S. 91

Western Wildfire Support Act of 2026

Sponsor: Catherine Cortez Masto

1 cosponsor
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Official summary

Written by the Congressional Research Service.

Western Wildfire Support Act of 2025 

This bill addresses wildfires by authorizing post-fire recovery activities, supporting adoption of technology, and requiring additional federal coordination.

The bill authorizes federal wildfire response and recovery activities by

  • providing statutory authority for Burned Area Emergency Response Teams to coordinate emergency stabilization and erosion planning, and
  • establishing an account to fund federal rehabilitation projects in areas impacted by a wildfire (e.g., ecosystem restoration, replacing infrastructure critical for land management).

Additionally, for all hazard types, the bill includes post-disaster assistance in the federal disaster preparedness program and authorizes assistance to states for operating websites to provide information on post-disaster recovery resources.

The bill requires federal agencies to develop and utilize technologies for managing wildfires by

  • expediting the permitting and use of wildfire detection equipment (e.g., sensors, cameras);
  • providing funding to Indian tribes for slip-on tanker units that convert vehicles into fire engines;
  • performing research and development on wildfire response applications of unmanned aircraft systems (e.g., drones);
  • studying radio communications systems, situational awareness tools, and wildland fire predictive modeling; and
  • administering a prize competition for technological innovation for managing wildfire-related invasive species.

The bill directs federal agencies to plan and coordinate on wildfire management by

  • incorporating the best available science and planning tools into spatial fire management policies for federal lands,  
  • collaborating with state agencies for mutual aid in fire suppression (including reimbursing states for suppressing fires caused by military operations), and 
  • studying training gaps for integrating structural (e.g., local) firefighters into wildfire response.

Text of the bill

Expand all

I Preparation

II Wildfire detection and suppression support

III Post-fire recovery support

I Preparation

Sec. 101. Firefighting account transparency Changed · Sep 17

Where this section came from

  1. Jan 14, 2025 · Introduced in Senate Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Jan 14, 2025
  2. Sep 17, 2026 · Reported to Senate Marked up by Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Feb 4 Reported by Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Sep 17 Committee members' individual votes aren't in our records.
What changed in the text

… 18 unchanged passages …

(2) (A) burns at least — (A) 100,000 acres of land; or (B) burns at least 50,000 acres of land, with a 50 percent or greater portion at high severity; and

… 5 unchanged passages …

What is a markup?

A markup is a committee meeting where members go through a bill and vote on changes before sending it to the full chamber.

(a) Annual reporting. Section 104(a) of division O of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (43 U.S.C. 1748a–2(a)), is amended—

(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking the fiscal year and all that follows through this division, and inserting each fiscal year,; and

(2) in paragraph (1), by striking report with respect to the additional new budget authority; and inserting report on the amounts obligated and the amounts expended from Wildland Fire Management accounts, including any amounts obligated or expended using additional new budget authority under section 251(b)(2)(F) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)(F)), in the preceding fiscal year;.

(b) Inclusions. Section 104(b) of division O of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (43 U.S.C. 1748a–2(b)), is amended—

(1) in paragraph (3), in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking a statistically significant sample of large fires, including an analysis for each fire and inserting each catastrophic wildfire described in subsection (c), including an analysis for each such catastrophic wildfire; and

(2) in paragraph (4), by striking by fire size and all that follows through the semicolon at the end and inserting the following: “by—

Text this section adds to the law

(A) the total ground-based operations costs;

(B) the total aircraft operations costs;

(C) the total personnel costs;

(D) the total on-incident and off-incident support costs;

(E) the total funding allocated from the Wildland Fire Management account of the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture (as applicable) to pay for administrative costs; and

(F) any other relevant factors, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture (as applicable);

(c) Catastrophic wildfire described. Section 104 of division O of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (43 U.S.C. 1748a–2), is amended by adding at the end the following:

Text this section adds to the law

(c) Catastrophic wildfire described. A catastrophic wildfire referred to in subsection (b)(3) is a wildfire incident or wildfire complex that—

(1) requires the mobilization or use of Federal firefighting resources;

(2) burns at least—

(A) 100,000 acres of land; or

(B) 50,000 acres of land, with a 50 percent or greater portion at high severity; and

(3)

(A) results in total suppression costs of $50,000,000 or more;

(B) destroys 1 or more primary residences; or

(C) directly results in the death of 1 or more individuals.

II Wildfire detection and suppression support

III Post-fire recovery support