§510 Authorization for Fireguard Program

Summary

The Secretary of Defense can use National Guard members to run the FireGuard Program. The program combines and checks remote sensing data from many sources to help spot and track wildfires, share information with other agencies and partners, and support emergency responses. The Secretary can hire outside people or groups to help. The Chief of the National Guard Bureau must make a written agreement with them, working with state, local, and private partners, that spells out who does what, timelines, and when duties will be handed back. A "qualified individual" is a person with the needed security clearance to handle classified remote sensing wildfire data. A "qualified entity" is any organization whose staff or contractors have that clearance.