US Codex
Bill
Notes

National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025

H.R. 3889 · 119th Congress · Jun 10, 2025 · Lineage

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and expand the use of prescribed fire on land managed by the Department of the Interior or the Forest Service, with an emphasis on units of the National Forest System in the western and southeastern United States, to acknowledge and support the long-standing use of cultural burning by Indian Tribes and Indigenous practitioners, and for other purposes.

Section 1 Short title; table of contents

(a)
Short title— This Act may be cited as the “National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025”.
(b)
Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 2 Definitions

In this Act:
(1)
Congressional committees— The term congressional committees means—
(A)
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(B)
the Committee on Natural Resources, the Committee on Agriculture, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
(2)
Federal land— The term Federal land means—
(A)
land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary; and
(B)
National Forest System land.
(3)
Landscape-scale prescribed fire plan— The term landscape-scale prescribed fire plan means a decision document prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) that—
(A)
covers a unit of the National Forest System, a Bureau of Land Management district, or a subunit of such a unit or district;
(B)
analyzes the site-specific environmental consequences of prescribed fire on land described in subparagraph (A); and
(C)
obviates the need for subsequent decisions pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with respect to the unit, district, or subunit described in subparagraph (A).
(4)
National Forest System—
(A)
In general— The term National Forest System has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
(B)
Exclusions— The term National Forest System does not include the national grasslands or land utilization projects administered under title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act (7 U.S.C. 1010 et seq.).
(5)
Prescribed fire— The term prescribed fire means a fire deliberately ignited to burn wildland fuels in a natural or modified state—
(A)
under specified environmental conditions that are intended to allow the fire to be confined to a predetermined area and produce the fireline intensity and rate of spread required to attain planned resource management objectives; and
(B)
in accordance with applicable law (including regulations).
(6)
Secretaries— The term Secretaries means—
(A)
the Secretary; and
(B)
the Secretary of Agriculture.
(7)
Secretary— The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior.
(8)
Secretary concerned— The term Secretary concerned means—
(A)
the Secretary, in the case of land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary; and
(B)
the Secretary of Agriculture, in the case of land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture.