manage-5
ment project, the Secretary shall apply a 6
categorical exclusion under clause (i)— 7
(I) in a manner consistent with 8
the statute establishing such categor-9
ical exclusion; and 10
(II) in any area— 11
(aa) designated as suitable 12
for timber production within the 13
applicable forest plan; or 14
(bb) where timber harvest 15
activities are not prohibited. 16
(iv) F
ISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT RE -17
QUIREMENTS.—In carrying out this sec-18
tion, the Secretary concerned shall ensure 19
compliance with the amendments made to 20
the National Environmental Policy Act (42 21
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) by the Fiscal Respon-22
sibility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118–5). 23
(v) U
SE OF OTHER AUTHORITIES .— 24
To the maximum extent practicable, the 25
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•HR 471 IH
Secretary concerned shall use the authori-1
ties provided under this section in com-2
bination with other authorities to carry out 3
fireshed management projects, including— 4
(I) good neighbor agreements en-5
tered into under section 8206 of the 6
Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 7
2113a) (as amended by this Act); 8
(II) stewardship contracting 9
projects entered into under section 10
604 of the Healthy Forests Restora-11
tion Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c) 12
(as amended by this Act); 13
(III) self-determination contracts 14
and self-governance compact agree-15
ments entered into under the Indian 16
Self-Determination and Education As-17
sistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); 18
and 19
(IV) agreements entered into 20
under the Tribal Forest Protection 21
Act of 2004 (25 U.S.C. 3115a et 22
seq.). 23
(b) E
XPANSION.— 24
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(1) HFRA AMENDMENTS.—The Healthy For-1
ests Restoration Act of 2003 is amended— 2
(A) in section 3 (16 U.S.C. 6502), by in-3
serting at the end the following: 4
‘‘(3) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘local 5
government’ means a county, municipality, or special 6
district. 7
‘‘(4) S
PECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘special dis-8
trict’ means a political subdivision of a State that— 9
‘‘(A) has significant budgetary autonomy 10
or control; 11
‘‘(B) was created by or pursuant to the 12
laws of the State for the purpose of performing 13
a limited and specific governmental or propri-14
etary function; and 15
‘‘(C) is distinct from any other local gov-16
ernment unit within the State.’’. 17
(B) in section 603(c)(1) (16 U.S.C. 18
6591b(c)(1)), by striking ‘‘3000 acres’’ and in-19
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’; 20
(C) in section 603(c)(2)(B) (16 U.S.C. 21
6591b(c)(2)(B)), by striking ‘‘Fire Regime 22
Groups I, II, or III’’ and inserting ‘‘Fire Re-23
gime I, Fire Regime II, Fire Regime III, Fire 24
Regime IV, or Fire Regime V’’; 25
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(D) in section 605(c)(1) (16 U.S.C. 1
6591d(c)(1)), by striking ‘‘3000 acres’’ and in-2
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’; and 3
(E) in section 606(g) (16 U.S.C. 4
6591e(g)), by striking ‘‘4,500 acres’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘10,000 acres’’. 6
(2) I
NFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS 7
ACT AMENDMENT .—Section 40806(d)(1) of the In-8
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 9
6592b(d)(1)), by striking ‘‘3,000 acres’’ and insert-10
ing ‘‘10,000 acres’’. 11
(3) L
AKE TAHOE RESTORATION ACT AMEND -12
MENTS.—Section 4(c)(4)(C) of the Lake Tahoe Res-13
toration Act (Public Law 106–506; 114 Stat. 2353) 14
is amended— 15
(A) by striking ‘‘Lake Tahoe Basin Man-16
agement Unit’’; and 17
(B) by inserting ‘‘applicable to the area’’ 18
before the period at the end. 19
SEC. 107. SUNSET. 20
The authority under this subtitle shall terminate on 21
the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of 22
this Act. 23
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Subtitle B—Expanding Collabo-1
rative Tools to Reduce Wildfire 2
Risk and Improve Forest Health 3
SEC. 111. MODIFICATION OF THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN 4
REVENUE AND PAYMENTS UNDER GOOD 5
NEIGHBOR AGREEMENTS. 6
(a) G
OODNEIGHBORAUTHORITY.—Section 8206 of 7
the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a) is amend-8
ed— 9
(1) in subsection (a)(6), by striking ‘‘or Indian 10
tribe’’; 11
(2) in subsection (a), by inserting the following: 12
‘‘(11) S
PECIAL DISTRICT.—The term ‘special 13
district’ means a political subdivision of a State 14
that— 15
‘‘(A) has significant budgetary autonomy 16
or control; 17
‘‘(B) was created by or pursuant to the 18
laws of the State for the purpose of performing 19
a limited and specific governmental or propri-20
etary function; and 21
‘‘(C) is distinct from any other local gov-22
ernment unit within the State.’’. 23
(3) in subsection (b)— 24
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(A) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting ‘‘, 1
Indian Tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Gov-2
ernor’’; 3
(B) in paragraph (2)(C)— 4
(i) in clause (i)— 5
(I) by inserting ‘‘special district,’’ 6
after ‘‘Indian Tribe,’’ each place it ap-7
pears; 8
(II) in subclause (I)— 9
(aa) by striking ‘‘on’’; and 10
(bb) by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 11
inserting a semicolon; 12
(III) in subclause (II)(bb), by 13
striking the period at the end and in-14
serting a semicolon; and 15
(IV) by adding at the end the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘(III) to construct new perma-18
nent roads on Federal lands that 19
are— 20
‘‘(aa) necessary to imple-21
ment authorized restoration ac-22
tivities; and 23
‘‘(bb) approved by the Fed-24
eral agency through an environ-25
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mental analysis or categorical ex-1
clusion decision; 2
‘‘(IV) to complete new permanent 3
road construction to replace and de-4
commission an existing permanent 5
road that is adversely impacting for-6
est, rangeland, or watershed health; 7
and 8
‘‘(V) if there are funds remaining 9
after carrying out subclauses (I) 10
through (IV), to carry out authorized 11
restoration services under other good 12
neighbor agreements and for the ad-13
ministration of a good neighbor au-14
thority program by a Governor, In-15
dian tribe, special district, or coun-16
ty.’’; and 17
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘2028’’ 18
and inserting ‘‘2030’’; and 19
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘, In-20
dian Tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; 21
and 22
(D) by striking paragraph (4). 23
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(b) CONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 8206(a) 1
of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a(a)) is 2
amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting ‘‘, Indian 4
Tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’; and 5
(2) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, Indian 6
Tribe, special district,’’ after ‘‘Governor’’. 7
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 8
this section apply to any project initiated pursuant to a 9
good neighbor agreement (as defined in section 8206(a) 10
of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a(a)))— 11
(1) before the date of enactment of this Act, if 12
the project was initiated after the date of enactment 13
of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Public 14
Law 115–334; 132 Stat. 4490); or 15
(2) on or after the date of enactment of this 16
Act. 17
SEC. 112. FIXING STEWARDSHIP END RESULT CON-18
TRACTING. 19
Section 604 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 20
of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591c) is amended— 21
(1) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘, including 22
retaining and expanding existing forest products in-23
frastructure’’ before the period at the end; 24
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(2) in subsection (d)(3)(B), by striking ‘‘10 1
years’’ and inserting ‘‘20 years’’; and 2
(3) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the 3
following: 4
‘‘(4) S
PECIAL RULE FOR LONG -TERM STEWARD-5
SHIP CONTRACTS.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A long-term agree-7
ment or contract entered into with an entity 8
under subsection (b) by the Chief or the Direc-9
tor shall provide that in the case of the can-10
cellation or termination by the Chief or the Di-11
rector of such long-term agreement or contract, 12
the Chief or the Director, as applicable, shall 13
provide 10 percent of the agreement or contract 14
amount to such entity as cancellation or termi-15
nation costs. 16
‘‘(B) D
EFINITION OF LONG-TERM AGREE-17
MENT OR CONTRACT .—In this paragraph, the 18
term ‘long-term agreement or contract’ means 19
an agreement or contract under subsection 20
(b)— 21
‘‘(i) with a term of more than 5 years; 22
and 23
‘‘(ii) entered into on or after the date 24
of the enactment of this paragraph.’’. 25
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SEC. 113. INTRA-AGENCY STRIKE TEAMS. 1
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary concerned 2
shall establish intra-agency strike teams to assist the Sec-3
retary concerned with— 4
(1) any reviews, including analysis under the 5
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 6
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), consultations under the Na-7
tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 8
470 et seq.), and consultations under the Endan-9
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), 10
with the intent to accelerate and streamline inter-11
agency consultation processes; 12
(2) the implementation of any necessary site 13
preparation work in advance of or as part of a 14
fireshed management project; 15
(3) the implementation of fireshed management 16
projects under such section; and 17
(4) any combination of purposes under para-18
graphs (1) through (3). 19
(b) M
EMBERS.—The Secretary concerned may ap-20
point not more than 10 individuals to serve on an intra- 21
agency strike team comprised of— 22
(1) employees of the Department under the ju-23
risdiction of the Secretary concerned; 24
(2) employees of a different Federal agency, 25
with the consent of that agency’s Secretary; 26
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(3) private contractors from any nonprofit orga-1
nization, State government, Indian Tribe, local gov-2
ernment, quasi-governmental agency, academic insti-3
tution, or private organization; and 4
(4) volunteers from any nonprofit organization, 5
State government, Indian Tribe, local government, 6
quasi-governmental agency, academic institution, or 7
private organization. 8
(c) S
UNSET.—The authority provided under this sec-9
tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 10
date of enactment of this Act. 11
SEC. 114. LOCALLY-LED RESTORATION. 12
(a) T
HRESHOLDADJUSTMENT.—Section 14(d) of the 13
National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 14
472a(d)) is amended by— 15
(1) striking ‘‘$10,000’’ and inserting 16
‘‘$55,000’’; and 17
(2) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘Begin-18
ning on January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, 19
the amount in the first sentence of this subsection 20
shall be adjusted by the Secretary for changes in the 21
Consumer Price Index of All Urban Consumers pub-22
lished by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the De-23
partment of Labor.’’. 24
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(b) FIRESHEDMANAGEMENT PROJECTS.—Begin-1
ning on the date that is 30 days after the date of enact-2
