[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 561 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 561

 To authorize a supplemental funding source for catastrophic emergency 
wildland fire suppression activities on Department of the Interior and 
National Forest System lands, to require the Secretary of the Interior 
 and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a cohesive wildland fire 
              management strategy, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 10, 2009

 Mr. Bingaman (for himself, Ms. Murkowski, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Wyden, Mr. 
   Udall of New Mexico, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Tester, Mr. Johnson, Mrs. 
Murray, Mr. Udall of Colorado, and Mr. Hatch) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize a supplemental funding source for catastrophic emergency 
wildland fire suppression activities on Department of the Interior and 
National Forest System lands, to require the Secretary of the Interior 
 and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a cohesive wildland fire 
              management strategy, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Land 
Assistance, Management and Enhancement Act'' or ``FLAME Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Flame Fund for catastrophic emergency wildland fire suppression 
                            activities.
Sec. 3. Cohesive wildland fire management strategy.
Sec. 4. Review of certain wildfires to evaluate cost containment in 
                            wildland fire suppression activities.
Sec. 5. Reducing risk of wildfires in fire-ready communities.

SEC. 2. FLAME FUND FOR CATASTROPHIC EMERGENCY WILDLAND FIRE SUPPRESSION 
              ACTIVITIES.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Federal land.--The term ``Federal land'' means the 
        following:
                    (A) Public lands, as defined in section 103 of the 
                Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 
                U.S.C. 1702).
                    (B) Units of the National Park System.
                    (C) Refuges of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
                    (D) Lands held in trust by the United States for 
                the benefit of Indian tribes or individual Indians.
                    (E) Lands in the National Forest System, as defined 
                in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable 
                Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
            (2) Flame fund.--The term ``Flame Fund'' means the Federal 
        Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Fund established 
        by this section.
            (3) Secretary concerned.--The term ``Secretary concerned'' 
        means--
                    (A) the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to 
                Federal land described in subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), 
                and (D) of paragraph (1); and
                    (B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to 
                National Forest System land.
            (4) Secretaries.--The term ``Secretaries'' means the 
        Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, 
        acting jointly.
    (b) Establishment and Availability of Flame Fund.--
            (1) Establishment.--There is established in the Treasury of 
        the United States a fund to be known as the Federal Land 
        Assistance, Management, and Enhancement Fund.
            (2) Contents.--The Flame Fund shall consist of the 
        following amounts:
                    (A) Amounts appropriated to the Flame Fund pursuant 
                to the authorization of appropriations in subsection 
                (c).
                    (B) Amounts transferred to the Flame Fund pursuant 
                to subsection (d).
            (3) Availability.--Subject to subsection (e), amounts in 
        the Flame Fund shall be available to the Secretaries to pay the 
        costs of catastrophic emergency wildland fire suppression 
        activities that are separate from amounts annually appropriated 
        to the Secretaries for the predicted annual workload for 
        wildland fire suppression activities, based on analyses of 
        historical workloads and anticipated increased workloads due to 
        changing environmental or demographic conditions.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) Authorization of appropriations.--There is authorized 
        to be appropriated to the Flame Fund such amounts as may be 
        necessary to carry out this section. It is the intent of 
        Congress that the amount appropriated to the Flame Fund for 
        fiscal year 2010 and each fiscal year thereafter should be not 
        less than the average amount expended by the Secretaries for 
        emergency wildland fire suppression activities over the five 
        fiscal years preceding that fiscal year.
            (2) Sense of congress on designation of flame fund 
        appropriations as emergency requirement.--It is the sense of 
        Congress that--
                    (A) the amounts appropriated to the Flame Fund 
                should be designated as amounts necessary to meet 
                emergency needs; and
                    (B) the new budget authority and outlays resulting 
                therefrom should not count for the purposes of titles 
                III and IV of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
            (3) Notice of insufficient funds.--The Secretaries shall 
        notify the congressional committees specified in subsection 
        (h)(2) whenever only an estimated two months worth of funding 
        remains in the Flame Fund.
    (d) Transfer of Excess Wildland Fire Suppression Amounts Into Flame 
