H.R. 6903 — Introduced in House

I 117th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6903 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 2, 2022Mr. McClintock (for himself and Mr. LaMalfa) introduced the following bill; which was 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 A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to suppress wildfires, and for other purposes. 1. Suppression of wildfires (a) In general The Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service— (1) shall— (A) to the maximum extent practicable— (i) use all available resources to carry out wildfire suppression with the purpose of extinguishing wildfires detected on National Forest System lands not later than 24 hours after such a wildfire is detected; and (ii) immediately suppress any prescribed fire that exceeds prescription; (B) not inhibit the suppression efforts of State or local firefighting agencies that are authorized to respond to wildfire on National Forest System lands; (2) may only use fire as a resource management tool if the fire is a prescribed fire that complies with applicable law and regulations; (3) may only initiate a backfire or burnout during a wildfire by order of the responsible incident commander; and (4) shall control any such initiated backfire or burnout until extinguished. (b) Penalty Any person aggrieved by a violation of paragraph (3) or (4) of subsection (a) may bring a civil action against the United States in the appropriate Federal district court for actual damages.