Modernizing Wildfire Safety and Prevention Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill defines 'Report' as the September 2023 Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission for purposes of this Act, creates the Middle Fire Leaders Academy to provide rapid training and certification for emerging wildfire and beneficial fire leaders, open to both federal and non-federal wildland fire response workers, with $10, and establishes a competitive grant program through the Department of Education to fund educational and vocational programs leading to credentials in wildfire emergency management, fire science, firefighting, community. It relies on compliance mandates, grants, definition changes, and appropriations. The main policy areas are Emergency Management, Federal Workforce, Agriculture, and Public Health.
Who Benefits and How
Ranchers and livestock producers could gain revenue opportunities, Federal wildland firefighters could gain revenue opportunities, and Families of fallen or injured firefighters could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
NOAA would take on compliance duties, USDA would take on compliance duties, and US Fire Administration would take on compliance duties.
Key Provisions
- Defines 'Report' as the September 2023 Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission for purposes of this Act.
- Creates the Middle Fire Leaders Academy to provide rapid training and certification for emerging wildfire and beneficial fire leaders, open to both federal and non-federal wildland fire response workers, with $10...
- Establishes a competitive grant program through the Department of Education to fund educational and vocational programs leading to credentials in wildfire emergency management, fire science, firefighting, community...
- Expands the definition of 'firefighter' under the Federal Employees Retirement System to include wildland firefighters and those who transition to supervisory positions, improving retirement benefit portability...
- Requires the Secretary of the Interior to establish a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program providing notification services, travel expense reimbursement, and support to next of kin of firefighters...
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill defines 'Report' as the September 2023 Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission for purposes of this Act, creates the Middle Fire Leaders Academy to provide rapid training and certification for emerging wildfire and beneficial fire leaders, open to both federal and non-federal wildland fire response workers, with $10, and establishes a competitive grant program through the Department of Education to fund educational and vocational programs leading to credentials in wildfire emergency management, fire science, firefighting, community.
Key Policy Areas
Emergency Management, Federal Workforce, Agriculture, Public Health
Primary Purpose
The bill defines 'Report' as the September 2023 Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission for purposes of this Act, creates the Middle Fire Leaders Academy to provide rapid training and certification for emerging wildfire and beneficial fire leaders, open to both federal and non-federal wildland fire response workers, with $10, and establishes a competitive grant program through the Department of Education to fund educational and vocational programs leading to credentials in wildfire emergency management, fire science, firefighting, community.
Policy Domains
Title I - Workforce Development
Identified Gains
- Ranchers and livestock producers
- Federal wildland firefighters
- Families of fallen or injured firefighters
- Wildfire response workers
- State, local, and tribal governments applying for wildfire grants
Identified Costs
- NOAA
- USDA
- US Fire Administration
- NIOSH
- EPA
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and …
Mr. Harder of California (for himself, Mr. Scott Franklin of …
Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Department of Education, Department of the Interior, EPA
Positive-direction: Federal firefighters and wildland fire support personnel, Federal wildland firefighters, Federal wildland firefighters and fire managers, Firefighters and incident managers, Firefighters transitioning to supervisory roles, Wildfire response workers
Negative-direction: Department of Education, Department of the Interior, EPA, FEMA, Federal retirement system, Forest Service, NIOSH, NOAA, US Fire Administration, USDA, USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA and Interior Department grant administrators
Communities in wildfire-prone areas, Families of fallen or injured firefighters, General public in wildfire-prone areas
Farmers and ranchers with wildfire-related losses, Farmers with grazing operations, Outdoor workers in wildfire-prone areas
State and local fire departments, State and local governments receiving FEMA grants, State, local, and tribal fire management agencies
Educational institutions offering fire science and emergency management programs, Research universities with fire science programs, Universities conducting wildfire research
Fire researchers and scientists, National laboratories
Private forest landowners affected by wildfire
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_chief"
- → Chief of the Forest Service
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Education
- "the_director"
- → Director of OPM
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior
- "the_director"
- → Director of NIOSH/CDC
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of NOAA/EPA
- "the_secretaries"
- → Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of NOAA/FEMA/USFA
Note: 'The Secretary' refers to Secretary of Education in Title I (Sec 102) but Secretary of the Interior in Title II (Sec 202)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The Report of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, dated September 2023
An employee whose duties are primarily to perform work directly connected with control and extinguishment of wildland or nonwildland fires, and are sufficiently rigorous that employment should be limited to young and physically vigorous individuals
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
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