II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 140
To address the forest health crisis on the National Forest System and public
lands, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. B
ARRASSO(for himself, Mr. DAINES, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. SHEEHY, and Mr.
R
ISCH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To address the forest health crisis on the National Forest
System and public 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
‘‘Wildfire Prevention Act of 2025’’. 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—ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER RHETORIC
Sec. 101. Accelerating treatments on Federal land.
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Sec. 102. Annual reports.
Sec. 103. Transparency in hazardous fuels reduction activity reporting.
Sec. 104. Regional forest carbon accounting.
Sec. 105. Wildland fire performance metrics.
TITLE II—FOREST MANAGEMENT
Sec. 201. Vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and main-
tenance relating to electric transmission and distribution facil-
ity rights-of-way.
Sec. 202. Timber sales on National Forest System land.
Sec. 203. Categorical exclusion for high-priority hazard trees.
Sec. 204. Intervenor status.
Sec. 205. Utilizing grazing for wildfire risk reduction.
TITLE III—CULTURAL CHANGE IN AGENCIES
Sec. 301. Mandatory use of existing authorities.
Sec. 302. Public-private wildfire technology deployment and testbed partner-
ship.
Sec. 303. Repeal of FLAME reports.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
1
In this Act: 2
(1) F
EDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 3
means— 4
(A) land of the National Forest System; 5
and 6
(B) public lands (as defined in section 103 7
of the Federal Land Policy and Management 8
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)), the surface of 9
which is administered by the Secretary of the 10
Interior, acting through the Director of the Bu-11
reau of Land Management. 12
(2) H
AZARDOUS FUELS REDUCTION ACTIV -13
ITY.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘hazardous 15
fuels reduction activity’’ means any vegetation 16
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management activity to reduce the risk of wild-1
fire, including mechanical treatments and pre-2
scribed burning. 3
(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘‘hazardous 4
fuels reduction activity’’ does not include the 5
awarding of a contract to conduct any activity 6
described in subparagraph (A). 7
(3) N
ATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM .— 8
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘National 9
Forest System’’ has the meaning given the term 10
in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland 11
Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 12
U.S.C. 1609(a)). 13
(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘‘National 14
Forest System’’ does not include any forest re-15
serve not created from the public domain. 16
(4) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-17
retary concerned’’ means— 18
(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 19
through the Chief of the Forest Service, with 20
respect to Federal land described in paragraph 21
(1)(A); and 22
(B) the Secretary of the Interior, acting 23
through the Director of the Bureau of Land 24
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Management, with respect to Federal land de-1
scribed in paragraph (1)(B). 2
(5) W
ILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE .—The term 3
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ has the meaning given 4
the term in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Res-5
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511). 6
TITLE I—ACCOMPLISHMENTS 7
OVER RHETORIC 8
SEC. 101. ACCELERATING TREATMENTS ON FEDERAL 9
LAND. 10
(a) B
ASELINETREATMENTS FOR FUELSREDUCTION 11
ANDFORESTHEALTH.—For Federal land, the Secretary 12
concerned shall determine— 13
(1) for each of fiscal years 2019 through 14
2023— 15
(A) the number of acres mechanically 16
thinned, for acres commercially thinned and for 17
acres pre-commercially thinned; and 18
(B) the number of acres treated by pre-19
scribed fire; and 20
(2) the average of the numbers described in 21
subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1) over 22
the period of fiscal years 2019 through 2023. 23
(b) A
NNUALGOALS.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—For Federal land for fiscal 1
year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter, the Sec-2
retary concerned shall establish annual— 3
(A) mechanical thinning goals for acres 4
commercially thinned and for acres pre-com-5
