March 6, 2025
Mr. Sheehy (for himself and Mr. Kim) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
To require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to establish a standard for the response time to wildfire incidents, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Wildfire Response and Preparedness Act of 2025
.
Sec. 2. Standards for response time to wildfire incidents
(a) Definitions
In this section:
(1) Relevant congressional committees
The term relevant congressional committees means—
(A)
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate;
(B)
the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate;
(C)
the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; and
(D)
the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives.
(2) Response time
The term response time, with respect to a wildland fire incident, means the period of time between ignition of the wildland fire and evaluation for purposes of suppression of that wildland fire, on the ground or in an aircraft, by—
(A)
a Federal, State, or local public safety officer; or
(B)
a public safety volunteer.
(3) Secretary concerned
The term Secretary concerned means—
(A)
the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to Federal land administered by the Forest Service;
(B)
the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to Federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; and
(C)
the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with respect to consultation with the United States Fire Administration relating to wildland fires in the wildland-urban interface.
(b) Standards
(1) In general
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary concerned shall establish a standard for the response time to any wildland fire incident occurring on Federal land administered by the Secretary concerned.
(2) Goal
To the extent practicable, the response time established by the Secretary concerned for a wildland fire incident under paragraph (1) shall—
(A)
be not more than 30 minutes; and
(B)
include the deployment of fire suppression assets in a response time of not more than 3 hours.
(c) Report to Congress
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries concerned shall jointly submit to the relevant congressional committees a report that includes—
(1)
identification of a single point of contact for Federal wildland fire response at the Department of the Interior;
(2)
a unified budget request that covers all wildland fire activities of the Secretaries concerned;
(3)
a description of key performance indicators for wildland fire response for each of—
(A)
the Forest Service;
(B)
the Bureau of Land Management;
(C)
the Bureau of Indian Affairs;
(D)
the National Park Service; and
(E)
the United States Fish and Wildlife Service;
(4)
(A)
a description of the composition of the aviation and ground wildland firefighting fleet as of the date on which the report is submitted; and
(B)
an estimation of the size of that fleet required to provide a response time of not more than 30 minutes for wildland fires occurring in the United States, including the deployment of fire suppression assets in a response time of not more than 3 hours;
(5)
a description of necessary changes to the Federal ordering and dispatch system to enable Federal wildland firefighting assets to be dispatched faster;
(6)
a description of Federal contracting mechanisms relating to wildland firefighting assets that may be streamlined to ensure that contract activation and awards may be provided within a 1-year period; and
(7)
a description of all resources and authorities needed to ensure that wildland firefighting assets under Federal contracts are available year-round and nationwide.