II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 306
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration that improves wildfire, fire weather,
fire risk, and wildfire smoke related forecasting, detection, modeling,
observations, and service delivery, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Ms. C
ANTWELL(for herself, Mr. SHEEHY, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. LUJA´N, Mr. SUL-
LIVAN, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. PADILLA, and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
that improves wildfire, fire weather, fire risk, and wildfire
smoke related forecasting, detection, modeling, observa-
tions, and service delivery, 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
‘‘Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025’’. 5
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(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1
this Act is as follows: 2
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Establishment of fire weather services program.
Sec. 4. Fire weather testbed.
Sec. 5. Data management and technology modernization.
Sec. 6. Surveys and assessments.
Sec. 7. Incident Meteorologist Service.
Sec. 8. Emergency response activities.
Sec. 9. Submissions to Congress regarding the fire weather services program,
incident meteorologist workforce needs, and National Weather
Service workforce support.
Sec. 10. Fire Science and Technology Working Group; strategic plan.
Sec. 11. Fire weather rating system.
Sec. 12. Government Accountability Office reports.
Sec. 13. Cooperation and coordination.
Sec. 14. General provisions.
Sec. 15. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
3
In this Act: 4
(1) A
DMINISTRATION.—The term ‘‘Administra-5
tion’’ means the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 6
Administration. 7
(2) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -8
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-9
gress’’ means— 10
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 11
and Transportation of the Senate; and 12
(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and 13
Technology of the House of Representatives. 14
(3) E
ARTH SYSTEM MODEL .—The term ‘‘Earth 15
system model’’ means a mathematical model con-16
taining all relevant components of the Earth, namely 17
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the atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere, and bio-1
sphere. 2
(4) F
IRE ENVIRONMENT.—The term ‘‘fire envi-3
ronment’’ means— 4
(A) the environmental conditions, such as 5
soil moisture, vegetation, topography, snowpack, 6
atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind, 7
that influence— 8
(i) fuel and fire behavior; and 9
(ii) the emission, chemical evolution, 10
and transport of wildfire smoke; and 11
(B) the associated environmental impacts 12
occurring during and after fire events. 13
(5) F
IRE WEATHER.—The term ‘‘fire weather’’ 14
means the weather conditions that influence the 15
start, spread, character, or behavior of wildfires and 16
relevant meteorological and chemical phenomena, in-17
cluding air quality, wildfire smoke, and meteorolog-18
ical parameters such as relative humidity, air tem-19
perature, wind speed and direction, and atmospheric 20
composition and chemistry, including emissions and 21
mixing heights. 22
(6) I
MPACT-BASED DECISION SUPPORT SERV -23
ICES.—The term ‘‘impact-based decision support 24
services’’ means scientific advice and interpretative 25
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services the Administration provides to help core 1
partners, such as emergency personnel and public 2
safety officials, make decisions when the information 3
impacts the lives and livelihoods of the people of the 4
United States. 5
(7) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ 6
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the 7
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 8
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 9
(8) N
ATIVE HAWAIIAN ORGANIZATION .—The 10
term ‘‘Native Hawaiian organization’’ has the mean-11
ing given that term in section 6207 of the Elemen-12
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 13
U.S.C. 7517), including the Department of Hawai-14
ian Home Lands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. 15
(9) S
EASONAL.—The term ‘‘seasonal’’ has the 16
meaning given that term in section 2 of the Weather 17
Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 18
(15 U.S.C. 8501). 19
(10) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means a State, 20
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of 21
Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Common-22
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the United 23
State Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micro-24
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nesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the 1
Republic of Palau. 2
(11) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘Trib-3
al organization’’ has the meaning given that term in 4
section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-5
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 6
(12) U
NDER SECRETARY .—The term ‘‘Under 7
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 8
for Oceans and Atmosphere. 9
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRE WEATHER SERVICES 10
PROGRAM. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall estab-12
lish and maintain a coordinated fire weather services pro-13
gram among the offices of the Administration in existence 14
as of the date of the enactment of this Act. 15
(b) P
ROGRAMFUNCTIONS.—The functions of the 16
program established under subsection (a), consistent with 17
the priorities described in section 101 of the Weather Re-18
search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 19
8511), shall be— 20
(1) to support readiness, responsiveness, under-21
standing, and resilience of the United States to 22
wildfires, fire weather, wildfire smoke, post-fire 23
flooding and debris flows, and associated hazards 24
and impacts in built and natural environments; 25
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(2) to collaboratively develop and disseminate 1
accurate, precise, effective, and timely risk commu-2
nications, forecasts, watches, and warnings relating 3
to wildfires, fire weather, wildfire smoke, post-fire 4
flooding and debris flows, and other associated con-5
ditions, hazards, and impacts, as applicable, with 6
Federal land management agencies; 7
(3) to partner with and support the public, 8
Federal and State government entities, Indian 9
tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and academic 10
and local partners through the development of capa-11
bilities, impact-based decision support services, and 12
overall service delivery and utility related to fire 13
weather; 14
(4) to conduct and support research and devel-15
opment of new and innovative models, technologies, 16
techniques, products, systems, processes, and proce-17
dures to predict and improve understanding of 18
wildfires, fire weather, related air quality, post-fire 19
flooding and debris flows, and the fire environment; 20
(5) to develop processes to transition research 21
into operational use and inform additional areas of 22
research to deliver fire weather products, services, 23
and decision support tools to operational users and 24
platforms; 25
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(6) to develop communications networks and 1
strategies to ensure parity of fire forecasts, warning 2
services, and information about current fire location, 3
for remote, isolated, and rural communities, includ-4
ing communities where the public acts as the first 5
responder to wildfire; and 6
(7) to develop, in coordination with Federal 7
land management agencies, impact-based decision 8
support services that operationalize and integrate 9
the functions described in paragraphs (1) through 10
(6) in order to provide comprehensive impact-based 11
