Joint Chiefs Reauthorization Act of 2025

This bill keeps the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership program going and updates how it works to better protect forests, watersheds, and nearby communities. It adds clear goals like helping lands recover after wildfires and improving soil and water resources. It also tells the Natural Resources Conservation Service to line up its work with Forest Service plans and to use the best available science together, so projects are better coordinated on the ground. Projects must follow the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which means they cannot break protections in designated roadless areas .

The program is extended through 2029, giving local partners more time to plan and complete multi-year restoration projects that reduce wildfire risk, protect drinking water, and restore landscapes. The bill mainly fine-tunes existing law rather than creating a new program, focusing on smarter coordination and clear environmental guardrails .

• Key points:
  • Who is affected: Communities near forests and rangelands; private landowners working with federal agencies; the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Forest Service .
  • What changes: Adds wildfire recovery and soil/water improvement as goals; requires tighter NRCS–Forest Service coordination using the best science; keeps protections for roadless areas in place .
  • When: Program authority runs through 2029 .