Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act

Summary

Creates a new FEMA grant program to help communities plan for and carry out wildfire resilience projects and allows grants for planning or implementation (planning grants up to $250,000; implementation grants up to $10 million). It requires FEMA to map and update at‑risk communities, commissions GAO studies on federal wildfire programs and insurer certification/metrics, directs a FEMA report on radio communications for wildland firefighting, and expands eligible activities under an existing Community Wildfire Defense Grant program to include structure hardening. The bill authorizes $1 billion per year for FY2025–2029 to run the new grant program and sets default cost‑share rules with waiver authority.

• Creates a new FEMA grant program funding planning grants (up to $250K) and implementation grants (up to $10M) for community wildfire resilience.
• Authorizes $1 billion per year for FY2025–FY2029 to operate the program.
• Eligible applicants include States, Tribes, local governments, fire districts, volunteer fire departments, and multi‑entity collaborations.
• Default cost share is 25% for implementation grants and 0% for planning grants, but FEMA can waive or reduce the match.
• Requires FEMA to map at‑risk communities (including Tribal communities) within 180 days and update every 5 years; also narrows the statutory definition of “at‑risk community.”
• Directs GAO studies on federal wildfire programs and on whether plans could be certified to influence insurance markets and what insurer metrics would be appropriate.
• Requires a FEMA assessment of radio‑frequency capacity and interoperability for wildfire response and recommendations to fix gaps.
• Expands Community Wildfire Defense Grant eligible uses to explicitly include structure hardening and related defensible‑space modifications.