To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes.
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
This bill, To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting environmental regulators and natural-resource users. The main policy domain is Environment, Government Operations, Finance.
Who Benefits and How
environmental regulators and natural-resource users may benefit from new authority, funding, eligibility, regulatory clarity, or reduced risk created by the bill.
Who Bears the Burden and How
federal implementing agencies, environmental regulators and natural-resource users may take on implementation duties, reporting obligations, compliance costs, or oversight responsibilities.
Key Provisions
- Section S1: 1. Short title; table of contents This Act may be cited as the National Prescribed Fire Act of 2024. The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
- Section id9b048e2c956c405d835f1126fde612cf: 2. Findings Congress finds that— in 2018, the Forest Service Fire Modeling Institute determined that 63,070,000 acres of National Forest System land and...
- Section id1dfbc106292a42caaa839ea462ed3b28: 3. Definitions In this Act: The term Federal land means— public lands (as defined in section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43...
- Section idb26f7a9b4b8d4537832a3a12f7c96619: 101. Prescribed fire accounts In this section, the term Secretary concerned means— the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to an account established by this...
- Section id1bf3548f14724936bc0c9f201a3c2996: 102. Policies and practices Beginning with the first fiscal year that begins after the date of enactment of this Act, and for each of the 9 fiscal years...
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
This bill, To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting environmental regulators and natural-resource users.
Key Policy Areas
Environment, Government Operations, Finance
Primary Purpose
This bill, To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes., changes federal law or congressional policy affecting environmental regulators and natural-resource users.
Policy Domains
Whole bill
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- environmental regulators and natural-resource users
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- federal implementing agencies
- environmental regulators and natural-resource users
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Ron Wyden
D-OR | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
ReportedReported by Mr. Manchin, with an amendment
Mr. Wyden (for himself and Mr. Padilla) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bureau of Land Management, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior
Forest Service faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Bureau of Land Management, Federal land management agencies, Federal land management agencies conducting prescribed fires, Federal wildland firefighters
Negative-direction: Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Wildland Fire
Fire districts, State air quality agencies, State and local governments
Positive-direction: Fire districts, State and local governments, State forestry agencies, State land management agencies
Negative-direction: State air quality agencies, States that fail to report, States with active prescribed fire programs
Certified prescribed fire managers, Prescribed fire practitioners, Private prescribed fire contractors
Indian Tribes, Indian Tribes conducting prescribed fires
National Governors Association, Nongovernmental organizations, Prescribed fire councils
Formerly incarcerated individuals with firefighting experience, Veterans seeking employment, Women and nonbinary individuals in firefighting
Communities near prescribed fire areas, General public
Positive-direction: General public
Negative-direction: Communities near prescribed fire areas
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_commission"
- → The commission identified in the operative section
- "administrator_of_epa"
- → Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- "secretary_of_defense"
- → Secretary of Defense
- "secretary_of_agriculture"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
the Secretary of the Interior. The term Secretary concerned means— the Secretary, in the case of land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary
a decision document prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) that— covers a unit of the National Forest System, a Bureau of Land Management district, or a subunit thereof
a State law that establishes the standard of care in a civil suit against a certified prescribed fire manager for an escaped prescribed fire to be gross negligence, if the certified prescribed fire manager— obtained a permit for the prescribed fire
a State law that establishes the standard of care in a civil suit against a certified prescribed fire manager for an escaped prescribed fire to be gross negligence, if the certified prescribed fire manager— obtained a permit for the prescribed fire
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.
Learn more about our methodology