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall solicit bids under sec-3
tion 14 of the National Forest Management Act of 1976 4
(16 U.S.C. 472a(d)) for fireshed management projects 5
under section 106. 6
SEC. 115. JOINT CHIEFS LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PART-7
NERSHIP PROGRAM. 8
Section 40808 of the Infrastructure Investment and 9
Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592d) is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (a)(2)— 11
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘or’’ 12
at the end; 13
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the 14
period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 15
and 16
(C) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(D) to recover from wildfires; or 18
‘‘(E) to enhance soil, water, and related 19
natural resources.’’; 20
(2) in subsection (d)(1)— 21
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 22
‘‘and post-wildfire impacts’’ after ‘‘wildfire 23
risk’’; and 24
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(B) in subparagraph (F), by inserting ‘‘, 1
as identified in the corresponding State forest 2
action plan or similar priority plan (such as a 3
State wildlife or water plan)’’ before the semi-4
colon; 5
(3) in subsection (g)(2), by inserting ‘‘and at 6
least once every 2 fiscal years thereafter’’ after ‘‘and 7
2023’’; and 8
(4) in subsection (h)(1), by striking ‘‘and 9
2023’’ and inserting ‘‘through 2030’’. 10
SEC. 116. COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORA-11
TION PROGRAM. 12
Section 4003 of the Omnibus Public Land Manage-13
ment Act of 2009 (16 U.S.C. 7303) is amended— 14
(1) in subsection (b)(3)— 15
(A) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘spe-16
cies;’’ and inserting ‘‘species or pathogens;’’; 17
(B) in subparagraph (G), by striking 18
‘‘and’’ at the end; 19
(C) in subparagraph (H), by adding ‘‘and’’ 20
after the semicolon at the end; and 21
(D) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(I) address standardized monitoring ques-23
tions and indicators;’’; 24
(2) in subsection (c)(3)(A)— 25
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(A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 1
end; 2
(B) in clause (ii), by adding ‘‘and’’ at the 3
end; and 4
(C) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(iii) include a plan to provide sup-6
port to collaborative processes established 7
pursuant to subsection (b)(2);’’; 8
(3) in subsection (d)— 9
(A) in paragraph (2)— 10
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 11
‘‘and’’ at the end; 12
(ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 13
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 14
and’’; and 15
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘(G) proposals that seek to use innovative 18
implementation mechanisms, including good 19
neighbor agreements entered into under section 20
8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 21
U.S.C. 2113a); 22
‘‘(H) proposals that seek to remove or 23
treat insects or diseases, including the removal 24
of trees killed by, or infested with, bark beetles 25
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in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mon-1
tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, 2
South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyo-3
ming; 4
‘‘(I) proposals that seek to facilitate the 5
sale of firewood and Christmas trees on lands 6
under the jurisdiction of the Secretary or the 7
Secretary of the Interior; 8
‘‘(J) proposals that seek to reduce the risk 9
of uncharacteristic wildfire or increase ecologi-10
cal restoration activities— 11
‘‘(i) within areas across land owner-12
ships, including State, Tribal, and private 13
land; and 14
‘‘(ii) within the wildland-urban inter-15
face (as defined in section 101 of the 16
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 17
(16 U.S.C. 6511)); and 18
‘‘(K) proposals that seek to enhance water-19
shed health and drinking water sources.’’; and 20
(B) in paragraph (3)— 21
(i) by amending subparagraph (A) to 22
read as follows: 23
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‘‘(A) 4 proposals in any 1 region of the 1
National Forest System to be funded during 2
any fiscal year; and’’; 3
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B); and 4
(iii) by redesignating subparagraph 5
(C) as subparagraph (B); and 6
(4) in subsection (f)(6), by striking ‘‘2019 7
through 2023’’ and inserting ‘‘2025 through 2030’’. 8
SEC. 117. UTILIZING GRAZING FOR WILDFIRE RISK REDUC-9
TION. 10
The Secretary, acting through the Chief of the Forest 11
Service, in coordination with holders of permits to graze 12
livestock on Federal land, shall develop a strategy to in-13
crease opportunities to utilize livestock grazing as a wild-14
fire risk reduction strategy, including— 15
(1) completion of reviews (as required under the 16
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (U.S.C. 17
4321 et seq.)) to allow permitted grazing on vacant 18
grazing allotments during instances of drought, wild-19
fire, or other natural disasters that disrupt grazing 20
on allotments already permitted; 21
(2) use of targeted grazing; 22
(3) increased use of temporary permits to pro-23
mote targeted fuels reduction and reduction of 24
invasive annual grasses; 25
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(4) increased use of grazing as a postfire recov-1
ery and restoration strategy, where appropriate; and 2
(5) use of all applicable authorities under the 3
law. 4
SEC. 118. WATER SOURCE PROTECTION PROGRAM. 5
Section 303 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act 6
of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6542(g)(4)(B)) is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a)— 8
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) 9
through (7) as paragraphs (2) through (8), re-10
spectively; 11
(B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as 12
so redesignated, the following: 13
‘‘(1) A
DJACENT LAND.—The term ‘adjacent 14
land’ means non-Federal land, including State, local, 15
and private land, that is adjacent to, and within the 16
same watershed as, National Forest System land on 17
which a watershed protection and restoration project 18
is carried out under this section.’’; and 19
(C) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated— 20
(i) by redesignating subparagraphs 21
(G) and (H) as subparagraphs (K) and 22
(L), respectively; and 23
(ii) by inserting after subparagraph 24
(F) the following: 25
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‘‘(G) an acequia association; 1
‘‘(H) a local, regional, or other public enti-2
ty that manages stormwater or wastewater re-3
sources or other related water infrastructure; 4
‘‘(I) a land-grant mercedes; 5
‘‘(J) a local, regional, or other private enti-6
ty that has water delivery authority;’’; 7
(2) in subsection (b)— 8
(A) by striking ‘‘The Secretary shall’’ and 9
inserting the following: 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall’’; and 11
(B) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—A watershed protection 13
and restoration project under the Program shall be 14
designed to— 15
‘‘(A) protect and restore watershed health, 16
water supply and quality, a municipal or agri-17
cultural water supply system, and water-related 18
infrastructure; 19
‘‘(B) protect and restore forest health from 20
insect infestation and disease or wildfire; or 21
‘‘(C) advance any combination of the pur-22
poses described in subparagraphs (A) and (B). 23
‘‘(3) P
RIORITIES.—In selecting watershed pro-24
tection and restoration projects under the Program, 25
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the Secretary shall give priority to projects that 1
would— 2
‘‘(A) provide risk management benefits as-3
sociated with: drought; wildfire; post-wildfire 4
conditions; extreme weather; flooding; resilience 5
to climate change; and watershed and fire resil-6
ience, including minimizing risks to watershed 7
health, water supply and quality, and water-re-8
lated infrastructure, including municipal and 9
agricultural water supply systems; 10
‘‘(B) support aquatic restoration and con-11
servation efforts that complement existing or 12
planned forest restoration or wildfire risk re-13
duction efforts; or 14
‘‘(C) provide quantifiable benefits to water 15
supply or quality and include the use of nature- 16
based solutions, such as restoring wetland and 17
riparian ecosystems. 18
‘‘(4) C
ONDITIONS FOR PROJECTS ON ADJACENT 19
LAND.— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—No project or activity 21
may be carried out under this section on adja-22
cent land unless the owner of the adjacent land 23
agrees in writing that the owner is a willing and 24
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engaged partner in carrying out that project or 1
activity. 2
‘‘(B) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this section 3
shall be construed to authorize any change in— 4
‘‘(i) the ownership of adjacent land on 5
which a project or activity is carried out 6
under this section; or 7
‘‘(ii) the management of adjacent land 8
on which a project or activity is carried out 9
under this section, except during the car-10
rying out of that project or activity.’’; 11
(3) in subsection (c)— 12
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘with 13
end water users’’ and inserting ‘‘with end water 14
users to protect and restore the condition of 15
National Forest watersheds and adjacent land 16
that provide water— 17
‘‘(A) to the end water users subject to the 18
agreement; or 19
‘‘(B) for the benefit of another end water 20
user.’’; 21
(B) in paragraph (2)— 22
(i) in subparagraph (C), by striking 23
‘‘or’’ at the end; 24
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(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 1
(D) as subparagraph (E); and 2
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 3
(C) the following: 4
‘‘(D) a good neighbor agreement entered 5
into under section 8206 of the Agricultural Act 6
of 2014 (16 U.S.C. 2113a); or’’; and 7
(C) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(3) C
OOPERATION WITH NON -FEDERAL PART-9
NERS.—The Secretary shall cooperate with non-Fed-10
eral partners in carrying out assessments, planning, 11
project design, and project implementation under 12
this section.’’; 13
(4) in subsection (d)— 14
(A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as 15
follows: 16
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—A water source manage-17
ment plan shall be— 18
‘‘(A) designed to protect and restore eco-19
logical integrity (as defined in section 219.19 of 20
title 36, Code of Federal Regulations (as in ef-21
fect on the date of enactment of this subpara-22
graph)); 23
‘‘(B) based on the best available scientific 24
information; and 25
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‘‘(C) conducted in a manner consistent 1
with the forest plan applicable to the National 2
Forest System land on which the watershed 3
protection and restoration project is carried 4
out.’’; and 5
(B) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(4) R
EDUCING REDUNDANCY .—An existing 7
watershed plan, such as a watershed protection and 8
restoration action plan developed under section 9
304(a)(3), or other applicable watershed planning 10
documents as approved by the Secretary may be 11
used as the basis for a water source management 12
plan under this subsection.’’; and 13
(5) in subsection (e)(1), by striking ‘‘primary 14
purpose of’’ and all that follows through the period 15
at the end and inserting ‘‘primary purpose of ad-16
vancing any of the purposes described in subsection 17
(b)(2).’’. 18
SEC. 119. WATERSHED CONDITION FRAMEWORK TECH-19
NICAL CORRECTIONS. 20
Section 304(a) of the Healthy Forests Restoration 21
Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6543(a)) is amended in para-22
graphs (3) and (5) by striking ‘‘protection and’’. 23
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Subtitle C—Litigation Reform 1
SEC. 121. COMMONSENSE LITIGATION REFORM. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—A court shall not enjoin a covered 3
agency action if the court determines that the plaintiff is 4
unable to demonstrate that the claim of the plaintiff is 5
likely to succeed on the merits. 6
(b) B
ALANCINGSHORT- ANDLONG-TERMEFFECTS 7
OFCOVEREDAGENCYACTION INCONSIDERINGINJUNC-8
TIVERELIEF.—As part of its weighing the equities while 9
considering any request for an injunction that applies to 10
a covered agency action, the court reviewing such action 11
shall balance the impact to the ecosystem likely affected 12
by such action of— 13
(1) the short- and long-term effects of under-14
taking such action; against 15
(2) the short- and long-term effects of not un-16
dertaking such action. 17
(c) L
IMITATIONS ONJUDICIALREVIEW.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 19
provision of law (except this section), in the case of 20
a claim arising under Federal law seeking judicial 21
review of a covered agency action— 22
(A) a court shall not hold unlawful, set 23
aside, or otherwise limit, delay, stay, vacate, or 24
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enjoin such agency action unless the court de-1
termines that— 2
(i) such action poses or will pose a 3
risk of a proximate and substantial envi-4
ronmental harm; and 5
(ii) there is no other equitable remedy 6
available as a matter of law; and 7
(B) if a court determines that subpara-8
graph (A) does not apply to the covered agency 9
action the only remedy the court may order 10
with regard to such agency action is to remand 11
the matter to the agency with instructions to, 12
during the 180-day period beginning on the 13
date of the order, take such additional actions 14
as may be necessary to redress any legal wrong 15
suffered by, or adverse effect on, the plaintiff, 16
except such additional actions may not include 17
the preparation of a new agency document un-18
less the court finds the agency was required 19
and failed to prepare such agency document. 20
(2) E
FFECT OF REMAND.—In the case of a cov-21
ered agency action to which paragraph (1)(B) ap-22
plies, the agency may— 23
(A) continue to carry out such agency ac-24
tion to the extent the action does not impact 25
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the additional actions required pursuant to such 1
paragraph; and 2
(B) if the agency action relates to an agen-3
cy document, use any format to correct such 4
document (including a supplemental environ-5
mental document, memorandum, or errata 6
sheet). 7
(d) L
IMITATIONS ONCLAIMS.—Notwithstanding any 8
other provision of law (except this section), a claim arising 9
under Federal law seeking judicial review of a covered 10
agency action shall be barred unless— 11
(1) with respect to an agency document or the 12
application of a categorical exclusion noticed in the 13
Federal Register, such claim is filed not later than 14
120 days after the date of publication of a notice in 15
the Federal Register of agency intent to carry out 16
the fireshed management project relating to such 17
agency document or application, unless a shorter pe-18
riod is specified in such Federal law; 19
(2) in the case of an agency document or the 20
application of a categorical exclusion not described 21
in paragraph (1), such claim is filed not later than 22
120 days after the date that is the earlier of— 23
(A) the date on which such agency docu-24
ment or application is published; and 25
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(B) the date on which such agency docu-1
ment or application is noticed; and 2
(3) in the case of a covered agency action for 3
which there was a public comment period, such 4
claim— 5
(A) is filed by a party that— 6
(i) participated in the administrative 7
proceedings regarding the fireshed man-8
agement project relating to such action; 9
and 10
(ii) submitted a comment during such 11
public comment period and such comment 12
was sufficiently detailed to put the applica-13
ble agency on notice of the issue upon 14
which the party seeks judicial review; and 15
(B) is related to such comment. 16
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—ln this section: 17
(1) A
GENCY DOCUMENT .—The term ‘‘agency 18
document’’ means, with respect to a fireshed man-19
agement project, a record of decision, environmental 20
document, or programmatic environmental docu-21
ment. 22
(2) C
OVERED AGENCY ACTION .—The term 23
‘‘covered agency action’’ means— 24
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(A) the establishment of a fireshed man-1
agement project by an agency; 2
(B) the application of a categorical exclu-3
sion to a fireshed management project; 4
(C) the preparation of any agency docu-5
ment for a fireshed management project; or 6
(D) any other agency action as part of a 7
fireshed management project. 8
(3) NEPA 
TERMS.—The terms ‘‘categorical ex-9
clusion’’, ‘‘environmental document’’, and ‘‘pro-10
grammatic environmental document’’ have the mean-11
ings given such terms, respectively, in section 111 of 12
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 13
U.S.C. 4336e). 14
SEC. 122. CONSULTATION ON FOREST PLANS. 15
(a) F
ORESTSERVICEPLANS.—Section 6(d)(2) of the 16
Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act 17
of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1604(d)(2)) is amended to read as 18
follows: 19
‘‘(2) N
O ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION RE -20
QUIRED UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES .—Not-21
withstanding any other provision of law, the Sec-22
retary shall not be required to reinitiate consultation 23
under section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act 24
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536(a)(2)) or section 402.16 of 25
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title 50, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor 1
regulation), on a land management plan approved, 2
amended, or revised under this section when— 3
‘‘(A) a new species is listed or critical habi-4
tat is designated under the Endangered Species 5
Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); or 6
‘‘(B) new information reveals effects of the 7
land management plan that may affect a spe-8
cies listed or critical habitat designated under 9
that Act in a manner or to an extent not pre-10
viously considered.’’. 11
(b) B
UREAU OFLANDMANAGEMENTPLANS.—Sec-12
tion 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 13
of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) is amended by adding at the 14
end the following: 15
‘‘(g) N
OADDITIONALCONSULTATION REQUIRED 16
U
NDERCERTAINCIRCUMSTANCES.—Notwithstanding 17
any other provision of law, the Secretary shall not be re-18
quired to reinitiate consultation under section 7(a)(2) of 19
the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 20
1536(a)(2)) or section 402.16 of title 50, Code of Federal 21
Regulations (or a successor regulation), on a land use plan 22
approved, amended, or revised under this section when— 23
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‘‘(1) a new species is listed or critical habitat 1
is designated under the Endangered Species Act of 2
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); or 3
‘‘(2) new information reveals effects of the land 4
use plan that may affect a species listed or critical 5
habitat designated under that Act in a manner or to 6
an extent not previously considered.’’. 7
TITLE II—PROTECTING COMMU-8
NITIES IN THE WILDLAND- 9
URBAN INTERFACE 10
SEC. 201. COMMUNITY WILDFIRE RISK REDUCTION PRO-11
GRAM. 12
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 30 days after 13
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall 14
jointly establish an interagency program to be known as 15
the ‘‘Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program’’ that 16
shall consist of at least one representative from each of 17
the following: 18
(1) The Office of Wildland Fire of the Depart-19
ment of the Interior. 20
(2) The National Park Service. 21
(3) The Bureau of Land Management. 22
(4) The United States Fish and Wildlife Serv-23
ice. 24
(5) The Bureau of Indian Affairs. 25
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(6) The Forest Service. 1
(7) The Federal Emergency Management Agen-2
cy. 3
(8) The United States Fire Administration. 4
(9) The National Institute of Standards and 5
Technology. 6
(10) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric 7
Administration. 8
(b) P
URPOSE.—The purpose of the program estab-9
lished under subsection (a) is to support interagency co-10
ordination in reducing the risk of, and the damages result-11
ing from, wildfires in communities (including tribal com-12
munities) in the wildland-urban interface through— 13
(1) advancing research and science in wildfire 14
resilience and land management, including support 15
for non-Federal research partnerships; 16
(2) supporting adoption by Indian Tribes and 17
local governmental entities of fire-resistant building 18
methods, codes, and standards; 19
(3) supporting efforts by Indian Tribes or local 20
governmental entities to address the effects of 21
wildland fire on such communities, including prop-22
erty damages, air quality, and water quality; 23
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(4) encouraging public-private partnerships to 1
conduct hazardous fuels management activities in 2
the wildland-urban interface; 3
(5) providing technical and financial assistance 4
targeted towards communities, including tribal com-5
munities, through streamlined and unified technical 6
assistance and grant management mechanisms, in-7
cluding the portal and grant application established 8
under subsection (c), to— 9
(A) encourage critical risk reduction meas-10
ures on private property with high wildfire risk 11
exposure in such communities; and 12
(B) mitigate costs for and improve capac-13
ity among such communities. 14
(c) P
ORTAL ANDUNIFORMGRANTAPPLICATION.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—As part of the program es-16
tablished under subsection (a), the Secretaries and 17
the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Man-18
agement Agency shall establish a portal through 19
which a person may submit a single, uniform appli-20
cation for any of the following: 21
(A) A community wildfire defense grant 22
under section 40803(f) of the Infrastructure In-23
vestment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(f)). 24
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(B) An emergency management perform-1
ance grant under section 662 of the Post- 2
Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 3
2006 (6 U.S.C. 761). 4
(C) A grant under section 33 of the Fed-5
eral Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 6
(15 U.S.C. 2229). 7
(D) A grant under section 34 of the Fed-8
eral Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 9
(15 U.S.C. 2229a). 10
(E) Financial or technical assistance or a 11
grant under sections 203, 205, 404, 406, or 12
420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 13
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 14
5133, 5135, 5170c, 5172, 5187). 15
(2) S
IMPLIFICATION OF APPLICATION .—In es-16
tablishing the portal and application under para-17
graph (1), the Secretaries and the Administrator 18
shall seek to reduce the complexity and length of the 19
application process for the grants described in para-20
graph (1). 21
(3) T
ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE .—The Secretaries 22