decision support services that encompass the fire en-12
vironment. 13
(c) P
ROGRAMPRIORITIES.—In developing and imple-14
menting the program established under subsection (a), the 15
Under Secretary shall prioritize— 16
(1) development of a fire weather-enabled Earth 17
system model and data assimilation systems that— 18
(A) are capable of prediction and fore-19
casting across relevant spatial and temporal 20
scales; 21
(B) include variables associated with fire 22
weather and the fire environment; 23
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(C) improve understanding of the connec-1
tions between fire weather and modes of climate 2
variability; 3
(D) incorporate emerging techniques such 4
as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and 5
cloud computing; and 6
(E) use a rapidly deployable network of 7
rain gauges for post-fire hazard monitoring; 8
(2) advancement of existing and new observa-9
tional capabilities, including satellite-, airborne-, air- 10
, and ground-based systems and technologies, and 11
social networking and other public information-gath-12
ering applications that— 13
(A) identify— 14
(i) high-risk pre-ignition conditions; 15
(ii) conditions that influence fire be-16
havior and spread including those condi-17
tions that suppress active fire events; and 18
(iii) fire weather threat levels; 19
(B) support real-time notification and 20
monitoring of ignitions; 21
(C) support observations and data collec-22
tion of fire weather and fire environment vari-23
ables, including vegetation state and profiles of 24
wildfire smoke, winds, temperature, and humid-25
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ity, for development of the model and systems 1
under paragraph (1); and 2
(D) support forecasts and research that 3
mitigate the impacts of wildfires on human life, 4
health, and the economy; 5
(3) development and implementation of ad-6
vanced and user-oriented impact-based decision 7
tools, science, and technologies that— 8
(A) ensure real-time and retrospective 9
data, products, and services are findable, acces-10
sible, interoperable, usable, inform further re-11
search, and are analysis- and decision-ready; 12
(B) provide targeted information through-13
out the fire lifecycle including pre-ignition, de-14
tection, forecasting, post-fire, and monitoring 15
phases; and 16
(C) support early assessment of post-fire 17
hazards, such as air quality, debris flows, 18
mudslides, and flooding; and 19
(4) ensuring the parity of access to and support 20
from the tools, science, and technologies developed 21
under this subsection for remote, isolated, and rural 22
communities. 23
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(d) PROGRAMACTIVITIES.—In developing and imple-1
menting the program established under subsection (a), the 2
Under Secretary may— 3
(1) conduct relevant physical and social science 4
research activities in support of the functions de-5
scribed in subsection (b) and the priorities described 6
in subsection (c); 7
(2) conduct relevant activities, in coordination 8
with Federal land management agencies and Federal 9
science agencies, to assess fuel characteristics, in-10
cluding moisture, loading, and other parameters 11
used to determine fire risk levels and outlooks; 12
(3) support and conduct research that assesses 13
impacts to marine, riverine, watershed, and other 14
relevant ecosystems, which may include forest and 15
rangeland ecosystems, resulting from activities asso-16
ciated with mitigation of and response to wildfires; 17
(4) support and conduct attribution science re-18
search relating to wildfires, fire weather, fire risk, 19
wildfire smoke, and associated conditions, risks, and 20
impacts; 21
(5) develop wildfire smoke and air quality fore-22
casts, forecast guidance, and prescribed burn weath-23
er forecasts, and conduct research on the impact of 24
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such forecasts on response behavior that minimizes 1
health-related impacts from wildfire smoke exposure; 2
(6) use, in coordination with Federal land man-3
agement agencies, wildland fuels information and 4
fire resource intelligence to inform fire environment 5
impact-based decision support services and products 6
for safety; 7
(7) work with Federal agencies to provide data, 8
tools, and services to support the implementation of 9
mitigation measures by such agencies; 10
(8) provide training and support to ensure ef-11
fective media utilization of impact-based decision 12
support services and products to the public regard-13
ing actions needing to be taken; 14
(9) provide comprehensive training to ensure 15
staff of the program established under subsection 16
(a) is properly equipped to deliver the impact-based 17
decision support services and products described in 18
paragraphs (1) through (6); and 19
(10) acquire, through contracted purchase, pri-20
vate sector-produced observational data to fill identi-21
fied gaps, as needed. 22
(e) P
ARITY FORREMOTE, ISOLATED, ANDRURAL 23
C
OMMUNITIES.—In developing and implementing the pro-24
gram established under subsection (a), the Under Sec-25
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retary shall ensure parity of coverage and programmatic 1
activity for remote, isolated, and rural communities, in-2
cluding communities where the public acts as the first re-3
sponder to wildfire. 4
(f) C
OLLABORATION.—The Under Secretary shall, as 5
the Under Secretary considers appropriate, collaborate 6
with partners in the weather and climate enterprises, aca-7
demic institutions, States, Indian tribes, Tribal organiza-8
tions, Native Hawaiian organizations, local partners, and 9
Federal agencies in the development and implementation 10
of the program established under subsection (a). 11
(g) A
GREEMENTS.—In carrying out the activities 12
under this Act and the amendments made by this Act, 13
the Under Secretary may provide support to non-Federal 14
entities by making funds and resources available 15
through— 16
(1) competitive grants; 17
(2) contracts under the mobility program under 18
subchapter VI of chapter 33 of title 5, United States 19
Code (commonly referred to as the ‘‘Intergovern-20
mental Personnel Act Mobility Program’’); 21
(3) cooperative agreements; and 22
(4) co-location agreements as described in sec-23
tion 502 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 24
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Administration Commissioned Officer Corps Amend-1
ments Act of 2020 (33 U.S.C. 851 note prec.). 2
(h) P
ROGRAMADMINISTRATIONPLAN.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 5
Under Secretary shall submit to the appropriate 6
committees of Congress a plan that details how the 7
program established under subsection (a) will be ad-8
ministered and governed within the Administration. 9
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The plan required by para-10
graph (1) should include a description of— 11
(A) how the functions described in sub-12
section (b), the priorities described in sub-13
section (c), and the activities described in sub-14
section (d) will be distributed among the line of-15
fices of the Administration; and 16
(B) the mechanisms in place to ensure 17
seamless coordination among those offices. 18
SEC. 4. FIRE WEATHER TESTBED. 19
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF FIREWEATHER 20
T
ESTBED.—The Under Secretary shall establish a fire 21
weather testbed that enables engagement across the Fed-22
eral Government, State and local governments, academia, 23
private and federally funded research laboratories, the pri-24
vate sector, and end-users in order to evaluate the accu-25
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racy and usability of technology, models, fire weather 1
products and services, and other research to accelerate the 2
implementation, transition to operations, and use of new 3
capabilities by the Administration, Federal and land man-4
agement agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. 5
(b) U
NCREWEDSYSTEMS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall— 7
