Wildfire Response and Readiness Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a national prescribed fire program that requires federal agencies to increase controlled burns by 10 percent each year for a decade. These planned fires clear out the dead wood and brush that fuel massive, out-of-control wildfires, and the bill also funds large-scale forest and watershed restoration.
• Homeowners in high-risk areas could receive grants of up to $10,000 to protect their houses with fire-resistant roofs, ember-blocking vents, and clearing flammable plants. Households earning over $250,000 are excluded, and the community wildfire defense grant program gets $1 billion a year for structure hardening.
• Federal wildland firefighters get major pay and benefit upgrades: annual cost-of-living raises, hazard pay, recruitment bonuses of at least $1,000, housing allowances, tuition help, and better retirement that counts overtime. The bill also blocks layoffs at Interior and the Forest Service through 2030.
• The bill invests in new technology to spot and manage fires faster, including satellite monitoring grants, AI-driven decision tools through a new Joint Office of the Fire Environment Center, and a nationwide smoke alert system to warn families about dangerous air quality.
• To speed recovery, the bill requires most wildfire-related disaster payments, loans, and grants to be sent within 90 days of an application being approved, covering programs at FEMA, USDA, and the Small Business Administration.
• Firefighter health and safety get new protections, including a database tracking cancer and heart disease from smoke exposure, a mental health program with paid leave and no-limit counseling, and a casualty assistance program for families of firefighters killed or injured on duty.