Short title

This Act may be cited as the

NIST Wildland Fire Communications and Information Dissemination Act

Definitions

In this Act:(1)

Director

The term Director means the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.(2)

Member agency

The term member agency means a member agency of the National Interagency Fire Center, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, United States Fire Administration, and the Department of Defense.(3)

Wildland firefighter

The term wildland firefighter means any person who participates in wildland firefighting activities.(4)

Fire management response officials

The term fire management response officials means regional fire directors, deputy regional fire directors, agency officials who directly oversee fire operations, fire management officers, and individuals serving on incident management teams.(5)

Technology manufacturers

The term technology manufacturers means companies that manufacture communications technologies used by Federal, State, Tribal, and local wildland fire authorities.

Research

(a)

Requirement To conduct research on public safety

Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director, acting through the head of the Public Safety and Communications Research Division and in consultation with the Fire Research Division and technology manufacturers, shall carry out research on—(1)public safety communication coordination standards among Federal, State, Tribal, and local wildland firefighters, fire management response officials, and member agencies; and(2)improving and integrating existing communications systems to trasmit secure real-time data, alerts, and advisories to fire management response officials and wildland firefighters.(b)

Requirement To conduct field testing of information dissemination and technology

The Public Safety and Communications Research Division, in consultation with the Fire Research Division and member agencies, will conduct both live and virtual field testing of equipment, software, and other technologies to determine current times of information dissemination and develop standards for the delivery of real-time data among member agencies, fire management response officials, and wildland firefighters based on findings from research under subsection (a).

Recommendations

(a)

Requirement To develop and provide recommendations

The Director shall develop and publish recommendations for member agencies to improve public safety communication coordination standards among wildland first responders and fire management response officials.(b)

Requirement To provide recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and member agencies

The Director shall provide recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Police to assist member agencies with the implementation of the recommendations in subsection (a).

Reporting requirements

(a)

Requirement To report research findings and recommendations

The Director shall provide the recommendations published under section 4(a) to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.(b)

Requirement To report on the implementation of recommendations

Not later than 1 year after the date of the publication of the Director’s recommendations, the Government Accountability Office shall produce a report on the extent to which member agencies have implemented the Director’s recommendations.

Authorization of appropriations

There are authorized to be appropriated to the National Institute of Standards and Technology $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2027 to carry out this section.