Sponsors (6)
Introduced June 10, 2025 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress June 10, 2025
The bill substantially ramps up federal support, authorities, and workforce capacity for landscape-scale prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk and restore ecosystems, but it increases smoke-related health risks and shifts funding, operational, and oversight trade-offs onto communities, States, and taxpayers while narrowing some site-level review and accountability.
Rural communities, local governments, and Tribal lands will receive increased funding and technical assistance to expand prescribed-fire capacity and reduce hazardous fuels, lowering overall wildfire risk to communities and infrastructure.
States, Tribes, local governments, NGOs, and private partners can enter into up to 10-year cooperative agreements to plan and conduct cross-boundary prescribed burns, enabling more sustained, landscape-scale fuels management.
Federal and local workforces will gain training pathways, hiring flexibilities, and hazard‑pay eligibility that improve recruitment, retention, and local employment tied to fuels management and prescribed fire work.
Nearby rural and urban residents (and health systems) will face increased smoke exposure and short-term health risks as prescribed-fire activity expands across more lands.
The bill redirects and caps funds (including per-project limits and up to 15% reallocation of hazardous fuels funds) and authorizes new programs that may reduce funding for other priorities, underfund large projects, and increase fiscal uncertainty for taxpayers.
Using landscape-scale NEPA decision documents can limit site-specific environmental review and public input on individual burns, reducing opportunities for local engagement and scrutiny.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Permits use of up to 15% of existing hazardous-fuels funds for prescribed fire, creates prioritization, workforce authorities, cooperative agreements, and annual reporting requirements.
Authorizes federal land managers to devote a portion of existing hazardous-fuels funds to expand and coordinate prescribed burning, workforce capacity, training, and cross-jurisdictional partnerships. It sets priorities for where prescribed fire funding should be used, creates multi-year targets and regional strategies, authorizes cooperative agreements with states, tribes, local governments and nonprofits, and requires annual reporting on prescribed fire accomplishments. The bill also creates workforce and administrative authorities — including task forces at Geographic Area Coordination Centers, hazard-pay and retention reporting, and longer-term cooperative agreements — and conditions some financial assistance on timely state reporting to the national fire database.