mercially thinned; and 6
(B) prescribed fire goals. 7
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 8
(A) F
ISCAL YEARS 2025 AND 2026 .—For 9
each of fiscal years 2025 and 2026, the goals 10
established under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of 11
paragraph (1) shall be not less than the number 12
of acres described in subsection (a)(2). 13
(B) F
ISCAL YEARS 2027 AND 2028 .—For 14
each of fiscal years 2027 and 2028, the goals 15
established under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of 16
paragraph (1) shall be not less than 20 percent 17
more than the number of acres described in 18
subsection (a)(2). 19
(C) F
ISCAL YEAR 2029 AND SUBSEQUENT 20
FISCAL YEARS.—For fiscal year 2029 and each 21
fiscal year thereafter, the goals established 22
under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph 23
(1) shall be not less than 40 percent more than 24
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the number of acres described in subsection 1
(a)(2). 2
(c) R
EGIONALALLOTMENTS.—Not later than 90 3
days after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 4
thereafter, the Secretary concerned shall assign annual 5
acreage allotments for mechanical thinning and prescribed 6
fire on Federal land, categorized by National Forest Sys-7
tem region or by State, as appropriate. 8
(d) P
UBLICATION.—The Secretary concerned shall 9
make publicly available the data described in subsections 10
(a), (b), and (c), including by publishing that data on the 11
website of the Forest Service and the website of the Bu-12
reau of Land Management. 13
(e) S
AVINGSPROVISION.—Nothing in this section 14
shall be construed to supersede or conflict with any other 15
provision of law, including— 16
(1) section 40803(b) of the Infrastructure In-17
vestment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(b)); and 18
(2) the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et 19
seq.). 20
(f) A
PPLICABILITY OFNEPA.—The establishment of 21
annual goals under subsection (b)(1) and the assignment 22
of regional allotments under subsection (c) shall not be 23
subject to the requirements of the National Environmental 24
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.). 25
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SEC. 102. ANNUAL REPORTS. 1
Not later than September 30, 2025, and annually 2
thereafter, the Secretary concerned shall publish on a pub-3
lic website of the Forest Service and a public website of 4
the Bureau of Land Management the following informa-5
tion with respect to the Federal land during the preceding 6
fiscal year: 7
(1) The number of acres treated pursuant to 8
section 40803(b) of the Infrastructure Investment 9
and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(b)). 10
(2)(A) The number of acres mechanically 11
thinned; 12
(B) the number of acres treated by prescribed 13
fire; and 14
(C) whether the number of acres described in 15
subparagraphs (A) and (B) met or exceeded the 16
acres described in section 101(b)(2). 17
(3) Any limitations or challenges, including liti-18
gation or delays in the preparation of environmental 19
documentation, that hindered the Secretary con-20
cerned from meeting or exceeding the annual goals 21
established under section 101(b)(1), if applicable. 22
(4) The number of acres that have undergone 23
a regeneration harvest. 24
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(5) The number of acres described in subpara-1
graphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2) and paragraph 2
(4) that are in an area identified as having— 3
(A) the expectation that, without remedi-4
ation, at least 25 percent of standing live basal 5
area greater than 1 inch in diameter may die 6
over a 15-year time frame due to insects and 7
diseases, as depicted on the National Insect and 8
Disease Composite Risk Map; or 9
(B) a very high or high wildfire hazard po-10
tential. 11
(6) The number of acres described in subpara-12
graphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2) and paragraph 13
(4) that use either of the following streamlined au-14
thorities for environmental review: 15
(A) A categorical exclusion. 16
(B) An emergency action authority of the 17
Secretary concerned. 18
(7) The number of acres described in subpara-19
graphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2) and paragraph 20
(4) with respect to which partners are used to carry 21
out the work through— 22
(A) a good neighbor agreement under sec-23
tion 8206 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (16 24
U.S.C. 2113a); 25
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(B) a master stewardship agreement; 1