(A) establish and carry out a research and 8
development program to support the application 9
of uncrewed systems technologies to improve 10
data collection in support of modeling, observa-11
tions, predictions, forecasts, and impact-based 12
decision support services, and for other pur-13
poses of the Administration; 14
(B) transition uncrewed systems tech-15
nologies from research to operations as the 16
Under Secretary considers appropriate; and 17
(C) coordinate with other Federal agencies 18
that may be developing uncrewed systems and 19
related technologies to meet the challenges of 20
wildland fire management. 21
(2) P
ILOTS REQUIRED.—In carrying out para-22
graph (1), the Under Secretary shall conduct pilots 23
of uncrewed systems for fire weather and fire envi-24
ronment observations, including— 25
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(A) testing of uncrewed systems in ap-1
proximations of real-world scenarios; 2
(B) assessment of the utility of meteoro-3
logical data collected from fire response and as-4
sessment aircraft; 5
(C) input of the collected data into appro-6
priate models to predict fire behavior, including 7
coupled atmosphere and fire models; and 8
(D) collection of best management prac-9
tices for deployment of uncrewed systems and 10
other remote data technology, including for 11
communication and coordination between the 12
stakeholders described in subsection (a). 13
(3) S
AVINGS CLAUSE.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out activi-15
ties under this subsection, the Under Secretary 16
shall ensure that any testing or deployment of 17
uncrewed systems follow procedures, restric-18
tions, and protocols established by the heads of 19
the Federal agencies with statutory or regu-20
latory jurisdiction over any airspace in which 21
wildfire response activities are conducted during 22
an active wildfire event. 23
(B) C
ONSULTATION AND COORDINA -24
TION.—The Under Secretary shall consult and 25
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coordinate with relevant Federal land manage-1
ment agencies, Federal science agencies, and 2
the Federal Aviation Administration to develop 3
processes for the appropriate deployment of the 4
systems described in subparagraph (A). 5
(c) A
DDITIONALPILOTPROJECTS.—The Under Sec-6
retary shall establish additional pilot projects relating to 7
the fire weather testbed that may include the following ele-8
ments: 9
(1) Advanced products to detect fire from sat-10
ellites. 11
(2) Procurement and use of commercial data. 12
(3) Investigation and evaluation of information 13
needs of users and decision makers. 14
(d) R
EPORT.—Section 108(a)(5) of the National Oce-15
anic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act 16
of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 8520(a)(5)) is amended— 17
(1) in subparagraph (C), by adding ‘‘and’’ at 18
the end; and 19
(2) in subparagraph (D)— 20
(A) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’; 21
(B) in clause (iii), by adding ‘‘and’’ at the 22
end; and 23
(C) by adding at the end the following: 24
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‘‘(iv) a description of the research 1
that has been transitioned into operations, 2
including research at the fire weather 3
testbed established under section 4(a) of 4
the Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025;’’. 5
SEC. 5. DATA MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY MOD-6
ERNIZATION. 7
(a) D
ATAAVAILABILITY ANDMANAGEMENT.—Sec-8
tion 301 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Inno-9
vation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8531) is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 11
subsections (g) and (h), respectively; and 12
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(f) D
ATAAVAILABILITY ANDMANAGEMENT.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary 16
shall— 17
‘‘(A) make data and metadata generated 18
or collected by the National Oceanic and At-19
mospheric Administration that the Under Sec-20
retary has the legal right to redistribute fully 21
and openly available, in accordance with chap-22
ter 35 of title 44, United States Code, and the 23
Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking 24
Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–435; 132 Stat. 25
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5529) and the amendments made by that Act, 1
and preserve and curate such data and 2
metadata, in accordance with chapter 31 of title 3
44, United States Code (commonly known as 4
the ‘Federal Records Act of 1950’), in order to 5
maximize use of such data and metadata; and 6
‘‘(B) manage and steward the access, ar-7
chival, and retrieval activities for the data and 8
metadata described in subparagraph (A) by— 9
‘‘(i) using— 10
‘‘(I) enterprise-wide infrastruc-11
ture, emerging technologies, commer-12
cial partnerships, and the skilled 13
workforce needed to provide appro-14
priate data management from collec-15
tion to broad access; and 16
‘‘(II) associated information serv-17
ices; and 18
‘‘(ii) pursuing the maximum inter-19
operability of data and information by— 20
‘‘(I) leveraging data, information, 21
knowledge, and tools from across the 22
Federal Government to support equi-23
table access, cross-sectoral collabora-24
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tion and innovation, and local plan-1
ning and decision-making; and 2
‘‘(II) developing standards and 3
practices for the adoption and citation 4
of digital object identifiers for 5
datasets, models, and analytical tools. 6
‘‘(2) C
OLLABORATION.—In carrying out this 7
subsection, the Under Secretary shall collaborate 8
with such Federal partners and stakeholders as the 9
Under Secretary considers relevant— 10
‘‘(A) to develop standards to pursue max-11
imum interoperability of data, information, 12
knowledge, and tools across the Federal Gov-13
ernment, convert historical records into com-14
mon digital formats, and improve access and 15
usability of data by partners and stakeholders; 16
‘‘(B) to identify and solicit relevant data 17
from Federal and international partners and 18
other relevant stakeholders, as the Under Sec-19
retary considers appropriate; and 20
‘‘(C) to develop standards and practices for 21
the adoption and citation of digital object iden-22
tifiers for datasets, models, and analytical 23
tools.’’. 24
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(b) WILDFIRETECHNOLOGYMODERNIZATION.—Sec-1
tion 1114 of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Man-2
agement, and Recreation Act (43 U.S.C. 1748b–1) is 3
amended— 4
(1) in subsection (c)(3), by inserting ‘‘the Na-5
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,’’ 6
after ‘‘Federal Aviation Administration,’’; 7
(2) in subsection (e)(2)— 8
(A) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as 9
subparagraph (C); and 10
(B) by inserting after subparagraph (A) 11
the following: 12
‘‘(B) C
ONSULTATION.— 13
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out 14
subparagraph (A), the Secretaries shall 15
consult with the Under Secretary of Com-16
merce for Oceans and Atmosphere regard-17
ing any development of impact-based deci-18
sion support services that relate to wild-19
fire-related activities of the National Oce-20
anic and Atmospheric Administration. 21
‘‘(ii) D
EFINITION OF IMPACT -BASED 22
DECISION SUPPORT SERVICES .—In this 23
subparagraph, the term ‘impact-based deci-24
sion support services’ means scientific ad-25
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vice and interpretative services the Na-1
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-2
tration provides to help core partners, such 3
as emergency personnel and public safety 4
officials, make decisions when the informa-5
tion impacts the lives and livelihoods of the 6
people of the United States.’’; and 7
(3) in subsection (f)— 8
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and 9
(2) as subparagraphs (A) and (B), respectively, 10
and moving such subparagraphs, as so redesig-11
