Sponsors (4)
I'll give you the short version of this bill.
This is not an official government website.
Copyright © 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Creates a national framework to map, designate, and manage high-risk "firesheds," speed landscape-scale fuels-reduction work (including prescribed fire and smoke management), and support communities and technology innovation to reduce wildfire risk. It also establishes a new casualty assistance program to help next-of-kin and survivors of firefighters and wildland fire support personnel who are killed, critically injured, or become ill from line-of-duty incidents.
Defines “end water user” by referring to the meaning given in section 303(a) of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6542(a)).
Defines “Executive Director” as the Executive Director of the Wildfire Intelligence Center appointed under section 102(g).
Defines “fireshed” as a landscape-scale area delineated using Forest Service research methods that represents similar sources of community exposure to wildfire.
Defines “fireshed management area” as a fireshed management area designated under section 101(a).
Defines “fireshed management project” to include the following forest or vegetation management activities: hazardous fuels management; creating fuel breaks or fire breaks; removing hazard, dead, or dying trees (as determined by a responsible official); developing/approving/conducting routine maintenance under a vegetation management, facility inspection, and O&M plan under 43 U.S.C. 1772(c); removing trees to address overstocking or crowding to achieve appropriate basal area (as determined by a responsible official); treatments to address insects, disease, competition, or invasive species; wet-meadow, floodplain, or riparian restoration that increases wildfire resistance; forest stand improvement necessary to protect life and property from catastrophic wildfire (as determined by a responsible official); or any combination of these activities.
Who is affected and how:
Federal land managers and agencies: Will have new mapping, designation, planning, coordination, and reporting duties for fireshed management areas and prescribed-fire operations. They gain authority to carry out landscape-scale projects and cooperative agreements but must scale staffing and coordination capabilities.
Tribal governments and Tribal communities: Are formal consultation and coordination partners for mapping, prescribed fire, and smoke management activities; the law emphasizes collaboration and shared planning, which can increase Tribal influence on landscape management but may require resources for participation.
Local communities in the wildland-urban interface: Stand to benefit from expanded fuels-reduction projects, community assistance, and streamlined access to grants via a shared portal. Faster project timelines could reduce wildfire exposure and property risk, but nearby residents may face short-term increases in smoke from prescribed burns.
Firefighters and wildland fire support personnel and their families: Receive a new casualty assistance program that provides notification, case management, travel reimbursements, information resources, and complaint procedures for line-of-duty deaths, critical injuries, or illnesses; this fills an operational support gap for survivors though it does not change existing death-benefit authorities.
Private sector, nonprofits, and academic institutions: Technology companies, research institutions, and nonprofits can apply to the technology pilot and for cooperative agreements to support prescribed-fire work, offering opportunities for testing, funding, and partnership with federal agencies.
Public health and air-quality stakeholders: Increased use of prescribed fire at landscape scales will require smoke-management planning and monitoring; communities and agencies will need to manage tradeoffs between short-term smoke impacts and long-term wildfire risk reduction.
Broader effects and considerations:
Speed vs. review: Exempting designations from NEPA review aims to accelerate treatments but reduces one formal avenue for environmental review and public comment, which may raise legal and community concerns.
Implementation capacity and funding: The law creates new programs and reporting requirements but does not specify appropriations in the provided text; effectiveness will depend on Congress funding the authorized activities and agencies’ operational capacity.
Time-limited programs: Several new initiatives (community assistance and technology pilot) terminate seven years after enactment, making near-term implementation and evaluation important for long-term adoption.
Amends the first section of the Cooperative Funds and Deposits Act (16 U.S.C. 565a–1) by inserting additional language into the first sentence (specific inserted text not shown in provided section).
Amends section 2 of the Cooperative Funds and Deposits Act (16 U.S.C. 565a–2) by inserting additional language (specific inserted text not shown in provided section).
Amends the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program to add new eligible proposal elements (including use of innovative implementation mechanisms such as good neighbor agreements), expand priorities to include landscape-scale, cross-ownership restoration (including State, Tribal, and private land) and watershed health, require inclusion of a Federal Government staffing plan for collaborative processes, change the number/structure of proposals to be funded (inserting text specifying 4 proposals in any 1 region to be funded during any fiscal year), and increase a funding figure in subsection (f)(4)(B)(ii) from $4,000,000 to $8,000,000.
Amends Section 3 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to update a cross-reference and to add definitions for 'local government' and 'special district'.
Modifies the Administrative review provision of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to increase the maximum project acreage and expand referenced fire regime groups.
Amends the Wildfire resilience projects provision of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to increase the acreage limit and make a textual edit to the regulatory citation.
Amends the categorical exclusion provision for greater sage-grouse and mule deer habitat to remove a clause, redesignate clauses, adjust cross-references, change concurrent phrasing, and increase an acreage limit.
Amends a provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (establishing a categorical exclusion for fuel breaks) to increase the maximum project acreage.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by John R. Curtis · Last progress April 10, 2025
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 212.
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Reported by Senator Boozman with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 119-74.