§1748a–2 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

Within 180 days after the end of a fiscal year when extra new budget authority is used, the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, after consulting the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, must prepare an annual report. The Secretary must send that report to the House Committees on Appropriations, Budget, and Natural Resources and to the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Budget, and Energy and Natural Resources. The report must also be made available to the public. The report must show how the extra funds for wildfire suppression were obligated and spent and explain the risk-based factors that drove management choices. It must analyze a statistically significant sample of large fires and, for each fire, cover things like cost drivers; whether tactics matched risk assessments; landscape or ecological benefits; effects of preparedness investments; suppression effectiveness including resources lost versus dollars spent; effects of fuel treatments on fire behavior and costs; firefighter exposure levels; suggested corrective actions; and any other appropriate factors. The report must also give a full accounting of fire management spending by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture, broken down by fire size, cost, region, and other factors, and include any spending in the first two quarters of the succeeding fiscal year that is tied to suppression operations from the reported year. It must describe lessons learned and include any other elements the Secretary deems necessary.

Title 43, §1748a–2

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Not later than 180 days after the end of the fiscal year for which additional new budget authority is used, pursuant to section 901(b)(2)(F)(i) of title 2, as added by section 102 of this division, the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture (as applicable), in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall—

(1)prepare an annual report with respect to the additional new budget authority;

(2)submit to the Committees on Appropriations, the Budget, and Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committees on Appropriations, the Budget, and Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate the annual report prepared under paragraph (1); and

(3)make the report prepared under paragraph (1) available to the public.

(b)The annual report prepared under subsection (a)(1) shall—

(1)document obligations and outlays of the additional new budget authority for wildfire suppression operations;

(2)identify risk-based factors that influenced management decisions with respect to wildfire suppression operations;

(3)analyze a statistically significant sample of large fires, including an analysis for each fire of—

(A)cost drivers;

(B)the effectiveness of risk management techniques and whether fire operations strategy tracked the risk assessment;

(C)any resulting ecological or other benefits to the landscape;

(D)the impact of investments in wildfire suppression operations preparedness;

(E)effectiveness of wildfire suppression operations, including an analysis of resources lost versus dollars invested;

(F)effectiveness of any fuel treatments on fire behavior and suppression expenditures;

(G)levels of exposure experienced by firefighters;

(H)suggested corrective actions; and

(I)any other factors the Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Agriculture (as applicable) determines to be appropriate;

(4)include an accounting of overall fire management and spending by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture, which shall be analyzed by fire size, cost, regional location, and other factors, and shall include an accounting of any spending in the first two quarters of the succeeding fiscal year that is attributable to suppression operations in the fiscal year for which the report was prepared;

(5)describe any lessons learned in the conduct of wildfire suppression operations; and

(6)include any other elements that the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture (as applicable) determines to be necessary.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 102 of this division, referred to in subsec. (a), means section 102 of div. O of Pub. L. 115–141. Codification Section was enacted as part of the Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act, and also as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, and not as part of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 which comprises this chapter.

Amendments

2026—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 119–74, § 439(1), substituted “180” for “90” in introductory provisions. Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 119–74, § 439(2), inserted “, and shall include an accounting of any spending in the first two quarters of the succeeding fiscal year that is attributable to suppression operations in the fiscal year for which the report was prepared” before semicolon at end.

§1748a–2 Reporting requirements