shall provide technical assistance to communities or 23
persons seeking to apply for financial assistance 24
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through the portal using the application established 1
under paragraph (1). 2
(d) S
UNSET.—The program established under this 3
section shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after 4
the date of enactment of this Act. 5
SEC. 202. COMMUNITY WILDFIRE DEFENSE RESEARCH PRO-6
GRAM. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretaries shall, acting 8
jointly, expand the Joint Fire Science Program to include 9
a performance-driven research and development program 10
known as the ‘‘Community Wildfire Defense Research 11
Program’’ for the purpose of testing and advancing inno-12
vative designs to create or improve the wildfire-resistance 13
of structures and communities. 14
(b) P
ROGRAMPRIORITIES.—In carrying out the pro-15
gram established under subsection (a), the Secretaries 16
shall evaluate opportunities to create wildfire-resistant 17
structures and communities through— 18
(1) different affordable building materials, in-19
cluding mass timber; 20
(2) home hardening, including policies to 21
incentivize and incorporate defensible space; 22
(3) subdivision design and other land use plan-23
ning and design; 24
(4) landscape architecture; and 25
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(5) other wildfire-resistant designs, as deter-1
mined by the Secretary. 2
(c) C
OMMUNITYWILDFIREDEFENSEINNOVATION 3
P
RIZE.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out the program 5
established under subsection (a), the Secretaries 6
shall carry out a competition through which a person 7
may submit to the Secretaries innovative designs for 8
the creation or improvement of an ignition-resistant 9
structure or fire-adapted communities. 10
(2) P
RIZE.—Subject to the availability of ap-11
propriations made in advance for such purpose, the 12
Secretaries may award a prize under the competition 13
described in paragraph (1), based on criteria estab-14
lished by the Secretaries and in accordance with 15
paragraph (3). 16
(3) S
CALE.—In awarding a prize under para-17
graph (2), the Secretaries shall prioritize for an 18
award designs with the most potential to scale to ex-19
isting infrastructure. 20
(d) C
OLLABORATION AND NONDUPLICATION.—In 21
carrying out the program established under subsection (a), 22
the Secretaries shall ensure collaboration and nonduplica-23
tion of activities with the Building Technologies Office of 24
the Department of Energy. 25
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(e) SUNSET.—The program established under sub-1
section (a) shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after 2
the date of enactment of this Act. 3
SEC. 203. VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FACILITY INSPEC-4
TION, AND OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE 5
RELATING TO ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION AND 6
DISTRIBUTION FACILITY RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 7
(a) H
AZARDTREESWITHIN150 FEET OFELECTRIC 8
P
OWERLINE.—Section 512(a)(1)(B)(ii) of the Federal 9
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 10
1772(a)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ‘‘10’’ and in-11
serting ‘‘150’’. 12
(b) C
ONSULTATIONWITHPRIVATELANDOWNERS.— 13
Section 512(c)(3)(E) of such Act (43 U.S.C. 14
1772(c)(3)(E)) is amended— 15
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 16
(2) in clause (ii), by striking the period and in-17
serting ‘‘; and’’; and 18
(3) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(iii) consulting with a private land-20
owner with respect to any hazard trees 21
identified for removal from land owned by 22
the private landowner.’’. 23
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(c) REVIEW AND APPROVALPROCESS.—Section 1
512(c)(4)(A)(iv) of such Act (43 U.S.C. 2
1772(c)(4)(A)(iv)) is amended to read as follows: 3
‘‘(iv) ensures that— 4
‘‘(I) a plan submitted without a 5
modification under clause (iii) shall be 6
automatically approved 120 days after 7
being submitted; and 8
‘‘(II) with respect to a plan sub-9
mitted with a modification under 10
clause (iii), if not approved within 120 11
days after being submitted, the Sec-12
retary concerned shall develop and 13
submit a letter to the owner and oper-14
ator describing— 15
‘‘(aa) a detailed timeline (to 16
conclude within 165 days after 17
the submission of the plan) for 18
completing review of the plan; 19
‘‘(bb) any identified defi-20
ciencies with the plan and spe-21
cific opportunities for the owner 22
and operator to address such de-23
ficiencies; and 24
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‘‘(cc) any other relevant in-1
formation, as determined by the 2
Secretary concerned.’’. 3
SEC. 204. CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION FOR ELECTRIC UTIL-4
ITY LINES RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 5
(a) C
ATEGORICALEXCLUSIONESTABLISHED.—For-6
est management activities described in subsection (b) are 7
a category of activities hereby designated as being cat-8
egorically excluded from the preparation of an environ-9
mental assessment or an environmental impact statement 10
under section 102 of the National Environmental Policy 11
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332). 12
(b) F
ORESTMANAGEMENTACTIVITIESDESIGNATED 13
FORCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.—The forest management 14
activities designated under subsection (a) for a categorical 15
exclusion are— 16
(1) the development and approval of a vegeta-17
tion management, facility inspection, and operation 18
and maintenance plan submitted under section 19
512(c)(1) of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-20
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772(c)(1)) by the 21
Secretary concerned; and 22
(2) the implementation of routine activities con-23
ducted under the plan referred to in paragraph (1). 24
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(c) AVAILABILITY OFCATEGORICALEXCLUSION.— 1
On and after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-2
retary concerned may use the categorical exclusion estab-3
lished under subsection (a) in accordance with this section. 4
(d) E
XCLUSION OFCERTAINAREASFROMCATEGOR-5
ICALEXCLUSION.—The categorical exclusion established 6
under subsection (a) shall not apply to any forest manage-7
ment activity conducted— 8
(1) in a component of the National Wilderness 9
Preservation System; or 10
(2) on National Forest System lands on which 11
the removal of vegetation is restricted or prohibited 12
by an Act of Congress. 13
(e) P
ERMANENTROADS.— 14
(1) P
ROHIBITION ON ESTABLISHMENT .—A for-15
est management activity designated under subsection 16
(b) shall not include the establishment of a perma-17
nent road. 18
(2) E
XISTING ROADS.—The Secretary con-19
cerned may carry out necessary maintenance and re-20
pair on an existing permanent road for the purposes 21
of conducting a forest management activity des-22
ignated under subsection (b). 23
(3) T
EMPORARY ROADS .—The Secretary con-24
cerned shall decommission any temporary road con-25
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structed for carrying out a forest management activ-1
ity designated under subsection (b) not later than 2
the date that is 3 years after the date on which the 3
forest management activity is completed. 4
(f) A
PPLICABLELAWS.—Clauses (iii) and (iv) of sec-5
tion 106(a)(3) shall apply to forest management activities 6
designated under subsection (b). 7
SEC. 205. SEEDS OF SUCCESS. 8
(a) S
TRATEGYESTABLISHED.—Not later than 2 9
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secre-10
taries and the Secretary of Defense shall jointly develop 11
and implement a strategy, to be known as the ‘‘Seeds of 12
Success strategy’’, to enhance the domestic supply chain 13
of seeds. 14
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy required under sub-15
section (a) shall include a plan for each of the following: 16
(1) Facilitating sustained interagency coordina-17
tion in, and a comprehensive approach to, native 18
plant materials development and restoration. 19
(2) Promoting the re-seeding of native or fire- 20
resistant vegetation post-wildfire, particularly in the 21
wildland-urban interface. 22
(3) Creating and consolidating information on 23
native or fire-resistant vegetation and sharing such 24
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information with State governments, Indian Tribes, 1
and local governments. 2
(4) Building regional programs and partner-3
ships to promote the development of materials made 4
from plants native to the United States and restore 5
such plants to their respective, native habitats within 6
the United States, giving priority to the building of 7
such programs and partnerships in regions of the 8
Bureau of Land Management where such partner-9
ships and programs do not already exist as of the 10
date of enactment of this Act. 11
(5) Expanding seed storage and seed-cleaning 12
infrastructure. 13
(6) Expanding the Warehouse System of the 14
Bureau of Land Management, particularly the cold 15
storage capacity of the Warehouse System. 16
(7) Shortening the timeline for the approval of 17
permits to collect seeds on public lands managed by 18
the Bureau of Land Management. 19
(c) R
EPORT.—The Secretaries and the Secretary of 20
Defense shall submit to the relevant Congressional Com-21
mittees the strategy developed under paragraph (1). 22
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SEC. 206. PROGRAM TO SUPPORT PRIORITY REFOREST-1
ATION AND RESTORATION PROJECTS OF DE-2
PARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 4
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Inte-5
rior, in coordination with the heads of covered Federal 6
agencies, shall establish a program to provide support for 7
priority projects identified under subsection (c)(2), in ac-8
cordance with this section. 9
(b) S
UPPORT.—In carrying out the program under 10
subsection (a), the Secretary may provide support 11
through— 12
(1) cooperative agreements entered into in ac-13
cordance with processes established by the Sec-14
retary; and 15
(2) contracts, including contracts established 16
pursuant to the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-17
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5301 et seq.). 18
(c) A
NNUAL IDENTIFICATION OF PRIORITY 19
P
ROJECTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enact-20
ment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Secretary 21
of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of covered 22
Federal agencies, shall— 23
(1) identify lands of the United States adminis-24
tered by, or under the jurisdiction of, the Secretary 25
of the Interior that require reforestation and res-26
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toration due to unplanned disturbances and that are 1
unlikely to experience natural regeneration without 2
assistance; and 3
(2) establish a list of priority projects for refor-4
estation and restoration for the upcoming year, 5
which may include activities to ensure adequate and 6
appropriate seed and seedling availability to further 7
the objectives of other priority projects. 8
(d) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out the program 9
under subsection (a) and the requirements under sub-10
section (c), the Secretary shall consult or collaborate with, 11
as appropriate, and inform the following: 12
(1) State and local governments. 13
(2) Indian Tribes. 14
(3) Covered institutions of higher education. 15
(4) Federal agencies that administer lands of 16
the United States that adjoin or are proximal to 17
lands that are the subject of priority projects and 18
potential priority projects. 19