(C) a contract or agreement entered into 2
under the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 3
(25 U.S.C. 3115a); or 4
(D) a stewardship end-result contract. 5
SEC. 103. TRANSPARENCY IN HAZARDOUS FUELS REDUC-6
TION ACTIVITY REPORTING. 7
(a) I
NCLUSION OFHAZARDOUSFUELSREDUCTION 8
R
EPORT INMATERIALSSUBMITTED INSUPPORT OF THE 9
P
RESIDENT’SBUDGET.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary concerned 11
shall include in the materials submitted in support 12
of the President’s budget pursuant to section 1105 13
of title 31, United States Code, a report describ-14
ing— 15
(A) for each of fiscal years 2025 through 16
2030, the number of acres of Federal land on 17
which the Secretary concerned carried out haz-18
ardous fuels reduction activities during each of 19
the preceding 6 fiscal years, as assessed by the 20
Secretary concerned using— 21
(i) the methodology of the Secretary 22
concerned in effect on the day before the 23
date of enactment of this Act; and 24
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(ii) the methodology described in 1
paragraph (2); and 2
(B) for fiscal year 2031 and each fiscal 3
year thereafter, the number of acres of Federal 4
land on which the Secretary concerned carried 5
out hazardous fuels reduction activities during 6
each of the preceding 6 fiscal years, as assessed 7
by the Secretary concerned using the method-8
ology described in paragraph (2). 9
(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—For purposes of the re-10
ports required under paragraph (1), the Secretary 11
concerned shall— 12
(A) in determining the number of acres of 13
Federal land on which the Secretary concerned 14
carried out hazardous fuels reduction activities 15
during each fiscal year covered by the report— 16
(i) record acres of Federal land on 17
which hazardous fuels reduction activities 18
were completed during each such fiscal 19
year; and 20
(ii) record each acre described in 21
clause (i) once in the report with respect to 22
a fiscal year, regardless of whether mul-23
tiple hazardous fuels reduction activities 24
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were carried out on such acre during such 1
fiscal year; and 2
(B) with respect to the acres of Federal 3
land recorded in the report, include information 4
on— 5
(i) which such acres are located in the 6
wildland-urban interface; 7
(ii) the level of wildfire risk (high, 8
moderate, or low) on the first and last day 9
of each fiscal year covered by the report; 10
(iii) the types of hazardous fuels re-11
duction activities completed for such acres, 12
delineating between whether such activities 13
were conducted— 14
(I) in a wildfire managed for re-15
source benefits; or 16
(II) through a planned project; 17
(iv) the cost per acre of hazardous 18
fuels reduction activities carried out during 19
each fiscal year covered by the report; 20
(v) the region or System unit in which 21
the acres are located; and 22
(vi) the effectiveness of the hazardous 23
fuels reduction activities on reducing the 24
risk of wildfire. 25
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(3) TRANSPARENCY.—The Secretary concerned 1
shall make each report submitted under paragraph 2
(1) publicly available on the website of the Depart-3
ment of Agriculture and the Department of the Inte-4
rior, as applicable. 5
(b) A
CCURATEDATACOLLECTION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 7
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary con-8
cerned shall implement standardized procedures for 9
tracking data relating to hazardous fuels reduction 10
activities carried out by the Secretary concerned. 11
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The standardized procedures 12
required under paragraph (1) shall include— 13
(A) regular, standardized data reviews of 14
the accuracy and timely input of data used to 15
track hazardous fuels reduction activities; 16
(B) verification methods that validate 17
whether such data accurately correlates to the 18
hazardous fuels reduction activities carried out 19
by the Secretary concerned; 20
(C) an analysis of the short- and long-term 21
effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction 22
activities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and 23
(D) for hazardous fuels reduction activities 24
that occur partially within the wildland-urban 25
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interface, methods to distinguish which acres 1
are located within the wildland-urban interface 2
and which acres are located outside the 3
wildland-urban interface. 4
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 14 days after im-5
plementing the standardized procedures required 6
