Sec. 103. Collaborative prescribed fire program
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/bill/118/s/4424/is/section-103·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The Secretary shall establish within the Department of the Interior a collaborative prescribed fire program (referred to in this section as the program ) to provide financial assistance to eligible entities, including units of Federal land management agencies within the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, Indian Tribes, State or local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and prescribed fire councils, for the implementation of proposals to conduct prescribed fires in priority landscapes in accordance with applicable existing policies.
To be eligible for selection for the program, a proposal shall— identify and prioritize planned prescribed fires for a 6-year period within a landscape; establish annual accomplishment targets for prescribed fires under the proposal; be developed through a collaborative process; be implemented across multiple jurisdictions; provide an estimate of— the amount of annual Federal financial assistance necessary to implement the proposal; and the amount of non-Federal funds that would be leveraged to implement the proposal; describe benefits to sensitive wildlife, invertebrate, and plant species of concern; and describe any established record of successful collaborative planning or use of prescribed fire by the entity submitting the proposal.
Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary shall select proposals for financial assistance under the program that, as determined by the Secretary, would likely treat the most strategic acres at high or very high risk of experiencing a wildfire that would threaten critical values and be difficult to suppress. The Secretary may not provide more than $20,000,000 in total funding under the program in any fiscal year. The Secretary may not provide more than $1,000,000 to any 1 project under the program in any fiscal year.
The Secretary shall cease funding any proposal that, for 3 consecutive years, fails to meet the annual accomplishment targets that were established under subsection (b)(2). Not less frequently than once every 3 years, a recipient of financial assistance under the program shall provide to local entities and non-local entities an experiential, group training event, such as Prescribed Fire Training Exchange, relating to prescribed fires. A recipient of financial assistance under the program shall annually submit to the Secretary a report summarizing, at a minimum— the number of acres mitigated with prescribed fire by the recipient under the program; the amount of Federal and non-Federal funds used by the recipient under the program; and the status and progress of any collaborative relationships associated with the project.
Not later than 2 years after the first fiscal year in which funding is made available to carry out prescribed fires under the program, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives a report on the program. There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2033, to remain available until expended.