[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4424 Reported in Senate (RS)]
<DOC>
Calendar No. 624
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4424
To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of
Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land
managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with
an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western
United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of
cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 23, 2024
Mr. Wyden (for himself and Mr. Padilla) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
November 21, 2024
Reported by Mr. Manchin, with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed
in italic]
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of
Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land
managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with
an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western
United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of
cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
<DELETED>SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``National
Prescribed Fire Act of 2024''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act
is as follows:</DELETED>
<DELETED>Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
<DELETED>Sec. 2. Findings.
<DELETED>Sec. 3. Definitions.
<DELETED>TITLE I--USE OF FUNDS
<DELETED>Sec. 101. Prescribed fire accounts.
<DELETED>Sec. 102. Policies and practices.
<DELETED>Sec. 103. Collaborative prescribed fire program.
<DELETED>TITLE II--FACILITATING IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTREACH
<DELETED>Sec. 201. Cooperative agreements and contracts.
<DELETED>Sec. 202. Human resources.
<DELETED>Sec. 203. Liability of certified prescribed fire managers.
<DELETED>Sec. 204. Prescribed fire claims fund study.
<DELETED>Sec. 205. Environmental review.
<DELETED>Sec. 206. Prescribed fire education program.
<DELETED>TITLE III--REPORTING
<DELETED>Sec. 301. Annual reports to the National Fire Planning and
Operations Database.
<DELETED>Sec. 302. Annual implementation report.
<DELETED>SEC. 2. FINDINGS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> Congress finds that--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) in 2018, the Forest Service Fire Modeling
Institute determined that 63,070,000 acres of National Forest
System land and 171,200,000 acres of other forest land were at
high or very high risk of experiencing a wildfire that would be
difficult to suppress;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) according to the National Interagency
Coordination Center, between 2010 and 2019, in the United
States, on average--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) 64,000 wildfires burned 6,847,000
acres annually; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) 100,000 prescribed fires burned only
3,672,000 acres annually;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) indigenous communities have used cultural
burning to manage landscapes since time immemorial;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (4) according to the National Interagency
Coordination Center, the annual cost of suppressing wildfires
in a State with an active prescribed burning program is less
than 1 percent of the annual cost of suppressing wildfires in a
State without an active prescribed burning program, despite
each State having the same number of wildfires;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (5) according to a 2021 Environmental Protection
Agency report assessing the air quality and health impacts of
prescribed fire compared to wildfire, smoke impacts from
prescribed fire were found to be smaller in magnitude and
shorter in duration;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (6) according to a 2019 study conducted by
Stanford University, smoke from prescribed fires exposes
children to fewer negative health effects than the detrimental
smoke generated by wildfires;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (7) according to a 2015 study published in
Ecology, trees that have not been burnt by a low-intensity fire
are unusually prone to bark beetle attacks, and between 2000
and 2010, bark beetles killed the majority of trees on
32,000,000 acres of the 193,000,000 acres of National Forest
System land;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (8) as of March 1, 2023, there were--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) 38 prescribed fire councils in 34
States; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) 113 prescribed burn associations in 19
States;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (9) according to the 2021 National Prescribed Fire
Use Survey Report--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) 41 States regulate prescribed fires by
issuing burn permits;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) 23 States offer prescribed burn
manager certification courses to facilitate responsible
burning on private land;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) only 5 States (Vermont, Massachusetts,
Missouri, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) lack laws to
reduce liability associated with the responsible use of
prescribed fire; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (D) only 8 States (Florida, Montana,
Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, South Carolina,
and Washington) have laws that use a standard of gross
negligence for determining liabilities for the
responsible use of prescribed fire; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (10) as of September 30, 2019, 31 States have a
formal process to track the number of acres treated for
forestry purposes using prescribed fire.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> In this Act:</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) Federal land.--The term ``Federal land''
means--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) public lands (as defined in section
103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of
1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) units of the National Park
System;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) units of the National Wildlife Refuge
System;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (D) land held in trust by the United
States for the benefit of Indian Tribes or members of
an Indian Tribe; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (E) National Forest System land.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) Landscape-scale prescribed fire plan.--The
term ``landscape-scale prescribed fire plan'' means a decision
document prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) that--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) covers a unit of the National Forest
System, a Bureau of Land Management district, or a
subunit thereof;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) analyzes the site-specific
environmental consequences of prescribed fire on the
land described in subparagraph (A); and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) obviates the need for subsequent
decisions pursuant to the National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with respect to
the unit, district, or subunit described in
subparagraph (A).</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) National forest system.--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) In general.--The term ``National
Forest System'' has the meaning given the term in
section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable
Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C.
