[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 306 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 306
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that improves wildfire, fire
weather, fire risk, and wildfire smoke related forecasting, detection,
modeling, observations, and service delivery, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 29, 2025
Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Sheehy, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Lujan, Mr.
Sullivan, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Murkowski, and Mr. Padilla) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that improves wildfire, fire
weather, fire risk, and wildfire smoke related forecasting, detection,
modeling, observations, and service delivery, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Fire Ready Nation
Act of 2025''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Establishment of fire weather services program.
Sec. 4. Fire weather testbed.
Sec. 5. Data management and technology modernization.
Sec. 6. Surveys and assessments.
Sec. 7. Incident Meteorologist Service.
Sec. 8. Emergency response activities.
Sec. 9. Submissions to Congress regarding the fire weather services
program, incident meteorologist workforce
needs, and National Weather Service
workforce support.
Sec. 10. Fire Science and Technology Working Group; strategic plan.
Sec. 11. Fire weather rating system.
Sec. 12. Government Accountability Office reports.
Sec. 13. Cooperation and coordination.
Sec. 14. General provisions.
Sec. 15. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administration.--The term ``Administration'' means the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(2) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term
``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
of the House of Representatives.
(3) Earth system model.--The term ``Earth system model''
means a mathematical model containing all relevant components
of the Earth, namely the atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere,
and biosphere.
(4) Fire environment.--The term ``fire environment''
means--
(A) the environmental conditions, such as soil
moisture, vegetation, topography, snowpack, atmospheric
temperature, moisture, and wind, that influence--
(i) fuel and fire behavior; and
(ii) the emission, chemical evolution, and
transport of wildfire smoke; and
(B) the associated environmental impacts occurring
during and after fire events.
(5) Fire weather.--The term ``fire weather'' means the
weather conditions that influence the start, spread, character,
or behavior of wildfires and relevant meteorological and
chemical phenomena, including air quality, wildfire smoke, and
meteorological parameters such as relative humidity, air
temperature, wind speed and direction, and atmospheric
composition and chemistry, including emissions and mixing
heights.
(6) Impact-based decision support services.--The term
``impact-based decision support services'' means scientific
advice and interpretative services the Administration provides
to help core partners, such as emergency personnel and public
safety officials, make decisions when the information impacts
the lives and livelihoods of the people of the United States.
(7) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian tribe'' has the
meaning given that term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
(8) Native hawaiian organization.--The term ``Native
Hawaiian organization'' has the meaning given that term in
section 6207 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7517), including the Department of Hawaiian
Home Lands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
(9) Seasonal.--The term ``seasonal'' has the meaning given
that term in section 2 of the Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501).
(10) State.--The term ``State'' means a State, the District
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the
United State Virgin Islands, the Federated States of
Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the
Republic of Palau.
(11) Tribal organization.--The term ``Tribal organization''
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the Indian
Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C.
5304).
(12) Under secretary.--The term ``Under Secretary'' means
the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRE WEATHER SERVICES PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Under Secretary shall establish and maintain a
coordinated fire weather services program among the offices of the
Administration in existence as of the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(b) Program Functions.--The functions of the program established
under subsection (a), consistent with the priorities described in
section 101 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of
2017 (15 U.S.C. 8511), shall be--
(1) to support readiness, responsiveness, understanding,
and resilience of the United States to wildfires, fire weather,
wildfire smoke, post-fire flooding and debris flows, and
associated hazards and impacts in built and natural
environments;
(2) to collaboratively develop and disseminate accurate,
precise, effective, and timely risk communications, forecasts,
watches, and warnings relating to wildfires, fire weather,
wildfire smoke, post-fire flooding and debris flows, and other
associated conditions, hazards, and impacts, as applicable,
with Federal land management agencies;
(3) to partner with and support the public, Federal and
State government entities, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian
organizations, and academic and local partners through the
development of capabilities, impact-based decision support
services, and overall service delivery and utility related to
fire weather;
(4) to conduct and support research and development of new
and innovative models, technologies, techniques, products,
systems, processes, and procedures to predict and improve
understanding of wildfires, fire weather, related air quality,
post-fire flooding and debris flows, and the fire environment;
(5) to develop processes to transition research into
operational use and inform additional areas of research to
deliver fire weather products, services, and decision support
tools to operational users and platforms;
(6) to develop communications networks and strategies to
ensure parity of fire forecasts, warning services, and
information about current fire location, for remote, isolated,
and rural communities, including communities where the public
acts as the first responder to wildfire; and
(7) to develop, in coordination with Federal land
management agencies, impact-based decision support services
that operationalize and integrate the functions described in
paragraphs (1) through (6) in order to provide comprehensive
impact-based decision support services that encompass the fire
environment.
(c) Program Priorities.--In developing and implementing the program
established under subsection (a), the Under Secretary shall
prioritize--
(1) development of a fire weather-enabled Earth system
model and data assimilation systems that--
(A) are capable of prediction and forecasting
across relevant spatial and temporal scales;
(B) include variables associated with fire weather
and the fire environment;
(C) improve understanding of the connections
between fire weather and modes of climate variability;
(D) incorporate emerging techniques such as
artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud
computing; and
(E) use a rapidly deployable network of rain gauges
for post-fire hazard monitoring;
(2) advancement of existing and new observational
capabilities, including satellite-, airborne-, air-, and
ground-based systems and technologies, and social networking
and other public information-gathering applications that--
(A) identify--
(i) high-risk pre-ignition conditions;
(ii) conditions that influence fire
behavior and spread including those conditions
that suppress active fire events; and
(iii) fire weather threat levels;
(B) support real-time notification and monitoring
of ignitions;
(C) support observations and data collection of
fire weather and fire environment variables, including
vegetation state and profiles of wildfire smoke, winds,
temperature, and humidity, for development of the model
and systems under paragraph (1); and
(D) support forecasts and research that mitigate
the impacts of wildfires on human life, health, and the
economy;
(3) development and implementation of advanced and user-
oriented impact-based decision tools, science, and technologies
that--
(A) ensure real-time and retrospective data,
products, and services are findable, accessible,
interoperable, usable, inform further research, and are
analysis- and decision-ready;
(B) provide targeted information throughout the
fire lifecycle including pre-ignition, detection,
forecasting, post-fire, and monitoring phases; and
(C) support early assessment of post-fire hazards,
such as air quality, debris flows, mudslides, and
flooding; and
(4) ensuring the parity of access to and support from the
tools, science, and technologies developed under this
subsection for remote, isolated, and rural communities.
(d) Program Activities.--In developing and implementing the program
established under subsection (a), the Under Secretary may--
(1) conduct relevant physical and social science research
activities in support of the functions described in subsection
(b) and the priorities described in subsection (c);
(2) conduct relevant activities, in coordination with
Federal land management agencies and Federal science agencies,
to assess fuel characteristics, including moisture, loading,
and other parameters used to determine fire risk levels and
outlooks;
(3) support and conduct research that assesses impacts to
marine, riverine, watershed, and other relevant ecosystems,
which may include forest and rangeland ecosystems, resulting
from activities associated with mitigation of and response to
wildfires;
(4) support and conduct attribution science research
relating to wildfires, fire weather, fire risk, wildfire smoke,
and associated conditions, risks, and impacts;
(5) develop wildfire smoke and air quality forecasts,
forecast guidance, and prescribed burn weather forecasts, and
conduct research on the impact of such forecasts on response
behavior that minimizes health-related impacts from wildfire
smoke exposure;
(6) use, in coordination with Federal land management
agencies, wildland fuels information and fire resource
intelligence to inform fire environment impact-based decision
support services and products for safety;
(7) work with Federal agencies to provide data, tools, and
services to support the implementation of mitigation measures
by such agencies;
(8) provide training and support to ensure effective media
utilization of impact-based decision support services and
products to the public regarding actions needing to be taken;
(9) provide comprehensive training to ensure staff of the
program established under subsection (a) is properly equipped
to deliver the impact-based decision support services and
products described in paragraphs (1) through (6); and
(10) acquire, through contracted purchase, private sector-
produced observational data to fill identified gaps, as needed.
(e) Parity for Remote, Isolated, and Rural Communities.--In
developing and implementing the program established under subsection
(a), the Under Secretary shall ensure parity of coverage and
programmatic activity for remote, isolated, and rural communities,
including communities where the public acts as the first responder to
wildfire.
(f) Collaboration.--The Under Secretary shall, as the Under
Secretary considers appropriate, collaborate with partners in the
weather and climate enterprises, academic institutions, States, Indian
tribes, Tribal organizations, Native Hawaiian organizations, local
partners, and Federal agencies in the development and implementation of
the program established under subsection (a).
(g) Agreements.--In carrying out the activities under this Act and
the amendments made by this Act, the Under Secretary may provide
support to non-Federal entities by making funds and resources available
through--
(1) competitive grants;
(2) contracts under the mobility program under subchapter
VI of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code (commonly
referred to as the ``Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility
Program'');
(3) cooperative agreements; and
(4) co-location agreements as described in section 502 of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Commissioned Officer Corps Amendments Act of 2020 (33 U.S.C.
851 note prec.).
(h) Program Administration Plan.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall submit to
the appropriate committees of Congress a plan that details how
the program established under subsection (a) will be
administered and governed within the Administration.
(2) Elements.--The plan required by paragraph (1) should
include a description of--
(A) how the functions described in subsection (b),
the priorities described in subsection (c), and the
activities described in subsection (d) will be
distributed among the line offices of the
Administration; and
(B) the mechanisms in place to ensure seamless
coordination among those offices.
SEC. 4. FIRE WEATHER TESTBED.
(a) Establishment of Fire Weather Testbed.--The Under Secretary
shall establish a fire weather testbed that enables engagement across
the Federal Government, State and local governments, academia, private
and federally funded research laboratories, the private sector, and
end-users in order to evaluate the accuracy and usability of
technology, models, fire weather products and services, and other
research to accelerate the implementation, transition to operations,
and use of new capabilities by the Administration, Federal and land
management agencies, and other relevant stakeholders.
(b) Uncrewed Systems.--
(1) In general.--The Under Secretary shall--
(A) establish and carry out a research and
development program to support the application of
uncrewed systems technologies to improve data
collection in support of modeling, observations,
predictions, forecasts, and impact-based decision
support services, and for other purposes of the
Administration;
(B) transition uncrewed systems technologies from
research to operations as the Under Secretary considers
appropriate; and
(C) coordinate with other Federal agencies that may
be developing uncrewed systems and related technologies
to meet the challenges of wildland fire management.
(2) Pilots required.--In carrying out paragraph (1), the
Under Secretary shall conduct pilots of uncrewed systems for
fire weather and fire environment observations, including--
(A) testing of uncrewed systems in approximations
of real-world scenarios;
(B) assessment of the utility of meteorological
data collected from fire response and assessment
aircraft;
(C) input of the collected data into appropriate
models to predict fire behavior, including coupled
atmosphere and fire models; and
(D) collection of best management practices for
deployment of uncrewed systems and other remote data
technology, including for communication and
coordination between the stakeholders described in
subsection (a).
(3) Savings clause.--
(A) In general.--In carrying out activities under
this subsection, the Under Secretary shall ensure that
any testing or deployment of uncrewed systems follow
procedures, restrictions, and protocols established by
the heads of the Federal agencies with statut