nated, 2 ems to the right; 12
(B) by striking ‘‘The Secretaries’’ and in-13
serting the following: 14
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretaries’’; and 15
(C) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(2) C
OLLABORATION.—In carrying out para-17
graph (1), the Secretaries shall collaborate with the 18
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and At-19
mosphere to improve coordination, utility of systems 20
and assets, and interoperability of data for wildfire 21
smoke prediction, forecasting, and modeling.’’. 22
(c) D
IGITALPRESENCE.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 24
develop and maintain a comprehensive, centralized, 25
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and publicly accessible digital presence designed to 1
promote findability, accessibility, interoperability, 2
usability, and utility of the services, tools, data, and 3
information produced by the program established 4
under section 3(a). 5
(2) D
IGITAL PLATFORM AND TOOLS .—In car-6
rying out paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall 7
seek to ensure the digital platform and tools of the 8
Administration integrate geospatial data, decision 9
support tools, training, and best practices to provide 10
real-time fire weather forecasts and address fire-re-11
lated issues and needs. 12
(d) H
IGH-PERFORMANCECOMPUTING.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 14
seek to acquire sufficient high-performance com-15
puting resources and capacity for research, oper-16
ations, and data storage in support of the program 17
established under section 3(a). 18
(2) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In acquiring high-per-19
formance computing capacity under paragraph (1), 20
the Under Secretary shall consider requirements 21
needed for— 22
(A) conducting research, development, and 23
testbed experiments; 24
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(B) the transition of research and testbed 1
developments into operations; 2
(C) sustaining capabilities in operations; 3
(D) capabilities existing in other Federal 4
agencies and the commercial sector; and 5
(E) skilled workforce development. 6
SEC. 6. SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENTS. 7
(a) P
OST-FIREWEATHERSURVEYS AND ASSESS-8
MENTS.— 9
(1) A
NNUAL POST-FIRE-WEATHER-SEASON SUR-10
VEY AND ASSESSMENT .— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—During the second win-12
ter following the date of the enactment of this 13
Act, and each year thereafter, the Under Sec-14
retary shall conduct a post-fire-weather-season 15
survey and assessment. 16
(B) E
LEMENTS.—After conducting a post- 17
fire-weather-season survey and assessment 18
under subparagraph (A), the Under Secretary 19
shall— 20
(i) investigate any gaps in weather 21
data collected during the assessment; 22
(ii) identify and implement strategies 23
and procedures to improve program serv-24
ices and information dissemination; 25
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(iii) update systems, processes, strate-1
gies, and procedures to enhance the effi-2
ciency and reliability of weather data ob-3
tained from the assessment; 4
(iv) evaluate the accuracy and efficacy 5
of physical fire weather forecasting infor-6
mation for each incident included in the 7
survey and assessment; and 8
(v) assess and refine performance 9
measures, as needed. 10
(2) S
URVEYS AND ASSESSMENTS FOLLOWING 11
INDIVIDUAL WILDFIRE EVENTS .—The Under Sec-12
retary may conduct surveys and assessments fol-13
lowing individual wildfire events as the Under Sec-14
retary determines necessary. 15
(3) G
OAL.—In carrying out activities under this 16
subsection, the Under Secretary shall seek to in-17
crease the number of post-wildfire community im-18
pact studies, including by surveying individual and 19
collective responses and incorporating other applica-20
ble topics of social science research. 21
(4) A
NNUAL BRIEFING.—Not less frequently 22
than once each year, the Under Secretary shall join 23
other relevant agencies to provide a briefing to the 24
appropriate committees of Congress that provides— 25
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(A) an overview of the fire season; 1
(B) an outlook for the fire season; and 2
(C) fire weather forecasts. 3
(5) C
OORDINATION.—In conducting any survey 4
or assessment under this subsection, the Under Sec-5
retary shall coordinate with Federal, State, and local 6
partners, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organiza-7
tions, private entities, and such institutions of high-8
er education as the Under Secretary considers rel-9
evant in order to— 10
(A) improve operations and collaboration; 11
and 12
(B) optimize data collection, sharing, inte-13
gration, assimilation, and dissemination. 14
(6) D
ATA AVAILABILITY.—The Under Secretary 15
shall make the data and findings obtained from each 16
assessment conducted under this subsection available 17
to the public in an accessible digital format as soon 18
as practicable after conducting the assessment. 19
(7) S
ERVICE IMPROVEMENTS .—The Under Sec-20
retary shall make best efforts to incorporate the re-21
sults and recommendations of each assessment con-22
ducted under this subsection into the research and 23
development plan and operations of the Administra-24
tion. 25
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(b) JOINTASSESSMENT ANDPLAN FORAUTOMATED 1
S
URFACEOBSERVINGSYSTEM.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in col-3
laboration with the Administrator of the Federal 4
Aviation Administration and the Secretary of De-5
fense, shall— 6
(A) conduct an assessment of resources, 7
personnel, procedures, and activities necessary 8
to maximize the functionality and utility of the 9
automated surface observing system of the 10
United States that identifies— 11
(i) key system upgrades needed to im-12
prove observation quality and utility for 13
weather forecasting, aviation safety, and 14
other users; 15
(ii) improvements needed in observa-16
tions within the planetary boundary layer, 17
including mixing height; 18
(iii) improvements needed in public 19
accessibility of observational data; 20
(iv) improvements needed to reduce 21
latency in reporting of observational data; 22
(v) relevant data to be collected for 23
the production of forecasts or forecast 24
guidance relating to atmospheric composi-25
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tion, including particulate and air quality 1
data related to wildfires, and aviation safe-2
ty; 3
(vi) areas of concern regarding oper-4
ational continuity and reliability of the sys-5
tem, which may include needs for on-night 6
staff, particularly in remote and rural 7
areas and areas where system failure 8
would have the greatest negative impact to 9
the community; 10
(vii) stewardship, data handling, data 11
distribution, and product generation needs 12
arising from upgrading and changing the 13
automated surface observation systems; 14
(viii) possible solutions for areas of 15
concern identified under clause (vi), includ-16
ing with respect to the potential use of 17
backup systems, power and communication 18
system reliability, staffing needs and per-19
sonnel location, and the acquisition of crit-20
ical component backups and proper storage 21
location to ensure rapid system repair nec-22
essary to ensure system operational con-23
tinuity; and 24
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(ix) research, development, and transi-1
tion to operations needed to develop ad-2
vanced data collection, quality control, and 3
distribution so that the data are provided 4
to models, users, and decision support sys-5
tems in a timely manner; and 6
(B) develop and implement a plan that ad-7
dresses the findings of the assessment con-8
ducted under subparagraph (A), including by 9
seeking and allocating resources necessary to 10
ensure that system upgrades are standardized 11
across the Administration, the Federal Aviation 12
Administration, and the Department of Defense 13
to the extent practicable. 14
(2) S
