[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6903 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6903

  To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to 
              suppress wildfires, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 2, 2022

 Mr. McClintock (for himself and Mr. LaMalfa) introduced the following 
   bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in 
  addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, 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 require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to 
              suppress wildfires, 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. SUPPRESSION OF WILDFIRES.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the 
Chief of the Forest Service--
            (1) shall--
                    (A) to the maximum extent practicable--
                            (i) use all available resources to carry 
                        out wildfire suppression with the purpose of 
                        extinguishing wildfires detected on National 
                        Forest System lands not later than 24 hours 
                        after such a wildfire is detected; and
                            (ii) immediately suppress any prescribed 
                        fire that exceeds prescription;
                    (B) not inhibit the suppression efforts of State or 
                local firefighting agencies that are authorized to 
                respond to wildfire on National Forest System lands;
            (2) may only use fire as a resource management tool if the 
        fire is a prescribed fire that complies with applicable law and 
        regulations;
            (3) may only initiate a backfire or burnout during a 
        wildfire by order of the responsible incident commander; and
            (4) shall control any such initiated backfire or burnout 
        until extinguished.
    (b) Penalty.--Any person aggrieved by a violation of paragraph (3) 
or (4) of subsection (a) may bring a civil action against the United 
States in the appropriate Federal district court for actual damages.
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