I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3957 
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance 
Act to authorize the President to provide certain fire management assist-
ance to Indian Tribal Governments, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 12, 2025 
Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas (for herself and Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Trans-
portation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-
gency Assistance Act to authorize the President to pro-
vide certain fire management assistance to Indian Tribal 
Governments, 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. INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENT ELIGIBILITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 420 of the Robert T. 
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 
(42 U.S.C. 5187) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘, Indian 
Tribal Government,’’ before ‘‘or local government’’; 
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(2) by redesignating subsections (b) through (e) 
as subsections (c) through (f), respectively; 
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(b) PROCEDURE FOR REQUEST.—The Governor of 
a State or the Chief Executive of an Indian Tribal Govern-
ment affected by a fire described in subsection (a) may 
directly submit a request to authorize assistance under 
this section.’’; and 
(4) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(g) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this section 
shall prohibit an Indian Tribal Government from receiving 
assistance under this section pursuant to an authorization 
made at the request of a State under subsection (b) if 
assistance is not authorized under this section for the 
same incident based on a request by the Indian Tribal 
Government under subsection (b).’’. 
(b) REGULATIONS.— 
(1) UPDATE.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the President shall 
issue regulations updating part 204 of title 44, Code 
of Federal Regulations, to carry out the amend-
ments made by subsection (a). 
(2) CONTENTS.—In issuing the regulations re-
quired under paragraph (1), the President shall— 
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(A) authorize the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency to directly receive a request for 
a fire management assistance declaration from 
an Indian Tribal Government and directly pro-
vide related grants and resources to Indian 
Tribal Governments; 
(B) clarify that Indian Tribal Governments 
for which the President does not grant a re-
quest described in subparagraph (A) remain eli-
gible to receive assistance under section 420 of 
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187) 
through assistance granted under a fire man-
agement assistance declaration made at the re-
quest of a State; 
(C) consider the unique conditions that af-
fect the general welfare of Indian Tribal Gov-
ernments; and 
(D) enter into government-to-government 
consultation with Indian Tribal Governments 
regarding the regulations. 
(3) FIRE MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE DECLARA-
TION DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘fire 
management assistance declaration’’ means a dec-
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laration approved under section 204.21(a) of title 
44, Code of Federal Regulations. 
Æ 
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