TANDARDIZATION.—Any system standard-15
ization implemented under paragraph (1)(B) shall 16
not impede activities to upgrade or improve indi-17
vidual units of the system. 18
(3) R
EMOTE AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATION 19
COORDINATION.—The Under Secretary, in collabora-20
tion with relevant Federal agencies and the National 21
Interagency Coordination Center, shall assess and 22
develop cooperative agreements to improve coordina-23
tion, interoperability standards, operations, and 24
placement of remote automatic weather stations for 25
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the purpose of improving utility and coverage of re-1
mote automatic weather stations, automated surface 2
observation systems, wildfire smoke monitoring plat-3
forms, and other similar stations and systems for 4
weather and climate operations. 5
(4) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.— 6
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years 7
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 8
Under Secretary, in collaboration with the Ad-9
ministrator of the Federal Aviation Administra-10
tion and the Secretary of Defense, shall submit 11
to the appropriate committees of Congress a re-12
port that— 13
(i) details the findings of the assess-14
ment required by subparagraph (A) of 15
paragraph (1); and 16
(ii) the plan required by subparagraph 17
(B) of such paragraph. 18
(B) E
LEMENTS.—The report required by 19
subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed as-20
sessment of appropriations required— 21
(i) to address the findings of the as-22
sessment required by subparagraph (A) of 23
paragraph (1); and 24
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(ii) to implement the plan required by 1
subparagraph (B) of such paragraph. 2
SEC. 7. INCIDENT METEOROLOGIST SERVICE. 3
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Under Secretary shall es-4
tablish and maintain an Incident Meteorologist Service 5
within the National Weather Service (in this section re-6
ferred to as the ‘‘Service’’). 7
(b) I
NCLUSION OFEXISTINGINCIDENTMETEOROLO-8
GISTS.—The Service shall include— 9
(1) the incident meteorologists of the Adminis-10
tration as of the date of the enactment of this Act; 11
and 12
(2) such incident meteorologists of the Adminis-13
tration as may be appointed after such date. 14
(c) F
UNCTIONS.—The Service shall provide— 15
(1) on-site impact-based decision support serv-16
ices to Federal, State, and local government emer-17
gency response agencies, Indian tribes, and Native 18
Hawaiian organizations preceding, during, and fol-19
lowing significant weather-related events, such as 20
wildland fires, that threaten human life, property, or 21
the economy; and 22
(2) support to Federal, State, and local govern-23
ment decision makers, partners, and stakeholders, 24
Indian tribes, Tribal organizations, and Native Ha-25
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waiian organizations for seasonal planning and pre- 1
fire mitigation activities. 2
(d) D
EPLOYMENT.—The Service shall be deployed— 3
(1) as determined by the Under Secretary; or 4
(2) at the request of the head of another Fed-5
eral agency and with the approval of the Under Sec-6
retary. 7
(e) S
TAFFING ANDRESOURCES.—In establishing and 8
maintaining the Service, the Under Secretary shall iden-9
tify, acquire, and maintain adequate levels of staffing and 10
resources to meet user needs. 11
(f) S
UPPORT FOR INCIDENTMETEOROLOGISTS.— 12
The Under Secretary shall provide resources, access to 13
real-time fire weather forecasts, training, administrative 14
and logistical support, and access to professional coun-15
seling or other forms of support as the Under Secretary 16
considers appropriate for the betterment of the emotional 17
and mental health and well-being of incident meteorolo-18
gists and other employees of the Administration so long 19
as the need for such resources, training, access, or support 20
is due to the response of such employees to high-impact 21
and extreme fire weather events. 22
SEC. 8. EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIVITIES. 23
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
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(1) BASIC PAY.—The term ‘‘basic pay’’ includes 1
any applicable locality-based comparability payment 2
under section 5304 of title 5, United States Code, 3
any applicable special rate supplement under section 4
5305 of such title, or any equivalent payment under 5
a similar provision of law. 6
(2) C
OVERED EMPLOYEE .—The term ‘‘covered 7
employee’’ means an employee of the Department of 8
Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, or the 9
Department of the Interior. 10
(3) C
OVERED SERVICES.—The term ‘‘covered 11
services’’ means services that are performed by a 12
covered employee while serving— 13
(A) as a wildland firefighter or a fire man-14
agement response official, including a regional 15
fire director, a deputy regional fire director, 16
and a fire management officer; 17
(B) as an incident meteorologist accom-18
panying a wildland firefighter crew; or 19
(C) on an incident management team, at 20
the National Interagency Fire Center, at a Geo-21
graphic Area Coordinating Center, or at an op-22
erations center. 23
(4) P
REMIUM PAY.—The term ‘‘premium pay’’ 24
means premium pay paid under a provision of law 25
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described in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 1
section 5547(a) of title 5, United States Code. 2
(5) R
ELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -3
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant congressional commit-4
tees’’ means— 5
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 6
and Transportation of the Senate; 7
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 8
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 9
(C) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-10
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 11
(D) the Committee on Appropriations of 12
the Senate; 13
(E) the Committee on Energy and Natural 14
Resources of the Senate; 15
(F) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-16
ernment Reform of the House of Representa-17
tives; 18
(G) the Committee on Natural Resources 19
of the House of Representatives; 20
(H) the Committee on Science, Space, and 21
Technology of the House of Representatives; 22
(I) the Committee on Agriculture of the 23
House of Representative; and 24
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(J) the Committee on Appropriations of 1
the House of Representatives. 2
(6) S
ECRETARY CONCERNED .—The term ‘‘Sec-3
retary concerned’’ means— 4
(A) the Secretary of Commerce, with re-5
spect to an employee of the Department of 6
Commerce; 7
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-8
spect to an employee of the Department of Ag-9
riculture; and 10
(C) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-11
spect to an employee of the Department of the 12
Interior. 13
(b) W
AIVER.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any premium pay received 15
by a covered employee for covered services shall be 16
disregarded in calculating the aggregate of the basic 17
pay and premium pay for the covered employee for 18
purposes of applying the limitation on premium pay 19
under section 5547(a) of title 5, United States Code. 20
(2) C
ALCULATION OF AGGREGATE PAY .—Any 21
pay that is disregarded under paragraph (1) shall be 22
disregarded in calculating the aggregate pay of the 23
applicable covered employee for purposes of applying 24
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the limitation under section 5307 of title 5, United 1
States Code, during calendar year 2025. 2
(3) L
IMITATION.—A covered employee may not 3
be paid premium pay under this subsection if, or to 4
the extent that, the aggregate of the basic pay and 5
premium pay (including premium pay for covered 6
services) of the covered employee for a calendar year 7
would exceed the rate of basic pay payable for a po-8