(5) Other stakeholders, as determined by the 20
Secretary. 21
(e) A
NNUALREPORT.—Not later than 2 years after 22
the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 23
the Secretary of the Interior shall submit to the relevant 24
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Congressional Committees a report that includes the fol-1
lowing: 2
(1) An accounting of all lands identified under 3
subsection (c)(1) for the period covered by the re-4
port. 5
(2) A list of priority projects identified under 6
subsection (c)(2) for the period covered by the re-7
port and, with respect to each such priority project, 8
any support issued under the program under sub-9
section (a) and any progress made towards reforest-10
ation and restoration. 11
(3) An accounting of each contract and cooper-12
ative agreement established under the program 13
under subsection (a). 14
(4) A description of the actions taken in accord-15
ance with subsection (d). 16
(5) Assessments with respect to— 17
(A) gaps in— 18
(i) the implementation of the program 19
under subsection (a); and 20
(ii) the progress made under the pro-21
gram with respect to priority projects; and 22
(B) opportunities to procure funding nec-23
essary to address any such gaps. 24
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(f) NONDUPLICATION.—In carrying out this section, 1
the Secretary of the Interior shall collaborate with the Sec-2
retary and the Secretary of Defense to ensure the non-3
duplication of activities carried out under section 205. 4
(g) S
UNSET.—The authority provided under this sec-5
tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 6
date of enactment of this Act. 7
(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) C
OVERED FEDERAL AGENCY .—The term 9
‘‘covered Federal agency’’ means the National Park 10
Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 11
the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of 12
Reclamation, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 13
(2) C
OVERED INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDU -14
CATION.—The term ‘‘covered institution of higher 15
education’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘eligible 16
institution’’ in section 301(e)(3). 17
(3) N
ATURAL REGENERATION ; REFOREST-18
ATION.—The terms ‘‘natural regeneration’’ and ‘‘re-19
forestation’’ have the meanings given such terms in 20
section 3(e)(4)(A) of the Forest and Rangeland Re-21
newable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 22
1601(3)(4)(A)). 23
(4) R
ESTORATION.—The term ‘‘restoration’’ 24
means activities that facilitate the recovery of an 25
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ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or de-1
stroyed, including the reestablishment of appropriate 2
plant species composition and community structure. 3
(5) U
NPLANNED ECOSYSTEM DISTURBANCE .— 4
The term ‘‘unplanned ecosystem disturbance’’ means 5
any unplanned disturbance that disrupts the struc-6
ture or composition of an ecosystem, including a 7
wildfire, an infestation of insects or disease, and a 8
weather event. 9
SEC. 207. FIRE DEPARTMENT REPAYMENT. 10
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF STANDARDOPERATING 11
P
ROCEDURES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 12
the enactment of this section, the Secretaries shall— 13
(1) establish standard operating procedures re-14
lating to payment timelines for fire suppression cost 15
share agreements established under the Act of May 16
27, 1955 (42 U.S.C. 1856a) (commonly known as 17
the ‘‘Reciprocal Fire Protection Act’’); and 18
(2) with respect to each fire suppression cost 19
share agreement in operation on such date— 20
(A) review each such agreement; and 21
(B) modify each agreement as necessary to 22
comply with the standard operating procedures 23
required under paragraph (1). 24
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(b) ALIGNMENT OFFIRESUPPRESSIONCOSTSHARE 1
A
GREEMENTS WITHCOOPERATIVEFIREPROTECTION 2
A
GREEMENTS.—The standard operating procedures re-3
quired under subsection (a)(1) shall include a requirement 4
that each fire suppression cost share agreement be aligned 5
with each of the cooperative fire protection agreements ap-6
plicable to the entity subject to such fire suppression cost 7
share agreement. 8
(c) P
AYMENTSPURSUANT TOCOSTSHAREAGREE-9
MENTS.—With respect to payments made pursuant to fire 10
suppression cost share agreements, the standard operating 11
procedures required under subsection (a)(1) shall require 12
that the Federal paying entity reimburse a local fire de-13
partment if such fire department submits an invoice in 14
accordance with cost settlement procedures. 15
(d) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-16
gress that the Secretaries should carry out reciprocal fire 17
suppression cost share agreement repayments to local fire 18
suppression organizations as soon as practicable after fire 19
suppression occurs but not later than 1 year after fire sup-20
pression occurs. 21
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TITLE III—TRANSPARENCY, 1
TECHNOLOGY, AND PARTNER-2
SHIPS 3
Subtitle A—Transparency and 4
Technology 5
SEC. 301. BIOCHAR INNOVATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES 6
FOR CONSERVATION, HEALTH, AND AD-7
VANCEMENTS IN RESEARCH. 8
(a) D
EMONSTRATIONPROJECTS.— 9
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the avail-11
ability of appropriations made in advance for 12
such purpose, not later than 2 years after the 13
date of enactment of this Act, the covered Sec-14
retaries shall establish a program to enter into 15
partnerships with eligible entities to carry out 16
demonstration projects to support the develop-17
ment and commercialization of biochar in ac-18
cordance with this subsection. 19
(B) L
OCATION OF DEMONSTRATION 20
PROJECTS.—In carrying out the program estab-21
lished under subparagraph (A), the covered 22
Secretaries shall, to the maximum extent prac-23
ticable, enter into partnerships with eligible en-24
tities such that not fewer than one demonstra-25
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tion project is carried out in each region of the 1
Forest Service and each region of the Bureau 2
of Land Management. 3
(2) P
ROPOSALS.—To be eligible to enter into a 4
partnership to carry out a biochar demonstration 5
project under paragraph (1)(A), an eligible entity 6
shall submit to the covered Secretaries a proposal at 7
such time, in such manner, and containing such in-8
formation as the covered Secretaries may require. 9
(3) P
RIORITY.—In selecting proposals under 10
paragraph (2), the covered Secretaries shall give pri-11
ority to entering into partnerships with eligible enti-12
ties that submit proposals to carry out biochar dem-13
onstration projects that— 14
(A) have the most carbon sequestration po-15
tential; 16
(B) have the most potential to create new 17
jobs and contribute to local economies, particu-18
larly in rural areas; 19
(C) have the most potential to dem-20
onstrate— 21
(i) new and innovative uses of biochar; 22
(ii) market viability for cost effective 23
biochar-based products; 24
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(iii) the ecosystem services created or 1
supported by the use of biochar; 2
(iv) the restorative benefits of biochar 3
with respect to forest heath and resiliency, 4
including forest soils and watersheds; or 5
(v) any combination of purposes speci-6
fied in clauses (i) through (iv); 7
(D) are located in areas that have a high 8
need for biochar production, as determined by 9
the covered Secretaries, due to— 10
(i) nearby lands identified as having 11
high or very high or extreme risk of wild-12
fire; 13
(ii) availability of sufficient quantities 14
of feedstocks; or 15
(iii) a high level of demand for 16
biochar or other commercial byproducts of 17
biochar; or 18
(E) satisfy any combination of purposes 19
specified in subparagraphs (A) through (D). 20
(4) U
SE OF FUNDS.—In carrying out the pro-21
gram established under paragraph (1)(A), the cov-22
ered Secretaries may enter into partnerships and 23
provide funding to such partnerships to carry out 24
demonstration projects to— 25
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(A) acquire and test various feedstocks and 1
their efficacy; 2
(B) develop and optimize commercially and 3
technologically viable biochar production units, 4
including mobile and permanent units; 5
(C) demonstrate— 6
(i) the production of biochar from for-7
est residue; and 8
(ii) the use of biochar to restore forest 9
health and resiliency; 10
(D) build, expand, or establish biochar fa-11
cilities; 12
(E) conduct research on new and innova-13
tive uses of biochar; 14
(F) demonstrate cost-effective market op-15
portunities for biochar and biochar-based prod-16
ucts; 17
(G) carry out any other activities the cov-18
ered Secretaries determine appropriate; or 19
(H) any combination of the purposes speci-20
fied in subparagraphs (A) through (F). 21
(5) F
EEDSTOCK REQUIREMENTS .—To the max-22
imum extent practicable, an eligible entity that car-23
ries out a biochar demonstration project under this 24
subsection shall, with respect to the feedstock used 25
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under such project, derive at least 50 percent of 1
such feedstock from forest thinning and manage-2
ment activities, including mill residues, conducted on 3
National Forest System lands or public lands. 4
(6) R
EVIEW OF BIOCHAR DEMONSTRATION .— 5
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The covered Secretaries 6
shall conduct regionally-specific research, in-7
cluding economic analyses and life-cycle assess-8
ments, on any biochar produced from a dem-9
onstration project carried out under the pro-10
gram established in paragraph (1)(A), includ-11
ing— 12
(i) the effects of such biochar on— 13
(I) forest health and resiliency; 14
(II) carbon capture and seques-15
tration, including increasing soil car-16
bon in the short-term and long-term; 17
(III) productivity, reduced input 18
costs, and water retention in agricul-19
tural practices; 20
(IV) the health of soil and grass-21
lands used for grazing activities, in-22
cluding grazing activities on National 23
Forest System land and public land; 24
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(V) environmental remediation 1
activities, including abandoned mine 2
land remediation; and 3
(VI) other ecosystem services cre-4
ated or supported by the use of 5
biochar; 6
(ii) the effectiveness of biochar as a 7
co-product of biofuels or in biochemicals; 8
and 9
(iii) the effectiveness of other poten-10
tial uses of biochar to determine if any 11
such use is technologically and commer-12
cially viable. 13
(B) C
OORDINATION.—The covered Secre-14
taries shall, to the maximum extent practicable, 15
provide data, analyses, and other relevant infor-16
mation collected under subparagraph (A) with 17
recipients of a grant under subsection (b). 18
(7) L
IMITATION ON FUNDING FOR ESTAB -19
LISHING BIOCHAR FACILITIES .—If the covered Sec-20
retaries provide to an eligible entity that enters into 21
a partnership with the covered Secretaries under 22
paragraph (1)(A) funding for establishing a biochar 23
facility, such funding may not exceed 35 percent of 24
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the total capital cost of establishing such biochar fa-1
cility. 2
(b) B
IOCHARRESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENTGRANT 3
P
ROGRAM.— 4
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the In-5
terior, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, 6
shall establish or expand an existing applied biochar 7
research and development grant program to make 8
competitive grants to eligible institutions to carry 9
out the activities described in paragraph (3). 10
