HR1820-119

What This Bill Does

The FLASH Act is a federal lands border-security and environmental enforcement package. It applies to covered federal lands owned by the United States, located in units sharing an exterior boundary with the southern border, and administered by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, or Forest Service, while excluding tribal trust lands and preserving legal uses such as grazing, timber, hunting, energy development, mining, and recreation. It requires Interior and Agriculture land managers, in consultation with DHS and Border Patrol sectors, to inventory and install navigable roads that help deter illegal crossings, gain operational control, and increase CBP access. It lets Border States place movable temporary border-security structures on covered federal lands with 45 days notice instead of special use authorization, subject to one-year terms and extensions. It directs policies to prevent and mitigate trash, sensitive-resource damage, wildlife habitat destruction, and fires tied to unlawful border crossings or encampments. It requires annual waste reports by agency, region, cost, pounds collected, and recommended reductions; escalates fire and sanitation penalties for aliens without lawful immigration status; creates trespass cannabis cultivation site response initiatives; adds up to 10- and 20-year penalties for pesticide violations tied to federal offenses or illegal cannabis cultivation on federal land; creates a Southern Border Fuels Management Initiative for hazardous fuels, invasive species, fuel breaks, annual acreage targets, and sight lines; and bars federal funds from housing specified aliens on federal land-management agency lands, including revoking the Floyd Bennett Field lease arrangement and requiring annual housing reports.

Who Benefits and How

U.S. Border Patrol agents benefit from navigable roads, better sight lines, and fewer federal-land access barriers along high-entry border areas. Border States benefit because temporary border-security structures can be placed on covered federal lands without special use authorizations. Federal land managers benefit from explicit policies, reports, and penalty tools for trash, wildfire, sanitation, and cannabis trespass cleanup. Ranchers, hunters, miners, recreation users, and energy operators benefit from savings clauses preserving legal access and uses. Communities near Floyd Bennett Field benefit if federal land-management agencies cannot use that site or similar leases for specified-alien housing.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture must inventory roads, build or install access, write policies, report waste, enforce penalties, and run fuels management. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection staff must coordinate road, structure, detention, and border operations on covered federal lands. Aliens without lawful immigration status face escalated fines, imprisonment exposure, and sanitation or fire regulation enforcement on covered federal lands. Illegal cannabis cultivators on federal lands face much higher pesticide, cleanup, and public-land penalties. Federal land management agencies lose authority to spend funds on specified-alien housing leases or agreements.

Key Provisions

• Requires navigable-road inventories and installation on covered southern-border federal lands.
• Authorizes Border States to place temporary movable security structures with notice rather than special use permits.
• Requires trash, wildfire, sanitation, waste-reporting, and environmental degradation mitigation policies.
• Strengthens penalties and cleanup authorities for fire, sanitation, pesticide, and illegal cannabis cultivation violations.
• Bars federal funds for specified-alien housing on federal land-management agency lands and revokes the Floyd Bennett Field lease.