sition at level II of the Executive Schedule under 9
section 5313 of title 5, United States Code, as in ef-10
fect at the end of that calendar year. 11
(4) T
REATMENT OF ADDITIONAL PREMIUM 12
PAY.—If the application of this subsection results in 13
the payment of additional premium pay to a covered 14
employee of a type that is normally creditable as 15
basic pay for retirement or any other purpose, that 16
additional premium pay shall not be— 17
(A) considered to be basic pay of the cov-18
ered employee for any purpose; or 19
(B) used in computing a lump-sum pay-20
ment to the covered employee for accumulated 21
and accrued annual leave under section 5551 or 22
5552 of title 5, United States Code. 23
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(5) EFFECTIVE PERIOD.—This subsection shall 1
be in effect during calendar year 2025 and apply to 2
premium pay payable during that year. 3
(c) A
MENDMENT.—Section 5542(a)(5) of title 5, 4
United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘, the De-5
partment of Commerce,’’ after ‘‘Interior’’. 6
(d) P
LANTOADDRESSNEEDS.— 7
(1) D
EVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION .— 8
Not later than March 30, 2026, the Secretaries re-9
ferred to in subsection (a)(6), in consultation with 10
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-11
et and the Director of the Office of Personnel Man-12
agement, shall jointly develop and implement a plan 13
that addresses the needs of the Department of Com-14
merce, the Department of Agriculture, and the De-15
partment of the Interior, as applicable, to hire, ap-16
point, promote, or train additional covered employees 17
who carry out covered services such that sufficient 18
covered employees are available throughout each fis-19
cal year, beginning in fiscal year 2026, without the 20
need for waivers of premium pay limitations. 21
(2) S
UBMITTAL.—Not later than 30 days before 22
the date on which the Secretaries implement the 23
plan developed under paragraph (1), the Secretaries 24
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shall submit the plan to the relevant congressional 1
committees. 2
(3) L
IMITATION.—The plan developed under 3
paragraph (1) shall not be contingent on any Sec-4
retary receiving amounts appropriated for fiscal 5
years beginning in fiscal year 2026 in amounts 6
greater than amounts appropriated for fiscal year 7
2024. 8
(e) P
OLICIES ANDPROCEDURES FORHEALTH, SAFE-9
TY, ANDWELL-BEING.—The Secretary concerned shall 10
maintain policies and procedures to promote the health, 11
safety, and well-being of covered employees. 12
SEC. 9. SUBMISSIONS TO CONGRESS REGARDING THE FIRE 13
WEATHER SERVICES PROGRAM, INCIDENT 14
METEOROLOGIST WORKFORCE NEEDS, AND 15
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WORKFORCE 16
SUPPORT. 17
(a) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 18
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 19
Under Secretary shall submit to the appropriate commit-20
tees of Congress— 21
(1) the plan described in subsection (b); 22
(2) the assessment described in subsection (c); 23
and 24
(3) the assessment described in subsection (d). 25
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(b) FIREWEATHERSERVICESPROGRAMPLAN.— 1
(1) E
LEMENTS.—The plan submitted under 2
subsection (a)(1) shall detail— 3
(A) the observational data, modeling re-4
quirements, ongoing computational needs, re-5
search, development, and technology transfer 6
activities, data management, skilled-personnel 7
requirements, engagement with relevant Federal 8
emergency and land management agencies and 9
partners, and corresponding research, develop-10
ment, and operational resources and timelines 11
necessary to achieve the functions described in 12
subsection (b) of section 3 and the priorities de-13
scribed in subsection (c) of such section; and 14
(B) plans and needs for all other activities 15
and requirements under this Act and the 16
amendments made by this Act. 17
(2) S
UBMITTAL OF ANNUAL BUDGET FOR 18
PLAN.—Following completion of the plan submitted 19
under subsection (a)(1), the Under Secretary shall, 20
not less frequently than once each year concurrent 21
with the submission of the budget by the President 22
to Congress under section 1105 of title 31, United 23
States Code, submit to Congress a proposed budget 24
corresponding with the elements detailed in the plan. 25
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(c) INCIDENTMETEOROLOGISTWORKFORCENEEDS 1
A
SSESSMENT.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 3
conduct a workforce needs assessment on the cur-4
rent and future demand for additional incident me-5
teorologists for wildfires and other high-impact fire 6
weather events. 7
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The assessment required by 8
paragraph (1) shall include the following: 9
(A) A description of staffing levels as of 10
the date on which the assessment is submitted 11
under subsection (a)(2) and projected future 12
staffing levels. 13
(B) An assessment of the state of the re-14
search, development, and operational infrastruc-15
ture of the National Weather Service as of the 16
date on which the assessment is submitted and 17
future needs of such infrastructure in order to 18
meet current and future demands, including 19
with respect to information technology support 20
and logistical and administrative operations. 21
(3) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In conducting the as-22
sessment required by paragraph (1), the Under Sec-23
retary shall consider user needs and feedback from 24
relevant stakeholders. 25
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(d) SUPPORTSERVICESASSESSMENT.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 2
conduct a workforce support services assessment 3
with respect to employees of the National Weather 4
Service engaged in emergency response. 5
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The assessment required by 6
paragraph (1) shall include the following: 7
(A) An assessment of need for further sup-8
port of employees of the National Weather 9
Service engaged in emergency response through 10
services provided by the Public Health Service. 11
(B) A detailed assessment of appropria-12
tions required to secure the level of support 13
services needed as identified in the assessment 14
described in subparagraph (A). 15
(3) A
DDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES .—Fol-16
lowing the completion of the assessment required by 17
paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall seek to ac-18
quire additional support services to meet the needs 19
identified in the assessment. 20
SEC. 10. FIRE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WORKING 21
GROUP; STRATEGIC PLAN. 22
(a) F
IRESCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WORKING 23
G
ROUP.— 24
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(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days 1
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ex-2
ecutive Director of the Interagency Committee for 3
Advancing Weather Services established under sec-4
tion 402 of the Weather Research and Forecasting 5
Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8542) (in this 6
section referred to as the ‘‘Interagency Committee’’) 7
shall establish a working group, to be known as the 8
‘‘Fire Science and Technology Working Group’’ (in 9
this section referred to as the ‘‘Working Group’’). 10
(2) C
HAIR.—The Working Group shall be 11
chaired by the Under Secretary, or designee. 12
(3) G
ENERAL DUTIES.— 13
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Working Group 14
shall seek to build efficiencies among the agen-15
cies listed under section 12(c)(1) and coordinate 16
the planning and management of science, re-17
search, technology, and operations related to 18
science and support services for wildland fire 19
prediction, detection, forecasting, modeling, re-20
silience, response, management, and assess-21
ments. 22
(B) I
NPUT.—The Working Group shall so-23
licit input from non-Federal stakeholders. 24
