Sec. 711. Government Accountability Office reports

774 words·~4 min read·/bill/119/s/3923/is/section-711

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on the program established under section 702(a). The report required by paragraph

(1)shall— evaluate the performance of the program by establishing initial baseline capabilities and tracking progress made toward fully operationalizing the functions described in section 702(b); and include such other recommendations as the Comptroller General determines are appropriate to improve the program. Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report that— identifies all Federal interagency bodies established for the purpose of wildfire forecasting, prevention, planning, and management (such as wildfire councils, commissions, and workgroups), including— the Wildland Fire Leadership Council; the White House Wildfire Resilience Interagency Group; the Wildland Fire Management Policy Committee; the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission; the Joint Science Fire Program; the National Interagency Coordination Center; the National Predictive Services Oversight Group; the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services; the National Wildfire Coordinating Group; the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group; and the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group; evaluates the roles, functionality, and utility of such interagency bodies; evaluates the progress, performance, and implementation of such interagency bodies; assesses efficacy and identifies potential overlap and duplication of such interagency bodies in carrying out interagency collaboration with respect to wildfire prevention, planning, and management; and includes such other recommendations as the Comptroller General determines are appropriate to streamline and improve wildfire forecasting, prevention, planning, and management, including recommendations regarding the interagency bodies for which the addition of the Administration is necessary to improve wildfire forecasting, prevention, planning, and management. Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report that identifies— the authorities, roles, and science and support services relating to wildland fire prediction, detection, forecasting, modeling, resilience, response, management, and assessment provided by— the Department of Commerce, including the Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Department of the Interior; the Department of Agriculture; the National Science Foundation; the Department of Energy; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Department of Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Department of Defense; and recommended areas in and mechanisms by which the agencies listed under paragraph

(1)could support and improve— coordination between Federal agencies, State and local governments, Indian tribes, Tribal organizations, Native Hawaiian organizations, and other relevant stakeholders, including through examination of possible public-private partnerships; research and development, including interdisciplinary research, related to fire environments, wildland fires, associated wildfire smoke, and the impacts of such environments, fires, and smoke, in furtherance of a coordinated interagency effort to address wildland fire risk reduction; data management and stewardship, the development and coordination of data systems and computational tools, and the creation of a centralized, integrated data collaboration environment for agency data, including historical data, relating to weather, fire environments, wildland fires, associated wildfire smoke, and the impacts of such environments, fires, and smoke, and the assessment of wildland fire risk mitigation measures; interoperability, usability, and accessibility of the scientific data, data systems, and computational and information tools of the agencies listed under paragraph (1); coordinated public safety communications relating to fire weather events, fire hazards, and wildland fire and smoke risk reduction strategies; and secure and accurate real-time data, alerts, and advisories to wildland firefighters and other decision support tools for wildland fire incident command posts. Not later than 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report that— evaluates the functionality, utility, reliability, and operational status of the automated surface observing system across the Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense; evaluates the progress, performance, and implementation of the plan required by section 705(b)(1)(B); assesses the efficacy of cross-agency collaboration and stakeholder engagement in carrying out the plan and provides recommendations to improve such activities; evaluates the operational continuity and reliability of the system, particularly in remote and rural areas and areas where system failure would have the greatest negative impact to the community, and provides recommendations to improve such continuity and reliability; assesses Federal coordination regarding the remote automatic weather station network, air resource advisors, and other Federal observing assets used for weather and subseasonal to seasonal modeling and response activities, and provides recommendations for improvements; and includes such other recommendations as the Comptroller General determines are appropriate to improve the system.