Sponsors (2)
Introduced March 25, 2025 by Michael F. Bennet · Last progress March 25, 2025
The bill speeds and funds post-disaster watershed repairs on National Forest System lands—reducing delays and improving sponsor cash flow—while raising risks of reduced environmental review, higher federal spending, and shifted financial/liability exposure onto taxpayers and local sponsors.
States, local governments, tribes, and water districts can receive federal payments without a local matching requirement to repair watershed damage after natural disasters, enabling faster recovery of communities and infrastructure.
Projects on National Forest System land must be executed as expeditiously as possible and are treated as NEPA emergency response actions, shortening approval timelines and reducing project delays on federal lands.
The bill allows partial payments and requires final payment within 30 days of project completion, improving cash flow for sponsors and enabling faster project delivery.
Treating recovery projects as NEPA emergency responses can limit environmental review and public input, raising the risk of unforeseen environmental harms on and downstream of federal lands.
Taxpayers may face increased federal spending because the federal government can fund emergency projects on National Forest System land without a local cost-share requirement.
Sponsors who begin work before agreements are executed assume full cost and liability, which can expose resource-constrained local governments and utilities to significant financial risk.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new Forest Service emergency watershed program to fund and carry out short‑term emergency measures on National Forest System land after natural disasters. The Forest Service may enter agreements with eligible sponsors (states, tribes, local governments, water/conservation districts, utilities and similar entities), pay them (including partial payments) with no matching requirement, set project and monitoring timelines, and limit sponsor liability; actions under the program are treated as emergency response actions for NEPA purposes.