(b) S
TRATEGICPLAN.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 1
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 2
Interagency Committee shall prepare and submit to 3
Congress a strategic plan for interagency coordina-4
tion, research, and development that will improve 5
the assessment of fire environments and the under-6
standing and prediction of wildland fires, associated 7
wildfire smoke, and the impacts of such fires and 8
smoke, including— 9
(A) on communities, buildings, and other 10
infrastructure; 11
(B) on ecosystem services and watersheds; 12
(C) social and economic impacts; 13
(D) by developing and encouraging the 14
adoption of science-based and cost-effective 15
measures— 16
(i) to enhance community resilience to 17
wildland fires; 18
(ii) to address and mitigate the im-19
pacts of wildland fires and associated wild-20
fire smoke; and 21
(iii) to restore natural fire regimes in 22
fire-dependent ecosystems; 23
(E) by improving the understanding and 24
mitigation of the effects of weather and long- 25
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term drought on wildland fire risk, frequency, 1
and severity; 2
(F) through integrations of social and be-3
havioral sciences in public safety fire commu-4
nication; 5
(G) by improving the forecasting and un-6
derstanding of prescribed fires and the impacts 7
of such fires, and how those impacts may differ 8
from impacts of wildland fires that originate 9
from an unplanned ignition; and 10
(H) consideration and adoption of any rec-11
ommendations included in the report required 12
by section 12(c). 13
(2) P
LAN ELEMENTS.—The strategic plan re-14
quired by paragraph (1) shall include the following: 15
(A) A description of the priorities and 16
needs of vulnerable populations. 17
(B) A description of high-performance 18
computing, visualization, and dissemination 19
needs. 20
(C) A timeline and guidance for implemen-21
tation of— 22
(i) an interagency data sharing sys-23
tem for data relevant to performing fire 24
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assessments and modeling fire risk and fire 1
behavior; 2
(ii) a system for ensuring that the fire 3
prediction models of relevant agencies can 4
be interconnected; and 5
(iii) to the maximum extent prac-6
ticable, any recommendations included in 7
the report required by section 12(c). 8
(D) A plan for incorporating and coordi-9
nating research and operational observations, 10
including from infrared technologies, micro-11
wave, radars, satellites, mobile weather stations, 12
and uncrewed aerial systems. 13
(E) A flexible framework to communicate 14
clear and simple fire event information to the 15
public. 16
(F) Integration of social, behavioral, risk, 17
and communication research to improve the fire 18
operational environment and societal informa-19
tion reception and response. 20
(c) S
UNSET.—The Working Group shall terminate 21
not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 22
this Act. 23
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SEC. 11. FIRE WEATHER RATING SYSTEM. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall, in col-2
laboration with the Chief of the United States Forest 3
Service, the Director of the United States Geological Sur-4
vey, the Director of the National Park Service, the Admin-5
istrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 6
the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Serv-7
ice, the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Di-8
rector of the Bureau of Land Management, and such 9
stakeholders as the Under Secretary considers appro-10
priate— 11
(1) evaluate the system used as of the date of 12
the enactment of this Act to rate the risk of wildfire; 13
and 14
(2) determine whether updates to that system 15
are required to ensure that the ratings accurately re-16
flect the severity of fire risk. 17
(b) U
PDATEREQUIRED.—If the Under Secretary de-18
termines under subsection (a) that updates to the system 19
described in paragraph (1) of such subsection are nec-20
essary, the Under Secretary shall update that system. 21
SEC. 12. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE RE-22
PORTS. 23
(a) R
EPORT ONFIREWEATHERSERVICESPRO-24
GRAM.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after 1
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-2
troller General of the United States shall submit to 3
Congress a report on the program established under 4
section 3(a). 5
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The report required by para-6
graph (1) shall— 7
(A) evaluate the performance of the pro-8
gram by establishing initial baseline capabilities 9
and tracking progress made toward fully 10
operationalizing the functions described in sec-11
tion 3(b); and 12
(B) include such other recommendations as 13
the Comptroller General determines are appro-14
priate to improve the program. 15
(b) R
EPORT ONINTERAGENCYBODIES FORWILD-16
FIREFORECASTING, PREVENTION, PLANNING, ANDMAN-17
AGEMENT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the 18
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 19
United States shall submit to Congress a report that— 20
(1) identifies all Federal interagency bodies es-21
tablished for the purpose of wildfire forecasting, pre-22
vention, planning, and management (such as wildfire 23
councils, commissions, and workgroups), including— 24
(A) the Wildland Fire Leadership Council; 25
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(B) the White House Wildfire Resilience 1
Interagency Group; 2
(C) the Wildland Fire Management Policy 3
Committee; 4
(D) the Wildland Fire Mitigation and 5
Management Commission; 6
(E) the Joint Science Fire Program; 7
(F) the National Interagency Coordination 8
Center; 9
(G) the National Predictive Services Over-10
sight Group; 11
(H) the Interagency Council for Advancing 12
Meteorological Services; 13
(I) the National Wildfire Coordinating 14
Group; 15
(J) the National Multi-Agency Coordi-16
nating Group; and 17
(K) the Mitigation Framework Leadership 18
Group; 19
(2) evaluates the roles, functionality, and utility 20
of such interagency bodies; 21
(3) evaluates the progress, performance, and 22
implementation of such interagency bodies; 23
(4) assesses efficacy and identifies potential 24
overlap and duplication of such interagency bodies in 25
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carrying out interagency collaboration with respect 1
to wildfire prevention, planning, and management; 2
and 3
(5) includes such other recommendations as the 4
Comptroller General determines are appropriate to 5
streamline and improve wildfire forecasting, preven-6
tion, planning, and management, including rec-7
ommendations regarding the interagency bodies for 8
which the addition of the Administration is nec-9
essary to improve wildfire forecasting, prevention, 10
planning, and management. 11
(c) R
EPORT ONINTERAGENCYCOORDINATION.—Not 12
later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this 13
Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall 14
submit to Congress a report that identifies— 15
(1) the authorities, roles, and science and sup-16
port services relating to wildland fire prediction, de-17
tection, forecasting, modeling, resilience, response, 18
management, and assessment provided by— 19
(A) the Department of Commerce, includ-20
ing the Administration and the National Insti-21
tute of Standards and Technology; 22
(B) the National Aeronautics and Space 23
Administration; 24
(C) the Department of the Interior; 25
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(D) the Department of Agriculture; 1
(E) the National Science Foundation; 2
(F) the Department of Energy; 3
(G) the Federal Emergency Management 4
Agency; 5
(H) the Department of Transportation; 6
(I) the Environmental Protection Agency; 7
and 8
(J) the Department of Defense; and 9
(2) recommended areas in and mechanisms by 10
which the agencies listed under paragraph (1) could 11
support and improve— 12
(A) coordination between Federal agencies, 13
State and local governments, Indian tribes, 14