Fund.--At the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary concerned shall 
transfer to the Flame Fund amounts appropriated to the Secretary 
concerned for wildland fire suppression activities for the fiscal year, 
but not obligated for wildland fire suppression activities before the 
end of the fiscal year.
    (e) Use of Flame Fund.--
            (1) Declaration required.--Amounts in the Flame Fund shall 
        be made available to the Secretary concerned only after the 
        Secretaries issue a declaration that a wildland fire 
        suppression activity is eligible for funding from the Flame 
        Fund.
            (2) Declaration criteria.--A declaration by the Secretaries 
        under paragraph (1) shall be based on the following criteria:
                    (A) In the case of an individual wildland fire 
                incident--
                            (i) the fire covers 300 or more acres;
                            (ii) the severity of the fire, which may be 
                        based on incident complexity or the potential 
                        for increased complexity; and
                            (iii) the threat posed by the fire, 
                        including the potential for loss of lives, 
                        property, or critical resources.
                    (B) Consistent with subsection (f), in the case of 
                a firefighting season, when the cumulative costs of 
                wildland fire suppression activities for the Secretary 
                concerned are projected to exceed amounts annually 
                appropriated for such activities.
            (3) Transfer of amounts to secretary concerned.--After 
        issuance of a declaration under paragraph (1) and upon the 
        request of the Secretary concerned, the Secretary of the 
        Treasury shall transfer from the Flame Fund to the Secretary 
        concerned such amounts as the Secretaries determine are 
        necessary for wildland fire suppression activities associated 
        with the declared suppression emergency.
            (4) State, private, and tribal land.--Use of the Flame Fund 
        for catastrophic emergency wildland fire suppression activities 
        on State and private land and, where applicable, tribal land 
        shall be consistent with existing agreements where the 
        Secretaries have agreed to assume responsibility for wildland 
        fire suppression activities on the land.
    (f) Treatment of Anticipated and Predicted Activities.--The 
Secretary concerned shall continue to fund anticipated and predicted 
wildland fire suppression activities within the appropriate agency 
budget for each fiscal year. Use of the additional funding made 
available through the Flame Fund is intended to supplement the budgeted 
and appropriated agency funding and is to be used only for purposes and 
in instances consistent with this section.
    (g) Prohibition on Other Transfers.--All amounts in the Flame Fund, 
as well as all funds appropriated for the purpose of wildland fire 
suppression on Federal land, must be obligated before the Secretary 
concerned may transfer funds from non-fire accounts for wildland fire 
suppression.
    (h) Accounting and Reports.--
            (1) Accounting and reporting system.--The Secretaries shall 
        establish an accounting and reporting system for the Flame Fund 
        compatible with existing National Fire Plan reporting 
        procedures.
            (2) Annual report; public availability.--The Secretaries 
        shall submit to the Committee on Natural Resources, the 
        Committee on Agriculture, and the Committee on Appropriations 
        of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and 
        Natural Resources, the Committee on Indian Affairs, and the 
        Committee on Appropriations of the Senate an annual report on 
        the use of the funds from the Flame Fund, together with any 
        recommendations that the Secretaries may have to improve the 
        administrative control and oversight of the Flame Fund. The 
        annual report shall be made available to the public.
            (3) Estimates of wildfire suppression costs to improve 
        budgeting and funding.--
                    (A) Periodic estimates.--Consistent with the 
                schedule provided in subparagraph (B), the Secretaries 
                shall submit to the committees specified in paragraph 
                (2) an estimate of anticipated wildfire suppression 
                costs for the current fiscal year and the following 
                fiscal year. The methodology for developing the 
                estimates shall be subject to periodic peer review to 
                ensure compliance with subparagraph (C).
                    (B) Submission schedule.--The Secretaries shall 
                submit an estimate under subparagraph (A) during--
                            (i) the first week of February of each 
                        year;
                            (ii) the first week of April of each year;
                            (iii) the first week of July of each year; 
                        and
                            (iv) if the bill making appropriations for 
                        operations of the Department of the Interior 
                        and the Forest Service for the following fiscal 
                        year has not been enacted by September 1, the 
                        first week of September of each year.
                    (C) Basis.--An estimate of anticipated wildfire 
                suppression costs shall be developed using the best 
                available--
                            (i) climate, weather, and other relevant 
                        data; and
                            (ii) models and other analytic tools.

