I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 369 
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 17, 2023 
Mrs. KIM of California (for herself, Ms. STANSBURY, and Mr. NEGUSE) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, 
Space, and Technology 
A BILL 
To require the National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology to conduct research on public safety communica-
tion coordination standards among wildland firefighters 
and fire management response officials. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NIST Wildland Fire 
Communications and Information Dissemination Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 
the Director of the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology. 
(2) MEMBER
AGENCY.—The term ‘‘member 
agency’’ means a member agency of the National 
Interagency Fire Center, including the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National 
Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, For-
est Service, United States Fire Administration, and 
the Department of Defense. 
(3) 
WILDLAND
FIREFIGHTER.—The 
term 
‘‘wildland firefighter’’ means any person who partici-
pates in wildland firefighting activities. 
(4) 
FIRE
MANAGEMENT
RESPONSE
OFFI-
CIALS.—The term ‘‘fire management response offi-
cials’’ means regional fire directors, deputy regional 
fire directors, agency officials who directly oversee 
fire operations, fire management officers, and indi-
viduals serving on incident management teams. 
(5) TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURERS.—The term 
‘‘technology manufacturers’’ means companies that 
manufacture communications technologies used by 
Federal, State, Tribal, and local wildland fire au-
thorities. 
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SEC. 3. RESEARCH. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO CONDUCT RESEARCH ON PUB-
LIC SAFETY.—Not later than 60 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Director, acting through 
the head of the Public Safety and Communications Re-
search Division and in consultation with the Fire Research 
Division and technology manufacturers, shall carry out re-
search on— 
(1) public safety communication coordination 
standards among Federal, State, Tribal, and local 
wildland firefighters, fire management response offi-
cials, and member agencies; and 
(2) improving and integrating existing commu-
nications systems to transmit secure real-time data, 
alerts, and advisories to fire management response 
officials and wildland firefighters. 
(b) REQUIREMENT TO CONDUCT FIELD TESTING OF 
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION AND TECHNOLOGY.—The 
Public Safety and Communications Research Division, in 
consultation with the Fire Research Division and member 
agencies, will conduct both live and virtual field testing 
of equipment, software, and other technologies to deter-
mine current times of information dissemination and de-
velop standards for the delivery of real-time data among 
member agencies, fire management response officials, and 
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wildland firefighters based on findings from research 
under subsection (a). 
SEC. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP AND PROVIDE REC-
OMMENDATIONS.—The Director shall develop and publish 
recommendations for member agencies to improve public 
safety communication coordination standards among 
wildland first responders and fire management response 
officials. 
(b) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS 
TO THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, THE OF-
FICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY, AND MEM-
BER AGENCIES.—The Director shall provide recommenda-
tions to the Office of Management and Budget and the 
Office of Science and Technology Police to assist member 
agencies with the implementation of the recommendations 
in subsection (a). 
SEC. 5. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO REPORT RESEARCH FINDINGS 
AND RECOMMENDATIONS.—The Director shall provide the 
recommendations published under section 4(a) to the 
House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and 
the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans-
portation. 
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(b) REQUIREMENT TO REPORT ON THE IMPLEMEN-
TATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of the publication of the Director’s rec-
ommendations, the Government Accountability Office 
shall produce a report on the extent to which member 
agencies have implemented the Director’s recommenda-
tions. 
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Na-
tional Institute of Standards and Technology $3,000,000 
for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 to carry out 
this section. 
Æ 
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