HR204-119

What This Bill Does

The ACRES Act standardizes how federal land agencies count hazardous-fuels-reduction work. Beginning with the first fiscal year after enactment, the Agriculture Secretary for National Forest System lands and the Interior Secretary for public lands and National Park System units must include a hazardous-fuels-reduction acreage report in materials supporting the President's budget. The report must record acres where treatment was completed and count each acre only once during the reporting period, even if multiple treatments occurred. For the recorded acres, agencies must report whether they are in the wildland-urban interface, the wildfire-risk level on the first and last day of the period, treatment types, whether work occurred in a resource-benefit wildfire or planned project, cost per acre, region or system unit, and effectiveness in reducing wildfire risk. The reports must be posted on Agriculture and Interior websites. Within 90 days, the secretaries must implement standardized tracking procedures with data reviews, verification methods, effectiveness analysis, and methods to separate partial wildland-urban-interface acreage. Within two weeks after implementation, they must report the procedures and recommendations to Congress. Within two years, GAO must study implementation limits. The bill authorizes no additional funds.

Who Benefits and How

Congressional appropriations committees, congressional natural-resources committees, taxpayers, wildfire-prone communities, wildland-urban-interface residents, state foresters, county emergency managers, wildfire researchers, budget analysts, and government watchdog organizations benefit from clearer acreage, cost, risk, location, and effectiveness data. The bill helps readers distinguish completed treatment acres from double-counted activity totals and compare planned projects with wildfires managed for resource benefits.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, hazardous-fuels program managers, GIS data staff, budget-reporting offices, GAO auditors, regional land managers, and fire-program analysts must implement standardized tracking, validate data accuracy, distinguish wildland-urban-interface acreage, calculate cost per acre, assess short- and long-term effectiveness, publish annual reports, and complete the GAO study without additional authorized funds.

Key Provisions

• Requires annual budget-support reports on hazardous-fuels-reduction acres for the preceding fiscal year.
• Requires each treated acre to be counted once even if multiple hazardous-fuels activities occur on that acre.
• Requires reporting on wildland-urban-interface location, wildfire-risk level, treatment type, cost per acre, region or unit, and effectiveness.
• Requires standardized data-tracking procedures within 90 days and public posting on Agriculture and Interior websites.
• Requires a congressional report on tracking procedures and policy recommendations within two weeks after implementation.
• Requires GAO to study implementation within two years and provides no new authorization of funds.