Bill > HR4038

This bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to establish standardized response times for wildland fire incidents on federal lands. The bill defines "response time" as the period between a fire's ignition and its initial evaluation by public safety officers or volunteers. The key provisions mandate that within 90 days of enactment, these Secretaries (referred to as "Secretaries concerned") must create response time standards with a goal of arriving at a wildland fire within 30 minutes and deploying fire suppression assets within 3 hours. The bill also requires the Secretaries to submit a comprehensive report to relevant congressional committees within one year, which must include details such as identifying a single federal wildland fire response contact, creating a unified budget for wildland fire activities, describing the current and needed firefighting fleet, outlining improvements to dispatch systems, proposing streamlined federal contracting mechanisms for firefighting assets, and detailing resources needed to ensure year-round, nationwide availability of firefighting resources. The report will cover multiple federal agencies including the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Agriculture and Natural Resources, Business and Industry, Government Affairs

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4038/all-info