II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2661 

To amend the Clean Air Act to establish a grant program for supporting 

local communities in detecting, preparing for, communicating about, or 

mitigating the environmental and public health impacts of wildfire smoke, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 5, 2021 

Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. PADILLA, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Environment and Public Works 

A BILL 

To amend the Clean Air Act to establish a grant program 

for supporting local communities in detecting, preparing 

for, communicating about, or mitigating the environmental and public health impacts of wildfire smoke, 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 ‘‘Smoke-Ready Commu5 nities Act of 2021’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SMOKE-READY COMMUNITIES. 

2 Part A of title I of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 

3 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘SEC. 132. SMOKE-READY COMMUNITIES. 

5 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Subject to the availability of 

6 appropriations, the Administrator may make grants under 

7 this section to air pollution control agencies to support air 

8 pollution control agencies in developing and implementing 

9 programs that support local communities in detecting, 

10 preparing for, communicating with the public about, or 

11 mitigating the environmental and public health aspects of 

12 wildfire smoke. 

13 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out a pro14 gram described in subsection (a), an air pollution control 

15 agency may use funds from a grant received under this 

16 section for— 

17 ‘‘(1) activities related to the monitoring of, the 

18 interpretation of, and communicating with the public 

19 about data related to ambient air quality conditions 

20 that are caused by wildfire smoke; 

21 ‘‘(2) conducting community outreach in areas 

22 that are prone to poor air quality that is attributable 

23 to elevated levels of particulate matter and other 

24 harmful components of wildfire smoke; 

25 ‘‘(3) the deployment of air quality monitoring 

26 equipment in a manner that is sufficient to evaluate 


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1 an increased prevalence of poor air quality that is 

2 attributable to elevated levels of particulate matter 

3 and other harmful components of wildfire smoke; 

4 ‘‘(4) equipping public buildings with air filtra5 tion systems that are capable of removing particu6 late matter and other harmful components of wild7 fire smoke from the air so that the public buildings 

8 may serve as cleaner air spaces during wildfire 

9 smoke events and other poor air quality events; 

10 ‘‘(5) the purchase, storage, and distribution of 

11 face masks and personal protective equipment, in12 cluding N–95 filtering facepiece respirators, portable 

13 air filtration systems, and other masks and equip14 ment that are capable of removing particulate mat15 ter and other harmful components of wildfire smoke 

16 from the air; 

17 ‘‘(6) subgrants or providing other financing to 

18 private or other public entities with demonstrated fi19 nancial need— 

20 ‘‘(A) to acquire protective gear; or 

21 ‘‘(B) to carry out weatherization measures 

22 to mitigate air infiltration; and 

23 ‘‘(7) such other activities that the Adminis24 trator determines to be necessary to carry out the 

25 purposes of this section. 


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1 ‘‘(c) ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.— 

2 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 

3 the Administrator shall establish a formula to dis4 tribute grants under this section among air pollution 

5 control agencies. 

6 ‘‘(2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In establishing the 

7 formula required under paragraph (1), the Adminis8 trator shall consider— 

9 ‘‘(A) the vulnerability of communities with10 in a State to wildfire smoke; and 

11 ‘‘(B) the degree to which a State is prone 

12 to poor air quality that is attributable to ele13 vated levels of particulate matter from wildfire 

14 smoke. 

15 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec17 essary to carry out this section.’’. 

Æ 


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