§1748a–2 Reporting Requirements

Summary

Within 180 days after the fiscal year ends in which additional new budget authority was used, the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, working with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, must write an annual report, send it to the House Committees on Appropriations, the Budget, and Natural Resources and the Senate Committees on Appropriations, the Budget, and Energy and Natural Resources, and make the report available to the public. The report must show how the additional new budget authority for wildfire suppression was spent. It must name the risk-based factors that affected firefighting decisions. It must analyze a statistically significant sample of large fires, looking at cost drivers, how well risk management and strategies worked, any landscape or ecological benefits, effects of preparedness investments, effectiveness measured as resources lost versus dollars spent, effects of fuel treatments, firefighter exposure, suggested corrective actions, and other relevant factors. The report must also give an overall accounting of fire management and spending by the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture (by fire size, cost, region, and other factors), including any spending in the first two quarters of the next fiscal year tied to suppression in the reported year, describe lessons learned, and include any other elements the Secretary thinks are necessary.