under paragraph (1), the Secretary concerned shall 7
submit to Congress a report that describes— 8
(A) such standardized procedures; and 9
(B) program and policy recommendations 10
to Congress to address any limitations in track-11
ing data relating to hazardous fuels reduction 12
activities under this subsection. 13
SEC. 104. REGIONAL FOREST CARBON ACCOUNTING. 14
Not later than September 30, 2025, and every 3 15
years thereafter, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 16
through the Chief of the Forest Service, shall— 17
(1) using data from the forest inventory and 18
analysis program, determine the net forest carbon 19
balance on the land in the National Forest System 20
of each Forest Service region, including whether the 21
National Forest System land is— 22
(A) a carbon source; or 23
(B) a carbon sink; and 24
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(2) publish the information described in para-1
graph (1) on the website of the Forest Service. 2
SEC. 105. WILDLAND FIRE PERFORMANCE METRICS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 18 months after 4
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary concerned 5
shall submit to the committees of Congress described in 6
subsection (c) a report on existing key performance indica-7
tors and potential outcome-based performance measures 8
to reduce wildfire risk on Federal land. 9
(b) I
NCLUSIONS.—The report submitted under sub-10
section (a) shall identify solutions to track the implemen-11
tation and effectiveness of hazardous fuels reduction ac-12
tivities and forest restoration treatments, including strate-13
gies— 14
(1) to track whether land management activities 15
are reducing wildfire hazards and ways to quantify 16
and track acres in maintenance status; 17
(2) to track place-based and locally led out-18
comes; 19
(3) to standardize national-level monitoring 20
measures; 21
(4) to quantify catastrophic wildfire risk reduc-22
tion; 23
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(5) to identify modeling and data challenges 1
that are preventing the transition to annual wildfire 2
risk mapping updates; and 3
(6) to integrate advanced technologies or a 4
combination of technologies and analyses that will 5
benefit the quality of information reported. 6
(c) C
OMMITTEES OF CONGRESSDESCRIBED.—The 7
committees of Congress referred to in subsection (a) are— 8
(1) the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-9
sources of the Senate; 10
(2) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 11
and Forestry of the Senate; 12
(3) the Committee on Natural Resources of the 13
House of Representatives; and 14
(4) the Committee on Agriculture of the House 15
of Representatives. 16
TITLE II—FOREST MANAGEMENT 17
SEC. 201. VEGETATION MANAGEMENT, FACILITY INSPEC-18
TION, AND OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE 19
RELATING TO ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION AND 20
DISTRIBUTION FACILITY RIGHTS-OF-WAY. 21
(a) H
AZARDTREESWITHIN50 FEET OFELECTRIC 22
P
OWERLINE.—Section 512(a)(1)(B)(ii) of the Federal 23
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 24
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1772(a)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ‘‘10’’ and in-1
serting ‘‘50’’. 2
(b) P
ERMITS ANDAGREEMENTSWITHOWNERS AND 3
O
PERATORS OFELECTRICTRANSMISSION ORDISTRIBU-4
TIONFACILITIES.—Section 512 of the Federal Land Pol-5
icy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1772) is 6
amended— 7
(1) in the section heading, by striking 8
‘‘
MANAGMENT ’’ and inserting ‘‘MANAGEMENT ’’; 9
(2) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as 10
subsections (k) and (l), respectively; and 11
(3) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol-12
lowing: 13
‘‘(j) P
ERMITS ANDAGREEMENTSWITHOWNERS AND 14
O
PERATORS OFELECTRICTRANSMISSION ORDISTRIBU-15
TIONFACILITIES.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In any special use permit 17
or easement on National Forest System or Bureau 18
of Land Management land provided to the owner or 19
operator of an electric transmission or distribution 20
facility, the Secretary concerned may provide per-21
mission to cut and remove trees or other vegetation 22
from within the vicinity of the electric transmission 23
or distribution facility without requiring a separate 24
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timber sale, if that cutting and removal is consistent 1
with— 2
‘‘(A) the applicable plan; 3
‘‘(B) the applicable land and resource 4
management plan or land use plan; and 5
‘‘(C) other applicable environmental laws 6
(including regulations). 7
‘‘(2) U
SE OF PROCEEDS.—A special use permit 8
