YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentWorkers & JobsCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityMore controlled burns on public land — 10% more acres a year for ten years, plus hazard pay for crews.
Environment
Interior and the Forest Service would have to burn more federal land every year for ten years. The count starts the first full budget year after the bill becomes law.
Projects paid for by the new grant program have to protect old growth forest and keep large trees standing. That is a condition of getting the money.
Funded projects cannot build permanent roads. Money must be set aside to take out any temporary road afterward.
A single plan covering a forest unit or district would serve as the environmental review for burns there. Later burns in that area would not each get their own analysis.
States can ask the EPA to leave a pollution spike out of the official record as an "exceptional event." The EPA would have to agree when the burn followed a smoke plan and a land plan.
Workers & Jobs
Federal employees would get the extra hazardous duty pay when they light, manage, or control a planned burn. It would apply no matter what their official job title is.
Agencies could move a seasonal wildland firefighter into a permanent job with no competition. The worker needs three recent seasons rated at least "Fully Successful" in a job focused on planned burns.
Agencies would build career paths, training, and support for people who did wildland fire work while in prison. People convicted of arson or a violent crime are left out.
Agencies would set up crews made up mostly of veterans to run planned burns. It covers people discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
Every fire coordination region without a burn training center would get one within two years, if Congress funds it. The bill also backs a cultural burning center led by Indian Tribes.
Corporate Benefits
Non-federal crews working under a federal supervisor would count as federal workers for injury and damage claims. Claims would go to the federal government instead of to the crew or its company.
Transparency & Accountability
A state that does not report its burn acres by December 31 loses that year's money under this bill. The report goes to the national fire operations database.
Each funded project sets yearly targets and reports on them. Missing those targets three years in a row ends the project's funding.
The grant program is funded only through budget year 2034. No single project can draw money for more than ten years.
More about this bill
If you live near a national forest or other public land, you would see more planned burns. Agencies would have to burn 10 percent more acres each year for ten years. That clock starts the first full budget year after the bill becomes law. Planned burns are set on purpose to clear brush and cut wildfire risk. They also make smoke. The bill orders new research and public tools so people can track smoke and protect themselves. Each agency could spend up to $10 million a year on a new grant program for burn projects. No project could get more than $1 million a year, and no more than 20 would be picked each year. Agencies could also shift up to 15 percent of their brush-clearing money to this work. Federal workers who light or manage a burn would get hazard pay. Seasonal firefighters with three solid seasons could be hired for good. New training centers would open in each region within two years, including one run by Indian Tribes. The bill would also cut paperwork. One area-wide burn plan could cover future fires there. Each burn would no longer need its own review. State and local crews hired to burn federal land would count as federal workers for legal claims. If a burn damaged your property, you would file a claim against the government instead of suing the crew. And smoke from a planned burn could be left out of a community's air pollution record when the EPA agrees.
Congressional Summary
This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to increase the number and size of prescribed fires conducted on federal lands.For 10 years, Interior and USDA must annually conduct prescribed fires on federal land so that the total acreage where prescribed fires are conducted is 10% greater than the previous fiscal year. Interior and USDA must establish a collaborative prescribed fire program to provide financial assistance to eligible entities to conduct prescribed fires in priority landscapes.Interior and USDA may enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with states, Indian tribes, counties, municipal governments, fire districts, nongovernmental organizations, or private entities to coordinate prescribed fires on federal land.Interior and USDA must expand employment opportunities for prescribed fire practitioners, including by expanding hazard pay, supporting underrepresented groups, and establishing additional training centers. To address the public health and safety risk of the expanded use of prescribed fire, the Environmental Protection Agency must coordinate with state, tribal, and local air quality agencies to support the environmental review of wildland fires.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-06-10
- Date Added
- 2026-03-30
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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