(2) A
PPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a 11
grant under this subsection, an eligible institution 12
shall submit to the Secretary a proposal at such 13
time, in such manner, and containing such informa-14
tion as the Secretary may require. 15
(3) U
SE OF FUNDS.—An eligible institution 16
that receives a grant under this subsection shall use 17
the grant funds to conduct applied research on— 18
(A) the effect of biochar on forest health 19
and resiliency, accounting for variations in 20
biochar, soil, climate, and other factors; 21
(B) the effect of biochar on soil health and 22
water retention, accounting for variations in 23
biochar, soil, climate, and other factors; 24
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(C) the long-term carbon sequestration po-1
tential of biochar; 2
(D) the best management practices with 3
respect to biochar and biochar-based products 4
that maximize— 5
(i) carbon sequestration benefits; and 6
(ii) the commercial viability and appli-7
cation of such products in forestry, agri-8
culture, environmental remediation, water 9
quality improvement, and any other similar 10
uses, as determined by the Secretary; 11
(E) the regional uses of biochar to increase 12
productivity and profitability, including— 13
(i) uses in agriculture and environ-14
mental remediation; and 15
(ii) use as a co-product in fuel produc-16
tion; 17
(F) new and innovative uses for biochar 18
byproducts; and 19
(G) opportunities to expand markets for 20
biochar and create related jobs, particularly in 21
rural areas. 22
(c) R
EPORTS.— 23
(1) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS .—Not later than 2 24
years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 25
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covered Secretaries shall submit to Congress a re-1
port that— 2
(A) includes policy and program rec-3
ommendations to improve the widespread use of 4
biochar; 5
(B) identifies any area of research needed 6
to advance biochar commercialization; and 7
(C) identifies barriers to further biochar 8
commercialization, including permitting and 9
siting considerations. 10
(2) M
ATERIALS SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT OF 11
THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET.—Beginning with the 12
second fiscal year that begins after the date of en-13
actment of this Act and annually thereafter until the 14
date described in subsection (d), the covered Secre-15
taries shall include in the materials submitted to 16
Congress in support of the President’s budget pursu-17
ant to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, 18
a report describing, for the fiscal year covered by the 19
report, the status of each demonstration project car-20
ried out under subsection (a) and each research and 21
development grant carried out under subsection (b). 22
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority to carry out this section 23
shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date 24
of enactment of this Act. 25
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(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1
(1) B
IOCHAR.—The term ‘‘biochar’’ means car-2
bonized biomass produced by converting feedstock 3
through reductive thermal processing for non-fuel 4
uses. 5
(2) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-6
ty’’ means— 7
(A) a State, local, special district, or Tribal 8
government; 9
(B) an eligible institution; 10
(C) a private, non-private, or cooperative 11
entity or organization; 12
(D) a National Laboratory (as such term 13
is defined in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act 14
of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801)); or 15
(E) a partnership or consortium of two or 16
more entities described in subparagraphs (A) 17
through (D). 18
(3) E
LIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘eligi-19
ble institution’’ means land-grant colleges and uni-20
versities, including institutions eligible for funding 21
under the— 22
(A) Act of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat. 503, 23
chapter 130; 7 U.S.C. 301 et seq.); 24
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(B) Act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. 417, 1
chapter 841; 7 U.S.C. 321 et seq.), including 2
Tuskegee University; 3
(C) Public Law 87–788 (commonly known 4
as the ‘‘McIntire-Stennis Act of 1962’’); or 5
(D) Equity in Educational Land-Grant 6
Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 301 note; Public 7
Law 103–382). 8
(4) F
EEDSTOCK.—The term ‘‘feedstock’’ means 9
excess biomass in the form of plant matter or mate-10
rials that serves as the raw material for the produc-11
tion of biochar. 12
(5) C
OVERED SECRETARIES .—The term ‘‘cov-13
ered Secretaries’’ means— 14
(A) the Secretary, acting through the Chief 15
of the Forest Service; 16
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, acting 17
through the Director of the Bureau of Land 18
Management; and 19
(C) the Secretary of Energy, acting 20
through the Director of the Office of Science. 21
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SEC. 302. 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 enactment of 7
this Act, and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-8
retary concerned shall include in the materials sub-9
mitted to Congress in support of the President’s 10
budget pursuant to section 1105 of title 31, United 11
States Code, a report on the number of acres of 12
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned car-13
ried out hazardous fuels reduction activities during 14
the preceding fiscal 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 websites 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 enactment of this Act, the Secretary con-11
cerned shall implement standardized procedures for 12
tracking data related to hazardous fuels reduction 13
activities carried out by the Secretary concerned. 14
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 15
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 16
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 17
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 18
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 19
(B) verification methods that validate 20
whether such data accurately correlates to the 21
hazardous fuels reduction activities carried out 22
by the Secretary concerned; 23
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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 section, including any limitations with respect 23
to— 24
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(A) reporting hazardous fuels reduction ac-1
tivities under subsection (a); or 2
(B) tracking data related to hazardous 3
fuels reduction activities under subsection (b); 4
and 5
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 6
the results of the study under paragraph (1). 7
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -9
ITY.—The term ‘‘hazardous fuels reduction activ-10
ity’’— 11
(A) means any vegetation management ac-12
tivity to reduce the risk of wildfire, including 13
mechanical treatments, grazing, and prescribed 14
burning; and 15
(B) does not include the awarding of con-16
tracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction ac-17
tivities. 18
(2) F
EDERAL LANDS .—The term ‘‘Federal 19
lands’’ means lands under the jurisdiction of the 20
Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary. 21
(e) N
OADDITIONALFUNDSAUTHORIZED.—No addi-22
tional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements 23
of this section, and the activities authorized by this section 24
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are subject to the availability of appropriations made in 1
advance for such purposes. 2
SEC. 303. PUBLIC-PRIVATE WILDFIRE TECHNOLOGY DE-3
PLOYMENT AND DEMONSTRATION PARTNER-4
SHIP. 5
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
(1) C
OVERED AGENCY .—The term ‘‘covered 7
agency’’ means— 8
(A) each Federal land management agency 9
(as such term is defined in the Federal Lands 10
Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 11
6801)); 12
(B) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 13
Administration; 14
(C) the United States Fire Administration; 15
(D) the Federal Emergency Management 16
Agency; 17
(E) the National Aeronautics and Space 18
Administration; 19
(F) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; 20
(G) the Department of Defense; 21
(H) a State, Tribal, county, or municipal 22
fire department or district operating through 23
the United States Fire Administration or pur-24
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suant to an agreement with a Federal agency; 1
and 2
(I) any other Federal agency involved in 3
wildfire response. 4
(2) C
OVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-5
tity’’ means— 6
(A) a private entity; 7
(B) a nonprofit organization; or 8
(C) an institution of higher education (as 9
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 10
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)). 11
(b) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 12
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries, in coordina-13
tion with the heads of the covered agencies, shall establish 14
a deployment and demonstration pilot program (in this 15
section referred to as ‘‘Pilot Program’’) for new and inno-16
vative wildfire prevention, detection, communication, and 17
mitigation technologies. 18
(c) F
UNCTIONS.—In carrying out the Pilot Program, 19
the Secretaries shall— 20
(1) incorporate the Pilot Program into the Na-21
tional Wildfire Coordinating Group; 22
(2) in consultation with the heads of covered 23
agencies, identify and advance the demonstration 24
and deployment of key technology priority areas with 25
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respect to wildfire prevention, detection, communica-1
tion, and mitigation technologies, including— 2
(A) hazardous fuels reduction treatments 3
or activities; 4
(B) dispatch communications; 5
(C) remote sensing, detection, and track-6
ing; 7
(D) safety equipment; 8
(E) common operating pictures or oper-9
ational dashboards; and 10
(F) interoperable commercial data; and 11
(3) connect each covered entity selected to par-12
ticipate in the Pilot Program with the appropriate 13
covered agency to coordinate real-time and on-the- 14
ground testing of technology during wildland fire 15
mitigation activities and training. 16
(d) A
PPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to be selected to 17
participate in the Pilot Program, a covered entity shall 18
submit to the Secretaries an application at such time, in 19
such manner, and containing such information as the Sec-20
retaries may require, including a proposal to demonstrate 21
technologies specific to the key technology priority areas 22
identified pursuant to subsection (c)(2). 23
(e) P
RIORITIZATION OF EMERGING TECH-24
NOLOGIES.—In selecting covered entities to participate in 25
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the Pilot Program, the Secretaries shall give priority to 1
covered entities— 2
(1) that have participated in the Fire Weather 3
Testbed of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 4
Administration; or 5
(2) developing and applying emerging tech-6
nologies for wildfire mitigation, including artificial 7
intelligence, quantum sensing, computing and quan-8
tum-hybrid applications, thermal mid-wave infrared 9
equipped low earth orbit satellites, augmented re-10
ality, 5G private networks, and device-to-device com-11
munications supporting nomadic mesh networks and 12
detection. 13
(f) O
UTREACH.—The Secretaries, in coordination 14
with the heads of covered agencies, shall make public the 15
key technology priority areas identified pursuant to sub-16