or easement that includes permission for cutting and 9
removal described in paragraph (1) shall include a 10
requirement that, if the owner or operator of the 11
electric transmission or distribution facility sells any 12
portion of the material removed under the permit or 13
easement, the owner or operator shall provide to the 14
Secretary concerned any proceeds received from the 15
sale, less any transportation costs incurred in the 16
sale. 17
‘‘(3) E
FFECT.—Nothing in paragraph (2) shall 18
require the sale of any material removed under a 19
permit or easement that includes permission for cut-20
ting and removal described in paragraph (1).’’. 21
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SEC. 202. TIMBER SALES ON NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM 1
LAND. 2
Section 14(d) of the National Forest Management 3
Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 472a(d)) is amended, in the first 4
sentence, by striking ‘‘$10,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$55,000’’. 5
SEC. 203. CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION FOR HIGH-PRIORITY 6
HAZARD TREES. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) H
IGH-PRIORITY HAZARD TREE .—The term 9
‘‘high-priority hazard tree’’ means a standing tree 10
that— 11
(A) presents a visible hazard to people or 12
Federal property due to conditions such as de-13
terioration of or damage to the root system, 14
trunk, stem, or limbs of the tree, or the direc-15
tion or lean of the tree, as determined by the 16
Secretary; 17
(B) is determined by the Secretary to be 18
highly likely to fail and, if it failed, would be 19
highly likely to cause injury to people or dam-20
age to Federal property; and 21
(C) is— 22
(i) within 300 feet of a National For-23
est System road with a maintenance level 24
of 3, 4, or 5; 25
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(ii) along a National Forest System 1
trail; or 2
(iii) in a developed recreation site on 3
National Forest System land that is oper-4
ated and maintained by the Secretary. 5
(2) H
IGH-PRIORITY HAZARD TREE ACTIVITY .— 6
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘high-pri-7
ority hazard tree activity’’ means a forest man-8
agement activity that mitigates the risks associ-9
ated with high-priority hazard trees, which may 10
include pruning, felling, and disposal of those 11
high-priority hazard trees. 12
(B) E
XCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘high-pri-13
ority hazard tree activity’’ does not include— 14
(i) any activity conducted in a wilder-15
ness area or wilderness study area; 16
(ii) any activity for the construction of 17
a permanent road or permanent trail; 18
(iii) any activity conducted on Federal 19
land on which, by Act of Congress or Pres-20
idential proclamation, the removal of vege-21
tation is restricted or prohibited; 22
(iv) any activity conducted in an area 23
in which activities described in subpara-24
graph (A) would be inconsistent with the 25
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applicable land and resource management 1
plan; or 2
(v) any activity conducted in an inven-3
toried roadless area. 4
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 5
the Secretary of Agriculture. 6
(b) C
ATEGORICALEXCLUSION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 8
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 9
shall develop a categorical exclusion (as defined in 10
111 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 11
1969 (42 U.S.C. 4336e)) for high-priority hazard 12
tree activities. 13
(2) A
DMINISTRATION.—In developing and ad-14
ministering the categorical exclusion under para-15
graph (1), the Secretary shall— 16
(A) comply with the National Environ-17
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 18
seq.); and 19
(B) apply the extraordinary circumstances 20
procedures under section 220.6 of title 36, Code 21
of Federal Regulations (or successor regula-22
tions), in determining whether to use the cat-23
egorical exclusion. 24
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(3) PROJECT SIZE LIMITATION.—A project car-1
ried out using the categorical exclusion developed 2
under paragraph (1) may not exceed 3,000 acres. 3
SEC. 204. INTERVENOR STATUS. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—For purposes of a civil action re-5
lating to a qualified project described in subsection (b), 6
a unit of local government or an Indian Tribe shall be— 7
(1) entitled to intervene, as of right, in any sub-8
sequent civil action; and 9
(2) considered to be a full participant in any 10
settlement negotiation relating to the qualified 11
project if the unit of local government or Indian 12
