[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6639 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6639

  To amend the Wildfire Suppressing Aircraft Transfer Act of 1996 to 
facilitate inter-agency agreements with the Air National Guard and the 
 Air Force Reserve to secure Defense Support to Civil Authority (DSCA) 
    missions in the initial airborne response to fighting wildfires.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 5, 2012

 Mr. Gallegly introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the 
Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined 
 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as 
        fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

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                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Wildfire Suppressing Aircraft Transfer Act of 1996 to 
facilitate inter-agency agreements with the Air National Guard and the 
 Air Force Reserve to secure Defense Support to Civil Authority (DSCA) 
    missions in the initial airborne response to fighting wildfires.

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

SECTION 1. AIR NATIONAL GUARD AND AIR FORCE RESERVE WILDFIRE RESPONSE.

    The Wildfire Suppressing Aircraft Transfer Act of 1996 (Public Law 
104-307; 10 U.S.C. 2576 note) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section:

``SEC. 3. USE OF AIR NATIONAL GUARD AND AIR FORCE RESERVE FOR INITIAL 
              AIRBORNE RESPONSE TO FIGHTING WILDFIRES.

    ``(a) Inter-Agency Agreements.--Subject to subsection (b), in order 
to prevent the loss of life and reduce property losses from wildfires, 
section 1535(a)(4) of title 31, United States Code, shall not apply to 
limit the use of inter-agency agreements with the Air National Guard or 
Air Force Reserve to procure the services of a unit of the Air National 
Guard or Air Force Reserve to conduct Defense Support to Civil 
Authority (DSCA) missions utilizing military fixed-wing aerial 
firefighting aircraft including Modular Airborne FireFighting System 
(MAFFS) units in the initial airborne response to fighting wildfires.
    ``(b) Limitations.--Section 1535(a)(4) of title 31, United States 
Code, shall not apply to inter-agency agreements described in 
subsection (a) only when the Incident Commander determines--
            ``(1) privately contracted fixed-wing aerial firefighting 
        aircraft are unavailable;
            ``(2) it necessary for military fixed-wing aerial 
        firefighting aircraft including MAFFS units to perform an 
        initial airborne response; or
            ``(3) it necessary that military fixed-wing aerial 
        firefighting aircraft including MAFFS units are needed to 
        supplement privately contracted fixed-wing aerial firefighting 
        aircraft.
    ``(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be 
interpreted as diminishing the role of contractor-owned and operated 
fixed-wing aircraft as the primary source of aerial firefighting assets 
for the Federal wildland firefighting agencies''.
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