Sec. 202. Community Wildfire Defense Research Program
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The Secretaries, acting jointly, shall expand the Joint Fire Science Program to include a performance-driven research and development program, to be known as the Community Wildfire Defense Research Program (referred to in this section as the Program ), for the purpose of testing and advancing innovative designs to establish or improve the wildfire resistance of structures and communities. In carrying out the Program, the Secretaries shall evaluate opportunities to establish wildfire-resistant structures and communities through— different affordable building materials, including mass timber; home hardening, including policies to incentivize and incorporate defensible space; subdivision design and other land-use planning and design; landscape architecture; and other wildfire-resistant designs, as determined by the Secretary.
In carrying out the Program, the Secretaries shall carry out a competition through which a person may submit to the Secretaries innovative designs for the establishment or improvement of an ignition-resistant structure or fire-adapted community. Subject to the availability of appropriations made in advance for that purpose, the Secretaries may award a prize under the competition described in paragraph (1), based on criteria established by the Secretaries and in accordance with paragraph (3).
In awarding a prize under paragraph (2), the Secretaries shall prioritize for an award designs with the greatest potential to scale to existing infrastructure. In carrying out the Program, the Secretaries shall ensure collaboration and nonduplication of activities with the Building Technologies Office of the Department of Energy. The Program terminates on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of this Act.