1609(a)).</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) Exclusion.--The term ``National Forest
System'' does not include the national grasslands and
land utilization projects administered under title III
of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1010 et
seq.).</DELETED>
<DELETED> (4) Prescribed fire.--The term ``prescribed fire''
means a fire deliberately ignited to burn wildland fuels in a
natural or modified state--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) under specified environmental
conditions that are intended to allow the fire to be
confined to a predetermined area and produce the
fireline intensity and rate of spread required to
attain planned resource management
objectives;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) that does not include pile burning;
and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) in accordance with applicable law,
including applicable regulations.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (5) Secretaries.--The term ``Secretaries'' means--
</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) the Secretary; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) the Secretary of
Agriculture.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (6) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the
Secretary of the Interior.</DELETED>
<DELETED>TITLE I--USE OF FUNDS</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 101. PRESCRIBED FIRE ACCOUNTS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) Definition of Secretary Concerned.--In this section,
the term ``Secretary concerned'' means--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to
an account established by this section for the Department of
Agriculture; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) the Secretary, with respect to an account
established by this section for the Department of the
Interior.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Establishment of Accounts.--There are established in
the Treasury of the United States the following accounts:</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) The Prescribed Fire account for the Department
of Agriculture.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) The Prescribed Fire account for the Department
of the Interior.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to the accounts established by subsection (b) a
total of $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year
thereafter.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (d) Presidential Budget Requests.--For fiscal year 2024
and each fiscal year thereafter, each Secretary concerned shall submit,
in the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support
of the budget of the relevant Department for each fiscal year (as
submitted with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of
title 31, United States Code)--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) a request for amounts in the Wildland Fire
Management appropriation account of the Secretary concerned to
carry out the activities described in subsection (e);
and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) an accounting of costs with respect to
prescribed fire, by region of the National Forest System or the
Department of the Interior, as applicable, for the previous 3
years, including--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) the amount spent on prescribed
fire;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) the number of acres treated with
prescribed fire; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) the number of personnel dedicated to
carrying out prescribed fire.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (e) Use of Funds.--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) Mandatory activities.--The Secretary concerned
shall use amounts in the accounts established by subsection
(b)--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) to develop, in coordination with
State, local, and Tribal governments, a prescribed fire
operational strategy for each region of the National
Forest System or the Department of the Interior, as
applicable, specifically for using funding provided
through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
(Public Law 117-58; 135 Stat. 429) and other additional
sources of funding, that describes--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (i) the fire deficit by
region;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (ii) staffing and funding
needs;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iii) plans to apply prescribed
fire; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iv) regional targets to
demonstrate an increase in prescribed fire with
respect to--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (I) existing programs;
and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (II) activities carried
out using additional funding
sources;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (B) with respect to prescribed fires--
</DELETED>
<DELETED> (i) to carry out necessary
environmental reviews;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (ii) to conduct outreach to the
public, Indian Tribes and beneficiaries, and
adjacent landowners;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iii) to conduct any required pre-
ignition cultural and environmental surveys;
and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iv) to implement prescribed fires
on Federal land;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (C) to hire additional, dedicated
personnel and procure additional equipment, including
unmanned aerial systems equipped with an aerial
ignition system, to implement a greater number of
prescribed fires;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (D) to fund an increase in staffing
(including in-person and hybrid staff) in order to
provide training for the implementation of prescribed
fire and management of smoke;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (E) to conduct post-prescribed fire
activities, such as--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (i) reseeding to prevent the
spread of invasive species; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (ii) recurring application of fire
to maintain desired conditions;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (F) to conduct monitoring for safety and
fire effects on ecosystem resilience and risk
mitigation; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (G) to use key performance indicators,
including--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (i) the annual number of acres of
National Forest System land or public lands, as
applicable, where completed treatment
effectively mitigates wildfire risk or
maintains or restores ecological integrity with
respect to--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (I) land in the wildland-
urban interface; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (II) land not in the
wildland-urban interface;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (ii) the number of acres in a
desired condition as a result of fire
management objectives, as determined by the
Secretary concerned;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iii) the number of acres treated
with prescribed fire and the quantity of
emissions from prescribed fires;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (iv) the number of acres where
treatment results in changes in fire regime
condition class; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (v) the number of burns conducted
by Indian Tribes or Indigenous-led
organizations or pursuant to an agreement with
an Indian Tribe or Indigenous-led
organization.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) Joint coordination.--The Secretaries shall
coordinate to jointly develop a common data management and
analysis system for planning and post-treatment
accountability.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) Authorized activities.--The Secretary
concerned may--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (A) assist State, Tribal, local
government, or private prescribed fire programs--
</DELETED>
<DELETED> (i) to establish a training or
certification program for teams comprised of
citizens or local fir