Sponsors (3)
Introduced June 10, 2025 by Kim Schrier · Last progress June 10, 2025
The bill substantially expands federal support, contracts, training, liability protections, and clearer rules to scale prescribed fire and reduce catastrophic wildfire risk, but it increases near-term smoke exposure and fiscal/administrative trade-offs, may leave many smaller landscapes or under-resourced states without support, and narrows some avenues for local input.
State, Tribal, federal, nonprofit, and private land managers will receive grants, contracts, and longer (up to 10-year) partner agreements to expand prescribed burns and coordinated landscape treatments, increasing acreage treated and reducing catastrophic wildfire risk for communities.
States, Tribes, local partners, and practitioners will get training, NWCG/state-aligned standards, task forces, and regional training centers plus education/outreach programs, building local workforce capacity and cross-boundary coordination for safe prescribed fire use.
Non-Federal practitioners working under supervision receive liability protections and FTCA coverage, lowering barriers for states, tribes, NGOs, and private partners to participate in prescribed-fire operations.
Nearby residents—especially low-income people, the elderly, and those with respiratory conditions—will face increased smoke exposure and short-term health risks where prescribed burns are expanded.
Many eligible landscapes and smaller communities may be left unfunded or excluded because program caps ($20M/year total, $1M/project, 20 projects) plus a preference for very large (≥50,000-acre) landscape strategies limit the program's scale and accessibility.
Taxpayers and state programs could face fiscal impacts because the bill allows use of up to 15% of hazardous fuels funds for prescribed fire, provides FTCA exposure for non‑Federal partners, and expands permanent hires and hazard-pay—shifting costs from some priorities to others and increasing federal liabilities.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Permits expanded use of fuels/fire funds for landscape‑scale prescribed fire, creates grants/agreements, workforce incentives, task forces, and reporting to scale up prescribed burns.
Expands and coordinates the use of prescribed fire across federal and non‑federal lands by allowing federal land managers to spend a portion of hazardous fuels and wildland fire appropriations on planning, implementation, training, outreach, and post‑burn work. It creates grant and contracting authorities with States, Tribes, local governments, prescribed fire organizations, and nonprofits; establishes multi‑party, landscape‑scale task forces and workforce incentives (including hazard pay and pathways to permanent jobs); and requires reporting and prioritization to increase prescribed burns that reduce wildfire risk and protect communities and habitat.