I 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6410 

To require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct 

research on public safety communication coordination standards among 

wildland firefighters and fire management response officials. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 14, 2022 

Mrs. KIM of California (for herself and Ms. STANSBURY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and 

Technology 

A BILL 

To require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct research on public safety communication coordination standards among wildland firefighters 

and fire management response officials. 

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 ‘‘NIST Wildland Fire 

5 Communications and Information Dissemination Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

2 the Director of the National Institute of Standards 

3 and Technology. 

4 (2) MEMBER AGENCY.—The term ‘‘member 

5 agency’’ means a member agency of the National 

6 Interagency Fire Center, including the Bureau of In7 dian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National 

8 Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

9 Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, For10 est Service, United States Fire Administration, and 

11 the Department of Defense. 

12 (3) WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER.—The term 

13 ‘‘wildland firefighter’’ means any person who partici14 pates in wildland firefighting activities. 

15 (4) FIRE MANAGEMENT RESPONSE OFFI16 CIALS.—The term ‘‘fire management response offi17 cials’’ means regional fire directors, deputy regional 

18 fire directors, agency officials who directly oversee 

19 fire operations, fire management officers, and indi20 viduals serving on incident management teams. 

21 (5) TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURERS.—The term 

22 ‘‘technology manufacturers’’ means companies that 

23 manufacture communications technologies used by 

24 Federal, State, Tribal, and local wildland fire au25 thorities. 


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1 SEC. 3. RESEARCH. 

2 (a) REQUIREMENT TO CONDUCT RESEARCH ON PUB3 LIC SAFETY.—Not later than 60 days after the date of 

4 the enactment of this Act, the Director, acting through 

5 the head of the Public Safety and Communications Re6 search Division and in consultation with the Fire Research 

7 Division and technology manufacturers, shall carry out re8 search on— 

9 (1) public safety communication coordination 

10 standards among Federal, State, Tribal, and local 

11 wildland firefighters, fire management response offi12 cials, and member agencies; and 

13 (2) improving and integrating existing commu14 nications systems to trasmit secure real-time data, 

15 alerts, and advisories to fire management response 

16 officials and wildland firefighters. 

17 (b) REQUIREMENT TO CONDUCT FIELD TESTING OF

18 INFORMATION DISSEMINATION AND TECHNOLOGY.—The 

19 Public Safety and Communications Research Division, in 

20 consultation with the Fire Research Division and member 

21 agencies, will conduct both live and virtual field testing 

22 of equipment, software, and other technologies to deter23 mine current times of information dissemination and de24 velop standards for the delivery of real-time data among 

25 member agencies, fire management response officials, and 


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1 wildland firefighters based on findings from research 

2 under subsection (a). 

3 SEC. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS. 

4 (a) REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP AND PROVIDE REC5 OMMENDATIONS.—The Director shall develop and publish 

6 recommendations for member agencies to improve public 

7 safety communication coordination standards among 

8 wildland first responders and fire management response 

9 officials. 

10 (b) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS

11 TO THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, THE OF12 FICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY, AND MEM13 BER AGENCIES.—The Director shall provide recommenda14 tions to the Office of Management and Budget and the 

15 Office of Science and Technology Police to assist member 

16 agencies with the implementation of the recommendations 

17 in subsection (a). 

18 SEC. 5. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

19 (a) REQUIREMENT TO REPORT RESEARCH FINDINGS

20 AND RECOMMENDATIONS.—The Director shall provide the 

21 recommendations published under section 4(a) to the 

22 House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and 

23 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans24 portation. 


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1 (b) REQUIREMENT TO REPORT ON THE IMPLEMEN2 TATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS.—Not later than 1 year 

3 after the date of the publication of the Director’s rec4 ommendations, the Government Accountability Office 

5 shall produce a report on the extent to which member 

6 agencies have implemented the Director’s recommenda7 tions. 

8 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

9 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Na10 tional Institute of Standards and Technology $3,000,000 

11 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2027 to carry out 

12 this section. 

Æ 


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