I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7362 

To establish cooperative agreements for wildland fire research, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 15, 2024 

Ms. BONAMICI (for herself, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Mr. DUARTE, Ms. TOKUDA, Mr. 

VALADAO, and Mr. CURTIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To establish cooperative agreements for wildland fire 

research, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Satellites Preventing 

5 Agricultural Crises and Emergencies Act of 2024’’ or the 

6 ‘‘SPACE Act of 2024’’. 

7 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHING COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS FOR 

8 WILDLAND FIRE RESEARCH. 

9 (a) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 

2 shall enter into cooperative agreements with land3 grant colleges and universities with a demonstrable 

4 capacity to collect data, interpret, report on, and 

5 otherwise conduct research on wildland fire sciences 

6 for the purpose of promoting and researching the 

7 use of available satellite data in order to predict, 

8 control, monitor, or otherwise mitigate wildland fire 

9 risk, including relating to the following: 

10 (A) Smoke detection, land temperature, 

11 fire weather, fuel composition, soil moisture, 

12 and other metrics. 

13 (B) Advanced remote sensing technologies, 

14 including light detection and ranging, forest 

15 carbon monitoring, and use of geostationary 

16 and geosynchronous remote sensing resources. 

17 (C) Resource deployment, wildland fire 

18 management, and area mapping. 

19 (D) Wildland fire behavior and predictive 

20 modeling from historic, real-time, and near real21 time acquired data. 

22 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—In entering cooperative 

23 agreements under paragraph (1), the Secretary of 

24 Agriculture shall— 


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1 (A) make available to recipient institutions 

2 satellite data acquired by the Agriculture Re3 search Service, the National Agriculture Im4 agery Program, the National Institute of Food 

5 and Agriculture, and other research agencies 

6 determined relevant by the Secretary, including 

7 such data that— 

8 (i) provide real or near-real time im9 ages of earth’s landmass; 

10 (ii) can be gathered in multiple spec11 tral bands, including infrared; and 

12 (iii) provide historical data sets to 

13 mode, forecast, and track wildland fires; 

14 and 

15 (B) require recipient institutions to share 

16 scientific research and reports, including 

17 wildland fire forecasts, models, smoke drift pat18 terns, gaps and deficits in available data, and 

19 any other materials produced by resources pro20 vided by the Department of Agriculture deter21 mined necessary by the Secretary. 

22 (b) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 

23 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 

24 shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House 

25 of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, NuVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:42 Feb 26, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7362.IH H7362

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1 trition, and Forestry of the Senate a report regarding op2 portunities to expand wildland fire research cooperative 

3 agreements, improve the distribution of remote sensing re4 sources, and expand cooperative agreements to include 

5 interagency groups with access to remote sensing data rel6 evant to wildland fire research. 

7 SEC. 3. REPORT ON SATELLITE-DRIVEN WILDLAND FIRE 

8 RESEARCH. 

9 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact10 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture, in consulta11 tion with the heads of other Federal departments or agen12 cies the Secretary determines appropriate, shall submit to 

13 Congress a report that contains information relating to 

14 the following: 

15 (1) The needed resources and possible timeline 

16 for implementation for integrating satellite and re17 mote sensing technologies, including commercial 

18 data acquisitions, as well as airspace management 

19 technology and drones, to collect, interpret, and dis20 tribute data on wildland fire, for the following pur21 poses: 

22 (A) Forecasting fire growth and fire behav23 ior modeling. 

24 (B) Developing fire containment strategies. 


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1 (C) Improving operational resource deploy2 ment. 

3 (D) Producing daily fire progression maps. 

4 (2) The need and opportunities to deploy aerial 

5 resources, including drones, to provide field observa6 tions in regions experiencing multiple wildland fires. 

7 (3) The capacity for remote sensing instru8 ments, including infrared technology, to detect fine 

9 vegetation stress and fuel moisture with increased 

10 frequency. 

11 (4) An estimate of the cost to carry out para12 graphs (1) through (3), including to collect, acquire, 

13 and provide to the Agricultural Research Services, 

14 the National Agriculture Imagery Program, the Na15 tional Institute of Food and Agriculture, the U.S. 

16 Forest Service, the National Interagency Fire Cen17 ter, and federally funded research entities, including 

18 land-grant colleges and universities, the information 

19 relating thereto. 

Æ 


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