H.R. 178

119 HR 178 IH: To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes.
 U.S. House of Representatives
 2025-01-03
 text/xml
 EN
 Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
 I  119th CONGRESS  1st Session  H. R. 178  IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES   January 3, 2025   Mr. McClintock  (for himself,  Mr. Calvert ,  Mr. LaMalfa ,  Mr. Biggs of Arizona ,  Mr. Stauber , and  Mr. Issa ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the  Committee on Agriculture , and in addition to the Committee on  Natural Resources , for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned   A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes.
1.
Suppression of wildfires
(a)
In general
With respect to covered National Forest System lands, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service—
(1)
shall—
(A)
use all available resources to carry out wildfire suppression with the purpose of extinguishing wildfires detected on such lands not later than 24 hours after such a wildfire is detected; and
(B)
immediately suppress any prescribed fire that exceeds prescription;
(2)
shall not inhibit the suppression efforts of State or local firefighting agencies that are authorized to respond to wildfire on such lands;
(3)
may only use fire as a resource management tool if the fire is a prescribed fire that complies with applicable law and regulations;
(4)
may only initiate a backfire or burnout during a wildfire—
(A)
by order of the responsible incident commander; or
(B)
in instances that are necessary to protect the health and safety of firefighting personnel; and
(5)
shall use all available resources to control any such initiated backfire or burnout until extinguished.
(b)
Covered national forest system lands defined
In this section, the term  covered National Forest System lands  means any area—
(1)
located within National Forest System lands; and
(2)
that—
(A)
the U.S. Drought Monitor has rated as having a D2 (severe drought) intensity, D3 (extreme drought) intensity, or D4 (exceptional drought) intensity;
(B)
the National Interagency Fire Center declares has a National Wildland Fire Preparedness level of 5; or
(C)
the Forest Service has identified as being located in a fireshed ranked in the top 10 percent of wildfire exposure (as determined using the most recently published models of fireshed risk exposure published by the Forest Service).