Fire Department Repayment Act of 2025

Bill: 119-hr-345
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Harder, Josh [D-CA-9]
Introduced: 2025-01-13
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Subjects: Fires

First responders and emergency personnel

State and local government operations
Latest action: action_date: 2025-07-23
text: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Unanimous Consent.

Summaries:
action_date: 2025-01-13
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>Fire Department Repayment Act of 2025</strong><strong></strong></p><p>This bill requires standard operating procedures for reciprocal fire suppression cost share agreements, which are agreements between federal, state, and local governments to share the costs of suppressing wildfires that occur across multiple jurisdictions.&nbsp;</p><p>The Departments of Agriculture, the Interior, Homeland Security, and Defense must&nbsp;establish standard operating procedures relating to payment timelines for fire suppression cost share agreements established under the Reciprocal Fire Protection Act. The departments must also&nbsp;review each agreement that is in operation within a year of this bill's enactment and modify an agreement as necessary to comply with the standard operating procedures.</p><p>The standard operating procedures must require that (1) each fire suppression cost share agreement be aligned with each of the cooperative fire protection agreements applicable to the entity subject to such fire suppression cost share agreement, and (2) the federal paying entity reimburse a local fire department if the fire department submits an invoice in accordance with cost settlement procedures.</p>

tv_txt: I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 345 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 13, 2025 Mr. Harder of California (for himself and Mr. LaMalfa ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources , and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture , Armed Services , and Science, Space, and Technology , for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To require the standardization of reciprocal fire suppression cost share agreements, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Fire Department Repayment Act of 2025 . 2. Requirements relating to certain fire suppression cost share agreements (a) Establishment of standard operating procedures Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretaries shall— (1) establish standard operating procedures relating to payment timelines for fire suppression cost share agreements established under the Act of May 27, 1955 ( 42 U.S.C. 1856a ) (commonly known as the Reciprocal Fire Protection Act ); and (2) with respect to each fire suppression cost share agreement in operation on such date— (A) review each such agreement; and (B) modify each agreement as necessary to comply with the standard operating procedures required under paragraph (1). (b) Alignment of fire suppression cost share agreements with cooperative fire protection agreements The standard operating procedures required under subsection (a)(1) shall include a requirement that each fire suppression cost share agreement be aligned with each of the cooperative fire protection agreements applicable to the entity subject to such fire suppression cost share agreement. (c) Payments pursuant to cost share agreements With respect to payments made pursuant to fire suppression cost share agreements, the standard operating procedures required under subsection (a)(1) shall require that the Federal paying entity reimburse a local fire department if such fire department submits an invoice in accordance with cost settlement procedures. (d) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that the Secretaries should carry out reciprocal fire suppression cost share agreement repayments to local fire suppression organizations as soon as practicable after fire suppression occurs but not later than 1 year after fire suppression occurs. (e) Secretaries defined In this section, the term Secretaries means— (1) the Secretary of Agriculture; (2) the Secretary of the Interior; (3) the Secretary of Homeland Security; and (4) the Secretary of Defense.