I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 482 
To improve Federal activities relating to wildfires, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 24, 2023 
Mr. NEGUSE (for himself, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. HORSFORD, and 
Ms. MATSUI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on 
Agriculture, Armed Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, and 
Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To improve Federal activities relating to wildfires, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Western Wildfire Support Act of 2023’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Definitions. 
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TITLE I—PREPARATION 
Sec. 101. Firefighting accounts. 
Sec. 102. Reimbursement for wildfires caused by military training. 
Sec. 103. Strategic wildland fire management planning. 
Sec. 104. Accounts to assist communities in planning and preparing for 
wildfires. 
Sec. 105. Community support during disaster response. 
TITLE II—WILDFIRE DETECTION AND SUPPRESSION SUPPORT 
Sec. 201. Wildfire detection equipment. 
Sec. 202. Grant program for slip-on tank units. 
Sec. 203. Assistance to States for operation of air tankers. 
Sec. 204. Research and development of unmanned aircraft system fire applica-
tions. 
Sec. 205. Study on effects of drone incursions on wildfire suppression. 
Sec. 206. Study on wildfire detection equipment and integration of artificial in-
telligence technologies. 
TITLE III—POST-FIRE RECOVERY SUPPORT 
Sec. 301. Funding for online guides for post-fire assistance. 
Sec. 302. Long-Term Burned Area Recovery account. 
Sec. 303. Prize for wildfire-related invasive species reduction. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The term 
‘‘congressional committees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources and the Committee on Appropria-
tions of the Senate; and 
(B) the Committee on Natural Resources 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
House of Representatives. 
(2) FEDERAL LAND.—The term ‘‘Federal land’’ 
means— 
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(A) public lands (as defined in section 103 
of the Federal Land Policy and Management 
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702)); 
(B) units of the National Park System; 
(C) units of the National Wildlife Refuge 
System; 
(D) land held in trust by the United States 
for the benefit of Indian Tribes or members of 
an Indian Tribe; and 
(E) land in the National Forest System. 
(3) NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘National 
Forest System’’ has the meaning given the term 
in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland 
Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 
U.S.C. 1609(a)). 
(B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘National 
Forest System’’ does not include— 
(i) the national grasslands and land 
utilization projects administered under title 
III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant 
Act (7 U.S.C. 1010 et seq.); or 
(ii) National Forest System land east 
of the 100th meridian. 
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(4) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 
means— 
(A) the Secretary of the Interior; and 
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture. 
(5) SECRETARY CONCERNED.—The term ‘‘Sec-
retary concerned’’ means— 
(A) the Secretary of the Interior, in the 
case of Federal land under the jurisdiction of 
the Secretary of the Interior; and 
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture, in the 
case of Federal land under the jurisdiction of 
the Secretary of Agriculture. 
TITLE I—PREPARATION 
SEC. 101. FIREFIGHTING ACCOUNTS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF ACCOUNTS.—There are es-
tablished in the Treasury of the United States the fol-
lowing accounts: 
(1) The Firefighting Operations account for the 
Department of Agriculture. 
(2) The Firefighting Operations account for the 
Department of the Interior. 
(b) BUDGET ACTIVITIES WITHIN ACCOUNTS.—The 
following activities shall be specified for funding within 
each Firefighting Operations account established by sub-
section (a): 
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(1) Ground-based firefighting operations. 
(2) Aircraft use in firefighting operations. 
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 
(1) 
GROUND-BASED
FIREFIGHTING
OPER-
ATIONS.— 
(A) DEPARTMENT
OF
AGRICULTURE.— 
There is authorized to be appropriated for fiscal 
year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter to the 
account established by subsection (a)(1) not 
more than $3,000,000,000 for ground-based 
firefighting operations. 
(B) DEPARTMENT
OF
THE
INTERIOR.— 
There is authorized to be appropriated for fiscal 
year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter to the 
account established by subsection (a)(2) not 
more than $1,000,000,000 for ground-based 
firefighting operations. 
(2) AIRCRAFT
USE
IN
FIREFIGHTING
OPER-
ATIONS.—There is authorized to be appropriated for 
fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter to 
the accounts established by subsection (a), a total 
amount of not more than $500,000,000 for aircraft 
use in firefighting operations. 
(d) PRESIDENTIAL BUDGET REQUESTS.—For fiscal 
year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter, each Secretary 
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aircraft, including unmanned aerial systems, for 
operations relating to wildland fires. 
(2) LIMITATION.—The Secretary concerned 
shall not use to carry out any activity authorized by 
paragraph (1)(C) amounts appropriated to accounts 
of the Secretary concerned other than amounts in 
the accounts established by subsection (a) specified 
for activities described in subsection (b)(2). 
