Sponsors (3)
Official title: To direct the establishment of a public-private wildfire technology deployment and demonstration partnership, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 18, 2025 by Young Kim · Last progress November 18, 2025
The bill aims to accelerate deployment of wildfire detection and response technologies to improve safety and spur innovation, while increasing federal spending and raising risks of uneven access, administrative burden on smaller agencies, and potential safety or favoritism concerns.
Firefighters, rural and tribal communities, and local governments gain access to evaluated, scalable wildfire detection and response technologies that can speed detection, reduce damage, and improve responder safety.
Federal agencies and Congress get improved coordination, procurement support, and regular reporting on technologies and costs, which can lower deployment costs, speed adoption, and improve oversight of wildfire technology programs.
Private firms, nonprofits, and universities receive opportunities to pilot, commercialize, and partner with the federal government on wildfire technologies, supporting innovation and potential local economic activity.
Taxpayers could face increased federal spending to evaluate and scale these technologies over the program's multi-year period.
Rapid deployment of newer technologies risks introducing safety or reliability problems for firefighters and local response if evaluation criteria or testing are insufficiently rigorous.
Smaller, underfunded local and tribal agencies may face administrative and coordination burdens to participate or use procurement assistance, potentially limiting equitable access.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a joint Agriculture–Interior pilot to deploy and evaluate wildfire prevention, detection, communication, response, and mitigation technologies, to be established within 1 year and expiring after 7 years.
Creates a temporary public–private pilot called the Fire Innovation Unit requiring the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to stand up, within one year, a joint deployment and demonstration program that tests and advances wildfire prevention, detection, communication, response, and mitigation technologies. The pilot must identify priority technology areas, set evaluation criteria, coordinate multiagency deployments and procurement, accept applications from private firms, nonprofits, and universities partnered with federal, tribal, state, and local wildfire agencies, report to Congress annually, and will expire seven years after enactment.