Tribe, as applicable, intervenes. 13
(b) D
ESCRIPTION OFQUALIFIEDPROJECT.—A quali-14
fied project referred to in subsection (a) is a project that— 15
(1) is located on Federal land adjacent, or with 16
sufficient minimum contacts, as determined by the 17
Secretary concerned, to the land under the jurisdic-18
tion of the unit of local government or Indian Tribe, 19
as applicable; 20
(2) has been approved by the Secretary con-21
cerned; and 22
(3)(A) reduces the risk posed by wildfire, insect, 23
or disease; or 24
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(B) generates revenue from the harvesting of 1
timber. 2
SEC. 205. UTILIZING GRAZING FOR WILDFIRE RISK REDUC-3
TION. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 18 months after 5
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary concerned 6
shall develop and submit to the Committee on Energy and 7
Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on 8
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives a 9
strategy to analyze and identify opportunities to use live-10
stock grazing as a wildfire risk reduction tool on Federal 11
land, consistent with the laws applicable to the Secretary 12
concerned. 13
(b) I
NCLUSIONS.—The strategy developed under sub-14
section (a) shall include an analysis of— 15
(1) opportunities— 16
(A) to increase the use of any authorities 17
applicable to livestock grazing, including modi-18
fications to grazing permits or leases to allow 19
variances; 20
(B) to use targeted grazing to reduce haz-21
ardous fuels; 22
(C) to integrate advanced technologies to 23
dynamically adjust livestock placement; 24
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(D) to increase the use of livestock grazing 1
to eradicate invasive annual grasses and as a 2
post-fire restoration and recovery strategy, as 3
appropriate; and 4
(E) to facilitate and expedite the tem-5
porary use of vacant allotments during extreme 6
weather events or natural disasters; and 7
(2) any other opportunities determined to be 8
appropriate by the Secretary concerned. 9
(c) E
FFECT ONEXISTINGGRAZINGPROGRAMS.— 10
Nothing in this section affects— 11
(1) any livestock grazing program carried out 12
by the Secretary concerned as of the date of enact-13
ment of this Act; or 14
(2) any statutory authority for any program de-15
scribed in paragraph (1). 16
TITLE III—CULTURAL CHANGE 17
IN AGENCIES 18
SEC. 301. MANDATORY USE OF EXISTING AUTHORITIES. 19
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 20
of this Act, with respect to each unit of Federal land that 21
contains land described in section 102(5), the Secretary 22
concerned shall use not fewer than 1 of the following 23
streamlined authorities for environmental review: 24
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(1) Section 603(a) of the Healthy Forests Res-1
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591b(a)). 2
(2) Section 605(a) of the Healthy Forests Res-3
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591d(a)). 4
(3) Section 606(b) of the Healthy Forests Res-5
toration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6591e(b)). 6
(4) Section 40806(b) of the Infrastructure In-7
vestment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592b(b)). 8
(5) Section 40807 of the Infrastructure Invest-9
ment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592c). 10
(6) Section 207 of the Wildfire Suppression 11
Funding and Forest Management Activities Act (16 12
U.S.C. 6591c note; Public Law 115–141). 13
SEC. 302. PUBLIC-PRIVATE WILDFIRE TECHNOLOGY DE-14
PLOYMENT AND TESTBED PARTNERSHIP. 15
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES .—The term 17
‘‘appropriate committees’’ means— 18
(A) the Committees on Agriculture, Nutri-19
tion, and Forestry, Energy and Natural Re-20
sources, and Commerce, Science, and Transpor-21
tation of the Senate; and 22
(B) the Committees on Agriculture, Nat-23
ural Resources, and Science, Space, and Tech-24
nology of the House of Representatives. 25
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(2) COVERED AGENCY .—The term ‘‘covered 1
agency’’ means— 2
(A) each Federal land management agency 3
(as defined in section 802 of the Federal Lands 4
Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 5
6801)); 6
(B) the Department of Defense; 7
(C) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 8
Administration; 9
(D) the United States Fire Administration; 10
(E) the Federal Emergency Management 11
Agency; 12
(F) the National Aeronautics and Space 13
Administration; 14
(G) the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and 15
(H) any other Federal agency involved in 16
wildfire response. 17
(3) C
OVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-18
tity’’ means— 19
(A) a private entity; 20
(B) a nonprofit organization; and 21
(C) an institution of higher education (as 22
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 23
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)). 24
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(4) PILOT PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘Pilot Pro-1
gram’’ means the deployment and testbed pilot pro-2
gram established under subsection (b). 3
(5) S
ECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 4
means the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-5
retary of the Interior, acting jointly. 6
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 60 days after 7
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries, in co-8
ordination with the heads of the covered agencies, shall 9
establish a deployment and testbed pilot program for new 10
and innovative wildfire prevention, detection, communica-11
tion, and mitigation technologies. 12
(c) F
UNCTIONS.—In carrying out the Pilot Program, 13
the Secretaries shall— 14
(1) incorporate the Pilot Program into an exist-15
ing interagency coordinating group on wildfires; 16
(2) in consultation with the heads of covered 17
agencies, identify key technology priority areas with 18
respect to the deployment of wildfire prevention, de-19
tection, communication, and mitigation technologies, 20
including— 21
(A) hazardous fuels reduction activities or 22
treatments; 23
(B) dispatch communications; 24
(C) remote sensing and tracking; 25
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(D) safety equipment; and 1
(E) common operating pictures or oper-2
ational dashboards; and 3
(3) connect each covered entity selected to par-4
ticipate in the Pilot Program with the appropriate 5
covered agency to coordinate real-time and on-the- 6
ground testing of technology during wildland fire 7
mitigation activities and training. 8
(d) A
PPLICATIONS.—To participate in the Pilot Pro-9
gram, a covered entity shall submit to the Secretaries an 10
application at such time, in such manner, and containing 11
such information as the Secretaries may require, which 12
shall include a proposal to test technologies specific to key 13
technology priority areas identified under subsection 14
(c)(2). 15
(e) P
RIORITIZATION OF EMERGING TECH-16
NOLOGIES.—In selecting covered entities to participate in 17
the Pilot Program, the Secretaries shall give priority to 18
covered entities developing and applying emerging tech-19
nologies that address issues identified by the Secretaries, 20
including artificial intelligence, quantum sensing, com-21
puting and quantum-hybrid applications, augmented re-22
ality, and 5G private networks and device-to-device com-23
munications supporting nomadic mesh networks, for wild-24
fire mitigation. 25
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(f) OUTREACH.—The Secretaries, in coordination 1
with the heads of the covered agencies, shall make publicly 2
available the key technology priority areas identified under 3
subsection (c)(2) and invite covered entities to apply to 4
test and demonstrate their technologies to address those 5
priority areas. 6
(g) R
EPORTS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later 7
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and 8
each year thereafter for the duration of the Pilot Program, 9
the Secretaries shall submit to the appropriate committees 10
a report that includes the following with respect to the 11
Pilot Program: 12
(1) A list of participating covered entities. 13
(2) A brief description of the technologies test-14
ed by such covered entities. 15
(3) An estimate of the cost of acquiring the 16
technology tested in the Pilot Program and applying 17
it at scale. 18
(4) Outreach efforts by Federal agencies to cov-19
ered entities developing wildfire technologies. 20
(5) Assessments of, and recommendations relat-21
ing to, new technologies with potential adoption and 22
application at-scale in the wildfire prevention, detec-23
tion, communication, and mitigation efforts of Fed-24
eral land management agencies (as defined in sec-25
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tion 802 of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhance-1
ment Act (16 U.S.C. 6801)). 2
(h) T
ERMINATION.—The Pilot Program shall expire 3
on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment 4
of this Act. 5
SEC. 303. REPEAL OF FLAME REPORTS. 6
Section 502 of the FLAME Act of 2009 (43 U.S.C. 7
1748a) is amended— 8
(1) by striking subsection (h); and 9
(2) by redesignating subsection (i) as subsection 10
(h). 11
Æ
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