section (c)(2) and invite covered entities to apply under 17
subsection (d) to deploy and demonstrate their tech-18
nologies to address such priority areas. 19
(g) R
EPORTS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later 20
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and 21
annually thereafter for the duration of the Pilot Program, 22
the Secretaries shall submit to the relevant Congressional 23
Committees, the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-24
nology of the House of Representatives, and the Com-25
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mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 1
Senate a report that includes, with respect to the Pilot 2
Program, the following: 3
(1) A list of participating covered entities. 4
(2) A brief description of the technologies de-5
ployed and demonstrated by each such covered enti-6
ty. 7
(3) An estimate of the cost of acquiring each 8
such technology and applying the technology at 9
scale. 10
(4) Outreach efforts by Federal agencies to cov-11
ered entities developing wildfire technologies. 12
(5) Assessments of, and recommendations relat-13
ing to, new technologies with potential adoption and 14
application at-scale in Federal land management 15
agencies’ wildfire prevention, detection, communica-16
tion, and mitigation efforts. 17
(6) A description of the relationship and coordi-18
nation between the Pilot Program and the activities 19
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-20
tration, including the Fire Weather Testbed. 21
(h) S
UNSET.—The authority to carry out this section 22
shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date 23
of enactment of this Act. 24
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SEC. 304. GAO STUDY ON FOREST SERVICE POLICIES. 1
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 2
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 3
shall— 4
(1) conduct a study evaluating— 5
(A) the effectiveness of Forest Service 6
wildland firefighting operations; 7
(B) transparency and accountability meas-8
ures in the Forest Service’s budget and ac-9
counting process; and 10
(C) the suitability and feasibility of estab-11
lishing a new Federal agency with the responsi-12
bility of responding and suppressing wildland 13
fires on Federal lands; and 14
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 15
the results of the study required under paragraph 16
(1). 17
SEC. 305. FOREST SERVICE WESTERN HEADQUARTERS 18
STUDY. 19
Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment 20
of this Act, the Chief of the Forest Service shall— 21
(1) conduct a study evaluating— 22
(A) potential locations for a Western head-23
quarters for the Forest Service, including po-24
tential locations in at least 3 different States lo-25
cated west of the Mississippi river; and 26
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(B) the potential benefits of creating a 1
Western headquarters for the Forest Service, 2
including expected— 3
(i) improvements to customer service; 4
(ii) improvements to employee recruit-5
ment and retention; and 6
(iii) operational efficiencies and cost 7
savings; and 8
(2) submit to Congress a report that describes 9
the results of the study required under paragraph 10
(1). 11
SEC. 306. KEEPING FOREST PLANS CURRENT AND MON-12
ITORED. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary— 14
(1) to the greatest extent practicable and sub-15
ject to the availability of appropriations made in ad-16
vance for such purpose— 17
(A) ensure forest plans comply with the re-18
quirements of section 6(f)(5)(A) of the Forest 19
and Rangeland Resources Planning Act of 1974 20
(16 U.S.C. 1604(f)(5)(A)); and 21
(B) prioritize revising any forest plan not 22
in compliance with such section 6(f)(5)(A); 23
(2) not be considered to be in violation of sec-24
tion 6(f)(5)(A) of the Forest and Rangeland Renew-25
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able Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1
1604(f)(5)(A)) solely because more than 15 years 2
have passed without revision of the plan for a unit 3
of the National Forest System; 4
(3) not later than 120 days after the date of 5
the enactment of this Act, submit to the relevant 6
Congressional Committees the date on which each 7
forest plan required by such section 6 was most re-8
cently revised, amended, or modified; 9
(4) seek to publish a new, complete version of 10
a forest plan that the Secretary has been directed to 11
amend, revise, or modify by a court order within 60 12
days of such amendment, revision, or modification, 13
subject to the availability of appropriations made in 14
advance for such purpose; and 15
(5) maintain a central, publicly accessible 16
website with links to— 17
(A) the most recently available forest plan 18
adopted, amended, or modified by a court order 19
as a single document; and 20
(B) the most recently published forest plan 21
monitoring report for each unit of the National 22
Forest System. 23
(b) G
OODFAITHUPDATES.—If the Secretary is not 24
acting expeditiously and in good faith, within the funding 25
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available to revise, amend, or modify a plan for a unit 1
of the National Forest System as required by law or a 2
court order, subsection (a) shall be void with respect to 3
such plan and a court of proper jurisdiction may order 4
completion of the plan on an accelerated basis. 5
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 6
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 7
a report to the relevant Congressional Committees sum-8
marizing the implementation of this section. 9
SEC. 307. CONTAINER AERIAL FIREFIGHTING SYSTEM 10
(CAFFS). 11
(a) E
VALUATION.—Not later than 90 days after the 12
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the 13
Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the National 14
Interagency Aviation Committee and the Interagency 15
Airtanker Board, shall jointly conduct an evaluation of the 16
container aerial firefighting system to assess the use of 17
such system to mitigate and suppress wildfires. 18
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the date 19
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the Sec-20
retary of the Interior, in consultation with the National 21
Interagency Aviation Committee and the Interagency 22
Airtanker Board, shall jointly submit to the relevant Con-23
gressional Committees a report that includes the results 24
of the evaluation required under subsection (a). 25
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SEC. 308. STUDY ON PINE BEETLE INFESTATION. 1
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 2
of this Act, the Secretary, acting through the Chief of the 3
Forest Service, shall— 4
(1) carry out a study on the causes and effects 5
of, and solutions for, the infestation of pine beetles 6
in the Northeastern region of the United States; and 7
(2) submit to the relevant Congressional Com-8
mittees a report that includes the results of the 9
study required under paragraph (1). 10
Subtitle B—White Oak Resilience 11
SEC. 311. WHITE OAK RESTORATION INITIATIVE COALI-12
TION. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The White Oak Restoration Ini-14
tiative Coalition shall be established— 15
(1) as a voluntary collaborative group of Fed-16
eral, State, Tribal, and local governments and pri-17
vate and non-governmental organizations to carry 18
out the duties described in subsection (b); and 19
(2) in accordance with the charter titled ‘‘White 20
Oak Initiative Coalition Charter’’ adopted by the 21
White Oak Initiative Board of Directors on March 22
21, 2023 (or a successor charter). 23
(b) D
UTIES.—In addition to the duties specified in 24
the charter described in subsection (a)(2), the duties of 25
the White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition are— 26
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(1) to coordinate Federal, State, Tribal, local, 1
private, and non-governmental restoration of white 2
oak in the United States; and 3
(2) to make program and policy recommenda-4
tions, consistent with applicable forest management 5
plans, with respect to— 6
(A) changes necessary to address Federal 7
and State policies that impede activities to im-8
prove the health, resiliency, and natural regen-9
eration of white oak; 10
(B) adopting or modifying Federal and 11
State policies to increase the pace and scale of 12
white oak regeneration and resiliency of white 13
oak; 14
(C) options to enhance communication, co-15
ordination, and collaboration between forest 16
land owners, particularly for cross-boundary 17
projects, to improve the health, resiliency, and 18
natural regeneration of white oak; 19
(D) research gaps that should be ad-20
dressed to improve the best available science on 21
white oak; 22
(E) outreach to forest landowners with 23
white oak or white oak regeneration potential; 24
and 25
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(F) options and policies necessary to im-1
prove the quality and quantity of white oak in 2
tree nurseries. 3
(c) A
DMINISTRATIVESUPPORT, TECHNICALSERV-4
ICES, ANDSTAFFSUPPORT.—The Secretary of the Inte-5
rior and the Secretary shall make such personnel available 6
to the White Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition for ad-7
ministrative support, technical services, and development 8
and dissemination of educational materials as the Secre-9
taries determine necessary to carry out this section. 10
(d) P
RIVATEFUNDING OFWHITEOAKRESTORA-11
TIONPROJECTS.—Subject to the availability of appropria-12
tions made in advance for such purpose, the Secretary 13
may make funds available to the White Oak Restoration 14
Initiative Coalition to carry out this section from the ac-15
count established pursuant to section 1241(f) of the Food 16
Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841(f)). 17
SEC. 312. FOREST SERVICE PILOT PROGRAM. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through the 19
Chief of the Forest Service, shall establish and carry out 20
5 pilot projects in national forests to restore white oak 21
in such forests through white oak restoration and natural 22
regeneration practices that are consistent with applicable 23
forest management plans. 24
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(b) NATIONALFORESTSRESERVED ORWITHDRAWN 1
F
ROM THEPUBLICDOMAIN.—At least 3 pilot projects re-2
quired under subsection (a) shall be carried out on na-3
tional forests reserved or withdrawn from the public do-4
main. 5
(c) A
UTHORITYTOENTERINTOCOOPERATIVE 6
A
GREEMENTS.—The Secretary may enter into cooperative 7
agreements to carry out the pilot projects required under 8
subsection (a). 9
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 10
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 11
the enactment of this Act. 12
SEC. 313. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR WHITE OAK RE-13
VIEW AND RESTORATION. 14
(a) A
SSESSMENT.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Inte-16
rior shall carry out an assessment of land under the 17
administrative jurisdiction of the Department of the 18
Interior, including fish and wildlife refuges and 19
abandoned mine land, to evaluate— 20
(A) whether white oak is present on such 21
land; and 22
(B) the potential to restore white oak for-23
ests on such land. 24
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(2) USE OF INFORMATION.—In carrying out the 1
assessment under paragraph (1), the Secretary may 2
use information from sources other than the Depart-3
ment of the Interior, including from the White Oak 4
Initiative and the Forest Service. 5
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the 6
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary 7