(f) ACCOUNTING REPORTS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Each Secretary concerned 
shall submit to the congressional committees month-
ly accounting reports regarding the amounts that 
have been obligated and expended under this section 
during the preceding month of the applicable fiscal 
year. 
(2) INCLUSIONS.—Each report under para-
graph (1) shall include a description of, with respect 
to the period covered by the report— 
(A) Federal ground-based equipment costs; 
(B) Federal aircraft use costs; 
(C) Federal personnel costs; 
(D) on-incident and off-incident support 
costs; and 
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(E) funding allocated from the Wildland 
Fire Management account of the Secretary con-
cerned to pay for administrative costs. 
(3) REQUIREMENTS.—Each report under para-
graph (1) shall be prepared in accordance with ap-
plicable national fire plan reporting procedures. 
SEC. 102. REIMBURSEMENT FOR WILDFIRES CAUSED BY 
MILITARY TRAINING. 
(a) REIMBURSEMENT REQUIRED.—The Secretary of 
Defense shall, on application by a State or Federal agency, 
reimburse the State or Federal agency for the reasonable 
costs of the State or Federal agency for services provided 
in connection with fire suppression as a result of a fire 
caused by military training or other actions carried out 
by the Armed Forces or employees of the Department of 
Defense. 
(b) LIMITATION.—Services reimbursable under sub-
section (a) shall be limited to services proximately related 
to the fire for which reimbursement is sought. 
(c) APPLICATION.—Each application from a State or 
Federal agency for reimbursement for costs under sub-
section (a) shall provide an itemized request of the services 
covered by the application, including the costs of the serv-
ices. 
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(d) FUNDS.—Reimbursements under subsection (a) 
shall be made from amounts authorized to be appropriated 
to the Department of Defense for operation and mainte-
nance. 
SEC. 103. STRATEGIC WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT PLAN-
NING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than September 30, 
2026, the Secretary concerned shall, in accordance with 
this section, establish a series of spatial fire management 
plans. 
(b) USE OF EXISTING PLANS.—To comply with this 
section, the Secretary concerned may use a fire manage-
ment plan in existence on the date of enactment of this 
Act. 
(c) UPDATES.—To be valid, a spatial fire manage-
ment plan established under this section shall not be in 
use for longer than the 10-year period beginning on the 
date on which the plan is established. 
(d) SUBUNIT PLANS.—The Secretary concerned shall 
establish a spatial fire management plan for each unit of 
Federal land with more than 10 acres of burnable vegeta-
tion under the jurisdiction of the Secretary concerned. 
(e) CONTENTS.—For each spatial fire management 
plan established under this section, the Secretary con-
cerned shall— 
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(1) base the plans on a landscape-scale risk as-
sessment that includes— 
(A) risks to firefighters; 
(B) risks to communities; 
(C) risks to highly valuable resources; and 
(D) other relevant considerations deter-
mined by the Secretary concerned; 
(2) include direction, represented in spatial 
form, from land management plans and resource 
management plans; 
(3) in coordination with States, delineate poten-
tial wildland fire operational delineations that— 
(A) identify potential control locations; and 
(B) specify the places in which firefighters 
will not be sent because of the presence of un-
acceptable risk, including areas determined by 
the Secretary concerned as— 
(i) exceeding a certain slope; 
(ii) containing too high of a volume of 
hazardous fuels, under certain weather 
conditions; or 
(iii) containing other known hazards; 
(4) include a determination of average severe 
fire weather for the plan area; 
(5) include prefire planning provisions; 
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(6) include a plan for postfire activities that— 
(A) would better enable a Burned Area 
Emergency Response Team working on a large 
fire incident to address emergency stabilization 
and erosion quickly; and 
(B) specifies ways in which the Burned 
Area Emergency Response Team would seek to 
prevent the proliferation of invasive species in 
working on the large fire incident; and 
(7) include, at a minimum, any other require-
ment determined to be necessary by the Secretary 
concerned. 
(f) CONSISTENCY WITH MANAGEMENT PLANS.—The 
spatial fire management plans established under this sec-
tion shall be consistent with the fire management objec-
tives and land management objectives in the applicable 
land management plan or resource management plan. 
(g) REVISIONS TO LAND MANAGEMENT PLANS AND 
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANS.—A revision to a land 
management plan or resource management plan shall con-
sider fire ecology and fire management in a manner that 
facilitates the issuance of direction for an incident re-
sponse. 
(h) ENGAGEMENT
DURING
LAND
MANAGEMENT 
PLANNING.—A supervisory employee of the Department 
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