Sponsors (4)
I'll give you the short version of this bill.
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Provides large, dedicated funding and program changes to reduce wildfire risk on federal lands and in nearby communities. It transfers $30 billion from the Treasury for hazardous fuels reduction projects on federal lands (with up to 10% for admin/planning), authorizes $3 billion more for community wildfire defense grants for FY2027–FY2031, updates and reauthorizes the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program to broaden priorities and require collaboration staffing, and creates a County Stewardship Fund that pays counties 25% of receipts from specified contracts to support any local government purpose. The bill focuses federal resources on hazardous fuels removal, community grants, collaborative restoration, and a new county payment mechanism to share revenues from restoration contracts with local governments. Funds for the large Treasury transfer are available until spent; the community grant funds cover FY2027–2031.
Defines “agency head” to mean the Director of the National Park Service; the Chief of the Forest Service; the Director of the Bureau of Land Management; the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; and the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
States that the terms “at-risk community,” “fire regime I,” “fire regime II,” and “fire regime III” have the meanings given in section 101 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6511).
Defines “covered land” to mean Federal land under the jurisdiction of the applicable agency head.
Defines “hazardous fuels reduction project” as removal or modification of flammable vegetation or woody debris by methods such as prescribed fire, thinning, brush removal, mastication, pruning, slash treatment, or combinations of those methods, provided the method is ecologically appropriate, cost-effective, and selected on a site-specific basis.
The agency heads (the officials defined above) shall carry out hazardous fuels reduction projects on covered land.
Who is affected and how:
Local governments and counties: Direct financial benefit through the County Stewardship Fund—counties receive 25% of applicable contract receipts and can use payments for any governmental purpose. Counties will also see increased restoration and fuels work on nearby federal lands that may reduce wildfire risk but also bring contract work and project impacts to local areas.
Federal land managers and federal agencies: Will administer and carry out a large new portfolio of hazardous fuels reduction projects, manage the $30 billion transfer, implement statutory changes to collaborative programs, and develop staffing plans to support collaboration. They will face obligations to prioritize projects and track monitoring and reporting requirements.
Communities near treated federal lands and wildland-urban interface areas: Benefit from reduced fuels and increased community grants that fund defensible infrastructure, planning, and local mitigation measures. Communities may also experience short-term project impacts (traffic, noise, temporary closures) from large-scale treatments.
Tribal communities and watershed interests: Projects that emphasize watershed/drinking-water benefits and cross-boundary restoration can protect water supplies and cultural resources; tribes may be partners, applicants, or affected neighbors depending on project location.
Restoration contractors and the forestry workforce: Expect increased demand for labor, supplies, and contracting opportunities for fuels reduction, restoration, monitoring, and related activities.
Environmental and conservation stakeholders: Will be affected by the scale and methods of fuels-reduction work; debates may focus on ecological impacts, treatment techniques (mechanical thinning, prescribed fire), monitoring standards, and protection of sensitive resources.
Budgetary implications: A large Treasury transfer ($30B) and additional appropriations ($3B) represent substantial federal spending that will shape near- to medium-term wildfire mitigation funding and may influence other budget priorities. The transfer being "available until spent" accelerates implementation but concentrates decision-making authority in agencies.
Overall impact: The bill channels major new federal money into hazard reduction and community defense, changes program rules to emphasize collaboration, monitoring, and cross-boundary work, and provides counties with a direct revenue share from contracts—boosting on-the-ground activity and local fiscal resources while raising programmatic, environmental, and implementation complexities.
Redesignates existing subsection (j) as subsection (k) and inserts a new subsection (j) establishing a County Stewardship Fund with deposit, availability, and distribution rules.
Multiple amendments to 16 U.S.C. 7303 (Section 4003 of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009): (b)(3) edits and adds a subparagraph requiring addressing standardized monitoring questions and indicators and adds "or pathogens" to an existing subparagraph; (c)(3)(A) gains a new clause requiring inclusion of a Federal Government staffing plan; (d) adds new proposal evaluation factors including use of innovative implementation mechanisms (referencing good neighbor agreements under 16 U.S.C. 2113a), cross-ownership restoration including State, Tribal, and private land and work in the wildland-urban interface, and enhancement of watershed health and drinking water sources; technical punctuation/formatting edits to paragraphs (d)(3) and (e)(3); and (f)(6) replaces the prior multi-year dollar authorization with a new authorization covering fiscal year 2026 and each fiscal year thereafter.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced July 8, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress July 8, 2025
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced in Senate