shall submit to Congress, and make publicly avail-8
able on the website of the Department of the Inte-9
rior, a report regarding the results of the assessment 10
carried out under this subsection. 11
(b) P
ILOTPROJECTS.—After the date on which the 12
report required under subsection (a)(3) is submitted, the 13
Secretary shall establish and carry out 5 pilot projects in 14
different areas of land described in subsection (a)(1) to 15
restore and naturally regenerate white oak. 16
(c) A
UTHORITY TO ENTERINTOCOOPERATIVE 17
A
GREEMENTS.—The Secretary of the Interior may enter 18
into cooperative agreements to carry out the pilot projects 19
required under subsection (b). 20
(d) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 21
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 22
the enactment of this Act. 23
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SEC. 314. WHITE OAK REGENERATION AND UPLAND OAK 1
HABITAT. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 3
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 4
establish a non-regulatory program to be known as the 5
‘‘White Oak and Upland Oak Habitat Regeneration Pro-6
gram’’ (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Program’’). 7
(b) D
UTIES.—In carrying out the Program, the Sec-8
retary shall— 9
(1) draw upon the best available science and 10
management plans for species of white oak to iden-11
tify, prioritize, and implement restoration and con-12
servation activities that will improve the growth of 13
white oak within the United States; 14
(2) collaborate and coordinate with the White 15
Oak Restoration Initiative Coalition to prioritize 16
white oak restoration initiatives; 17
(3) adopt a white oak restoration strategy 18
that— 19
(A) supports the implementation of a 20
shared set of science-based restoration and con-21
servation activities developed in accordance with 22
paragraph (1); 23
(B) targets cost effective projects with 24
measurable results; and 25
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(C) maximizes restoration outcomes with 1
no net gain of Federal full-time equivalent em-2
ployees; and 3
(4) establish the voluntary grant and technical 4
assistance programs in accordance with subsection 5
(e). 6
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In establishing the Program 7
the Secretary, acting through the Chief of the Forest Serv-8
ice, shall consult with— 9
(1) the heads of Federal agencies, including— 10
(A) the Director of the United States Fish 11
and Wildlife Service; and 12
(B) the Chief of the Natural Resources 13
Conservation Service; and 14
(2) the Governor of each State in which res-15
toration efforts will be carried out pursuant to the 16
Program. 17
(d) P
URPOSES.—The purposes of the Program in-18
clude— 19
(1) coordinating restoration and conservation 20
activities among Federal, State, local, and Tribal en-21
tities and conservation partners to address white oak 22
restoration priorities; 23
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(2) improving and regenerating white oak and 1
upland oak forests and the wildlife habitat such for-2
ests provide; 3
(3) carrying out coordinated restoration and 4
conservation activities that lead to the increased 5
growth of species of white oak in native white oak 6
regions on Federal, State, Tribal, and private land; 7
(4) facilitating strategic planning to maximize 8
the resilience of white oak systems and habitats 9
under changing climate conditions; 10
(5) engaging the public through outreach, edu-11
cation, and citizen involvement to increase capacity 12
and support for coordinated restoration and con-13
servation activities for species of white oak; and 14
(6) increasing scientific capacity to support the 15
planning, monitoring, and research activities nec-16
essary to carry out such coordinated restoration and 17
conservation activities. 18
(e) G
RANTS ANDASSISTANCE.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To the extent that funds are 20
available to carry out this section, the Secretary 21
shall establish a voluntary grant and technical as-22
sistance program (in this section referred to as the 23
‘‘grant program’’) to achieve the purposes of the 24
Program described in subsection (d). 25
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(2) ADMINISTRATION.— 1
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 2
enter into a cooperative agreement with the Na-3
tional Fish and Wildlife Foundation (in this 4
subsection referred to as the ‘‘Foundation’’) to 5
manage and administer the grant program. 6
(B) F
UNDING.—Subject to the availability 7
of appropriations made in advance for such 8
purpose, after the Secretary enters into a coop-9
erative agreement with the Foundation under 10
subparagraph (A), the Foundation shall for 11
each fiscal year, receive amounts to carry out 12
this subsection in an advance payment of the 13
entire amount on October 1, or as soon as prac-14
ticable thereafter, of that fiscal year. 15
(3) A
PPLICATION OF NATIONAL FISH AND 16
WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT ACT .— 17
Amounts received by the Foundation to carry out 18
the grant program shall be subject to the National 19
Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act (16 20
U.S.C. 3701 et seq.), excluding section 10(a) of that 21
Act (16 U.S.C. 3709(a)). 22
(f) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 23
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 24
the enactment of this Act. 25
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SEC. 315. TREE NURSERY SHORTAGES. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 2
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, acting 3
through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall— 4
(1) develop and implement a national strategy 5
to increase the capacity of Federal, State, Tribal, 6
and private tree nurseries to address the nationwide 7
shortage of tree seedlings; and 8
(2) coordinate such strategy with— 9
(A) the national reforestation strategy of 10
the Forest Service; and 11
(B) each regional implementation plan for 12
National Forests. 13
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy required under sub-14
section (a) shall— 15
(1) be based on the best available science and 16
data; and 17
(2) identify and address— 18
(A) regional seedling shortages of bareroot 19
and container tree seedlings; 20
(B) regional reforestation opportunities 21
and the seedling supply necessary to fulfill such 22
opportunities; 23
(C) opportunities to enhance seedling di-24
versity and close gaps in seed inventories; and 25
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(D) barriers to expanding, enhancing, or 1
creating new infrastructure to increase nursery 2
capacity. 3
SEC. 316. WHITE OAK RESEARCH. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary may enter into a 5
memorandum of understanding with an Indian Tribe or 6
institution, including a covered land grant college, to col-7
laboratively conduct research on— 8
(1) white oak genes with resistance or tolerance 9
to stress; 10
(2) white oak trees that exhibit vigor for the 11
purpose of increasing survival and growth; 12
(3) establishing a genetically diverse white oak 13
seeds bank capable of responding to stressors; 14
(4) providing a sustainable supply of white oak 15
seedlings and genetic resources; 16
(5) improved methods for aligning seed sources 17
with the future climate at planting sites; 18
(6) reforestation of white oak through natural 19
and artificial regeneration; 20
(7) improved methods for retaining and increas-21
ing white oak trees in forests; 22
(8) improved methods for reforesting aban-23
doned mine land sites; and 24
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(9) economic and social aspects of white oak 1
forest management across land ownerships. 2
(b) C
ONSULT.—In carrying out the research under 3
subsection (a), the Indian Tribe or institution, including 4
a covered land grant college, that enters into the memo-5
randum of understanding under such subsection may con-6
sult with such States, nonprofit organizations, institutions 7
of higher education, and other scientific bodies, as the en-8
tity subject to such memorandum determines appropriate. 9
(c) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 10
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 11
the enactment of this Act. 12
(d) C
OVEREDLANDGRANTCOLLEGEDEFINED.— 13
In this section, the term ‘‘covered land grant college’’ 14
means an 1862 Institution, an 1890 Institution, or a 1994 15
Institution (as such terms are defined, respectively, in sec-16
tion 2 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Edu-17
cation Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7601)). 18
SEC. 317. USDA FORMAL INITIATIVE. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through the 20
Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and 21
in coordination with the Chief of the Forest Service, shall 22
establish a formal initiative on white oak to— 23
(1) re-establish white oak forests where appro-24
priate; 25
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(2) improve management of existing white oak 1
forests to foster natural regeneration of white oak; 2
(3) provide technical assistance to private land-3
owners to re-establish, improve management of, and 4
naturally regenerate white oak; 5
(4) improve and expand white oak nursery 6
stock; and 7
(5) adapt and improve white oak seedlings. 8
(b) S
UNSET.—The authority under this section shall 9
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of 10
the enactment of this Act. 11
SEC. 318. AUTHORITIES. 12
To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary of 13
the Interior and the Secretary shall use the authorities 14
provided under this title in combination with other au-15
thorities to carry out projects, including— 16
(1) good neighbor agreements entered into 17
under section 8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 18
(16 U.S.C. 2113) (as amended by this Act); and 19
(2) stewardship contracting projects entered 20
into under section 604 of the Healthy Forests Res-21
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591) (as amended 22
by this Act). 23
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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 firefighters or wildland fire sup-19
port personnel who— 20
(A) are killed in the line of duty; or 21
(B) require hospitalization or treatment at 22
a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury or 23
illness. 24
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(2) The reimbursement of next-of-kin for ex-1
penses associated with travel to visit firefighters or 2
wildland fire support personnel who— 3
(A) are killed in the line of duty; or 4
(B) require hospitalization or treatment at 5
a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury or 6
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
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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-OF-DUTYDEATHBENEFITS.—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 a person or persons in the high-25
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est 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 order of 5
precedence by age. 6
(3) Father or mother, unless custody has been 7
vested, by court order, in another (adoptive parent 8
takes precedence over natural parent). 9
(4) Siblings (whole or half) age 18 years or 10
older in descending order of precedence by age. 11
(5) Grandfather or grandmother. 12
(6) Any other relative (order of precedence to 13
be determined in accordance with the civil law of de-14
scent of the deceased former member’s State of 15
domicile at time of death). 16
Æ 
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