Congress·In Committee·H.R. 5963

Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act

Wildfire Recovery: Government Payment for Fires It Starts

Nov 7, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

Next up: A house committeeNo action in 8 months

This bill is currently sitting in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committees. No action has been taken on the bill since November 2025, which means it has been stalled for about eight months. It must receive a vote in these committees before it can move forward.

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Unlikely to pass

The bill was introduced by a member of the minority party and is currently in the early committee stages where most bills fail to move forward.

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from H.R. 4920 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
H.R. 4920 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill helps communities and individuals recover from wildfires that were accidentally started by the federal government. It focuses on fires caused by activities like controlled burns or forest management on National Forest land.
Usually, when the government provides money for disaster recovery, the local community or state has to pay for part of the project. This bill would let the Secretary of Agriculture waive those costs so the federal government pays for the entire project.
The plan covers many types of damage, including direct fire damage and indirect problems like water supply issues caused by burned forests. It applies to projects run by states, Native American tribes, local towns, and even individuals.
This matters because it holds the government responsible for its own mistakes. If a government-controlled fire gets out of hand, the people living nearby would not have to pay their own money to fix the damage.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Nov 7, 2025House

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.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Nov 7, 2025

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes or news coverage recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act

Bill NumberHR 5963

Congress119th Congress

ChamberHouse of Representatives

Latest ActionReferred 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.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.