SEC. 3. COHESIVE WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.

    (a) Strategy Required.--Not later than one year after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior and the 
Secretary of Agriculture shall submit to Congress a report that 
contains a cohesive wildland fire management strategy, consistent with 
the recommendations contained in recent Comptroller General reports 
regarding this issue.
    (b) Elements of Strategy.--The strategy required by subsection (a) 
shall address the findings of the Comptroller General in the reports 
referred to in such subsection and include the following elements:
            (1) A system to identify the most cost effective means for 
        allocating fire management budget resources.
            (2) An illustration of plans by the Secretary of the 
        Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to reinvest in non-
        fire programs.
            (3) A description of how the Secretaries will employ 
        appropriate management response.
            (4) A system for assessing the level of risk to 
        communities.
            (5) A system to ensure that the highest priority fuels 
        reduction projects are being funded first.

SEC. 4. REVIEW OF CERTAIN WILDFIRES TO EVALUATE COST CONTAINMENT IN 
              WILDLAND FIRE SUPPRESSION ACTIVITIES.

    (a) Review Required.--The Secretary of the Interior and the 
Secretary of Agriculture shall conduct a review, using independent 
panels, of each wildfire incident for which the Secretary concerned 
incurs expenses in excess of $10,000,000.
    (b) Report.--The Secretary concerned shall submit to the Committee 
on Natural Resources, the Committee on Agriculture, and the Committee 
on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources, the Committee on Indian Affairs, and the 
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate a report containing the 
results of each review conducted under subsection (a).

SEC. 5. REDUCING RISK OF WILDFIRES IN FIRE-READY COMMUNITIES.

    (a) Fire-Ready Community Defined.--In this section, the term 
``fire-ready community'' means a community that--
            (1) is located within a priority area identified pursuant 
        to subsection (b);
            (2) has a cooperative fire agreement that articulates the 
        roles and responsibilities for Federal, State and local 
        government entities in local wildfire suppression and 
        protection;
            (3) has local codes that require fire-resistant home design 
        and building materials;
            (4) has a community wildfire protection plan (as defined in 
        section 101 of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 
        U.S.C. 6502)); and
            (5) is engaged in a successful collaborative process that 
        includes multiple interested persons representing diverse 
        interests and is transparent and nonexclusive, such as a 
        resource advisory committee established under section 205 of 
        the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act 
        of 2000 (Public Law 106-393; 16 U.S.C. 500 note).
    (b) Fire Risk Mapping.--As soon as is practicable after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture and the 
Secretary of the Interior (in this section referred to as the 
``Secretaries'') shall develop regional maps of communities most at 
risk of wildfire and in need of hazardous fuel treatment and 
maintenance. The maps shall identify priority areas for hazardous fuels 
reduction projects, including--
            (1) at-risk communities in fire-prone areas of the 
        wildland-urban interface (as defined in section 101 of the 
        Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (16 U.S.C. 6502));
            (2) watersheds and municipal drinking water sources;
            (3) emergency evacuation corridors;
            (4) electricity transmission corridors; and
            (5) low-capacity or low-income communities.
    (c) Local Wildland Firefighting Capability Grants.--
            (1) Grants available.--The Secretaries may provide cost-
        share grants to fire-ready communities to assist such 
        communities in carrying out activities authorized by paragraph 
        (2).
            (2) Eligible activities.--Grant funds may be used for the 
        following:
                    (A) Education programs to raise awareness of 
                homeowners and citizens about wildland fire protection 
                practices, including FireWise or similar programs.
                    (B) Training programs for local firefighters on 
                wildland firefighting techniques and approaches.
                    (C) Equipment acquisition to facilitate wildland 
                fire preparedness.
                    (D) Implementation of a community wildfire 
                protection plan.
    (d) Wildland Fire Cost-Share Agreements.--In developing any 
wildland fire cost-share agreement with a State Forester or equivalent 
official, the Secretaries shall, to the greatest extent possible, 
encourage the State and local communities involved to become fire-ready 
communities.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretaries to carry out this section such sums as 
may be necessary.
                                 <all>