Federal

To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes.

Source: Congress.gov · 548 words in original text

What This Bill Does

This bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture to use all available resources to suppress wildfires on certain National Forest System lands. The bill sets specific requirements for how and when wildfires must be extinguished, and it defines which forest lands are covered by these requirements. ##

Who It Affects

The Secretary of Agriculture and the Forest Service (the agency that manages national forests), state and local firefighting agencies, and incident commanders (officials in charge of responding to wildfires). ##

Key Provisions

- The Forest Service must use all available resources to extinguish wildfires on covered lands within 24 hours of detecting them (Sec. 1(a)(1)(A)) - The Forest Service must immediately suppress any prescribed fire that exceeds its prescription (a predetermined scope) (Sec. 1(a)(1)(B)) - The Forest Service cannot stop or interfere with state or local firefighting agencies that are authorized to respond to wildfires on these lands (Sec. 1(a)(2)) - The Forest Service may only use fire as a management tool if it is a prescribed fire that follows applicable law and regulations (Sec. 1(a)(3)) - When starting a backfire or burnout (a fire intentionally set to stop a wildfire), the Forest Service must get approval from the incident commander or act only when necessary to protect firefighter safety (Sec. 1(a)(4)) ##

What Changes

If this becomes law, the Forest Service must respond to wildfires on specific high-risk forest lands within 24 hours and must immediately stop any prescribed fire that goes beyond its intended boundaries. The Forest Service also must allow state and local firefighting agencies to work without interference on these lands. ##

Important Definitions

**Covered National Forest System lands** means any area within National Forest System lands that has one of three conditions: severe to exceptional drought as rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a National Wildland Fire Preparedness level of 5 as declared by the National Interagency Fire Center, or location in a fireshed ranked in the top 10 percent for wildfire exposure according to Forest Service risk models (Sec. 1(b)) **Prescribed fire** means fire used as a management tool that complies with applicable law and regulations (Sec. 1(a)(3)) **Backfire or burnout** means fire intentionally started by the Forest Service during a wildfire (Sec. 1(a)(4)) ##

Effective Date

Not specified in bill text

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 934 To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 9, 2023 Mr. MCCLINTOCK (for himself and Mr. LAMALFA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi- sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SUPPRESSION OF WILDFIRES. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—With respect to covered National 4 Forest System lands, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting 5 through the Chief of the Forest Service— 6 (1) shall— 7 (A) use all available resources to carry out 8 wildfire suppression with the purpose of extin- 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:23 Mar 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H934.IH H934 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 934 IH guishing wildfires detected on such lands not 1 later than 24 hours after such a wildfire is de- 2 tected; and 3 (B) immediately suppress any prescribed 4 fire that exceeds prescription; 5 (2) shall not inhibit the suppression efforts of 6 State or local firefighting agencies that are author- 7 ized to respond to wildfire on such lands; 8 (3) may only use fire as a resource manage- 9 ment tool if the fire is a prescribed fire that com- 10 plies with applicable law and regulations; 11 (4) may only initiate a backfire or burnout dur- 12 ing a wildfire— 13 (A) by order of the responsible incident 14 commander; or 15 (B) in instances that are necessary to pro- 16 tect the health and safety of firefighting per- 17 sonnel; and 18 (5) shall use all available resources to control 19 any such initiated backfire or burnout until extin- 20 guished. 21 (b) COVERED NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS 22 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘covered National 23 Forest System lands’’ means any area— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:23 Mar 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H934.IH H934 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 934 IH (1) located within National Forest System 1 lands; and 2 (2) that— 3 (A) the U.S. Drought Monitor has rated as 4 having a D2 (severe drought) intensity, D3 (ex- 5 treme drought) intensity, or D4 (exceptional 6 drought) intensity; 7 (B) the National Interagency Fire Center 8 declares has a National Wildland Fire Pre- 9 paredness level of 5; or 10 (C) the Forest Service has identified as 11 being located in a fireshed ranked in the top 10 12 percent of wildfire exposure (as determined 13 using the most recently published models of 14 fireshed risk exposure published by the Forest 15 Service). 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 07:23 Mar 02, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H934.IH H934 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

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