Tribal organizations, Native Hawaiian organi-15
zations, and other relevant stakeholders, includ-16
ing through examination of possible public-pri-17
vate partnerships; 18
(B) research and development, including 19
interdisciplinary research, related to fire envi-20
ronments, wildland fires, associated wildfire 21
smoke, and the impacts of such environments, 22
fires, and smoke, in furtherance of a coordi-23
nated interagency effort to address wildland fire 24
risk reduction; 25
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(C) data management and stewardship, the 1
development and coordination of data systems 2
and computational tools, and the creation of a 3
centralized, integrated data collaboration envi-4
ronment for agency data, including historical 5
data, relating to weather, fire environments, 6
wildland fires, associated wildfire smoke, and 7
the impacts of such environments, fires, and 8
smoke, and the assessment of wildland fire risk 9
mitigation measures; 10
(D) interoperability, usability, and accessi-11
bility of the scientific data, data systems, and 12
computational and information tools of the 13
agencies listed under paragraph (1); 14
(E) coordinated public safety communica-15
tions relating to fire weather events, fire haz-16
ards, and wildland fire and smoke risk reduc-17
tion strategies; and 18
(F) secure and accurate real-time data, 19
alerts, and advisories to wildland firefighters 20
and other decision support tools for wildland 21
fire incident command posts. 22
(d) R
EPORT ONAUTOMATEDSURFACEOBSERVING 23
S
YSTEM.—Not later than 4 years after the date of the 24
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enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 1
United States shall submit to Congress a report that— 2
(1) evaluates the functionality, utility, reli-3
ability, and operational status of the automated sur-4
face observing system across the Administration, the 5
Federal Aviation Administration, and the Depart-6
ment of Defense; 7
(2) evaluates the progress, performance, and 8
implementation of the plan required by section 9
6(b)(1)(B); 10
(3) assesses the efficacy of cross-agency collabo-11
ration and stakeholder engagement in carrying out 12
the plan and provides recommendations to improve 13
such activities; 14
(4) evaluates the operational continuity and re-15
liability of the system, particularly in remote and 16
rural areas and areas where system failure would 17
have the greatest negative impact to the community, 18
and provides recommendations to improve such con-19
tinuity and reliability; 20
(5) assesses Federal coordination regarding the 21
remote automatic weather station network, air re-22
source advisors, and other Federal observing assets 23
used for weather and climate modeling and response 24
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activities, and provides recommendations for im-1
provements; and 2
(6) includes such other recommendations as the 3
Comptroller General determines are appropriate to 4
improve the system. 5
SEC. 13. COOPERATION AND COORDINATION. 6
(a) C
OOPERATION.—Each Federal agency shall co-7
operate and coordinate with the Under Secretary, as ap-8
propriate, in carrying out this Act and the amendments 9
made by this Act. 10
(b) C
OORDINATION.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In meeting the requirements 12
under this Act and the amendments made by this 13
Act, the Under Secretary shall coordinate, and as 14
appropriate, establish agreements with Federal and 15
external partners to fully use and leverage existing 16
assets, systems, networks, technologies, and sources 17
of data. 18
(2) I
NCLUSIONS.—Coordination carried out 19
under paragraph (1) shall include coordination 20
with— 21
(A) the agencies represented at the Na-22
tional Interagency Fire Center; 23
(B) the Predictive Services Program of the 24
National Interagency Coordination Center; 25
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(C) the National Wildfire Coordinating 1
Group; and 2
(D) relevant interagency bodies identified 3
in the report required by section 12(b). 4
(3) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out this sub-5
section, the Under Secretary shall consult with Fed-6
eral partners including— 7
(A) the National Aeronautics and Space 8
Administration; 9
(B) the Department of the Interior; 10
(C) the Federal Emergency Management 11
Agency; 12
(D) the National Science Foundation; 13
(E) the United States Geological Survey; 14
(F) the Department of Agriculture; 15
(G) the Environmental Protection Agency; 16
(H) the Department of Energy; 17
(I) the Department of Defense; 18
(J) the National Institute of Standards 19
and Technology; and 20
(K) such other departments and agencies 21
as the Under Secretary considers relevant. 22
(c) P
ROCESS FOR ANNUALCOORDINATIONWITH 23
N
ON-FEDERALENTITIES.—Not later than 18 months 24
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under 25
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Secretary shall develop and submit to the appropriate 1
committees of Congress a process for annual coordination 2
with State and local governments, Indian tribes, Tribal or-3
ganizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations to assist 4
the development of improved fire weather products and 5
services. 6
(d) I
NTERNATIONALCOORDINATION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary may 8
develop collaborative relationships and agreements 9
with foreign partners and counterparts to address 10
transboundary issues pertaining to wildfires, fire 11
weather, wildfire smoke, air quality, and associated 12
conditions and hazards or other relevant meteorolog-13
ical phenomena, as appropriate, to facilitate full and 14
open exchange of data and information. 15
(2) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out activities 16
under this subsection, the Under Secretary shall 17
consult with the Department of State and such other 18
Federal partners as the Under Secretary considers 19
relevant. 20
SEC. 14. GENERAL PROVISIONS. 21
(a) A
VOIDANCE OFDUPLICATION.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 23
ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that ac-24
tivities carried out under this Act and the amend-25
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ments made by this Act are not duplicative of activi-1
ties supported by other parts of the Administration 2
or other relevant Federal agencies. 3
(2) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out activities 4
under this Act and the amendments made by this 5
Act, the Under Secretary shall coordinate with the 6
Administration and heads of other Federal research 7
agencies— 8
(A) to ensure those activities enhance and 9
complement, but do not constitute unnecessary 10
duplication of, efforts; and 11
(B) to ensure the responsible stewardship 12
of funds. 13
(b) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 14
may be construed— 15
(1) to satisfy any requirement for government- 16
to-government consultation with Indian tribes; or 17
(2) to affect or modify any treaty or other right 18
of any Indian tribe. 19
SEC. 15. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—There are authorized to be appro-21
priated to the Administration to carry out this Act and 22
the amendments made by this Act— 23
(1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 24
(2) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 25
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(3) $27,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; 1
(4) $36,000,000 for fiscal year 2029; and 2
(5) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2030. 3
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—None of the amounts authorized 4
to be appropriated by subsection (a) may be used to un-5
necessarily duplicate activities funded under title VIII of 6
division D of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 7
(Public Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 1094). 8
Æ
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