IB 
Union Calendar No. 142 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 369 
[Report No. 118–178] 
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 
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 
Additional sponsors: Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ, Mr. MIKE GARCIA of 
California, and Mr. JACKSON of North Carolina 
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 17, 2023] 
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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. 
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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. RESEARCH ON WILDLAND FIRE COMMUNICATIONS 
AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) PUBLIC SAFETY RESEARCH.—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 Research Division and 
in consultation with the Fire Research Division and 
technology manufacturers, shall carry out research on 
the following: 
(A) Public safety communication coordina-
tion standards among Federal, State, Tribal, 
and local wildland firefighters, fire management 
response officials, and member agencies. 
(B) Improving and integrating existing 
communications systems to transmit secure real- 
time data, alerts, and advisories to and from fire 
management response officials and wildland fire-
fighters. 
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(2) FIELD TESTING AND MEASUREMENT OF IN-
FORMATION DISSEMINATION AND TECHNOLOGY.—The 
Public Safety and Communications Research Divi-
sion, in consultation with the Fire Research Division 
and member agencies, shall conduct both live and vir-
tual field testing of equipment, software, and other 
technologies to determine current times of information 
dissemination and develop standards for the delivery 
of useful and secure real-time data among member 
agencies, fire management response officials, and 
wildland firefighters, based on findings from research 
under subsection (a). 
(b) RECOMMENDATIONS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Director shall develop 
and publish recommendations to improve public safe-
ty communication coordination standards among 
wildland first responders and fire management re-
sponse officials. 
(2) TRANSMITTAL.—The Director shall transmit 
the recommendations under paragraph (1) to the Of-
fice of Management and Budget and the Office of 
Science and Technology Policy for member agencies to 
implement. 
(3) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall sub-
mit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate a report containing 
the recommendations published under paragraph 
(1). 
(B) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 1 
year after the date of the publication of the Di-
rector’s recommendations under paragraph (1), 
the Comptroller General of the United States 
shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, 
and Technology of the House of Representatives 
and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate a report on the ex-
tent to which member agencies have implemented 
such recommendations. 
(c) FUNDING.—From amounts made available to the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Direc-
tor shall allocate $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 
through 2028 to carry out this section. 
(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means the 
Director of the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology. 
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(2) MEMBER AGENCY.—The term ‘‘member agen-
cy’’ means a member agency of the National Inter-
agency Fire Center, including the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park 
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Serv-
ice, United States Fire Administration, and the De-
partment of Defense. 
(3) 
WILDLAND
FIREFIGHTER.—The 
term 
‘‘wildland firefighter’’ means any person who partici-
pates in wildland firefighting activities. 
(4) FIRE MANAGEMENT RESPONSE OFFICIALS.— 
The term ‘‘fire management response officials’’ means 
regional fire directors, deputy regional fire directors, 
agency officials who directly oversee fire operations, 
fire management officers, and individuals serving on 
incident management teams. 
(5) TECHNOLOGY
MANUFACTURERS.—The term 
‘‘technology manufacturers’’ means private sector en-
tities that manufacture communications technologies 
used by Federal, State, Tribal, or local wildland fire 
authorities. 
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Union Calendar No. 142 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 369 
[Report No. 118–178] 
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 re-
sponse officials. 
SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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