S 2015
Advanced toward a vote
Directs the Interior and Agriculture departments to expand prescribed fire on federal lands, creates a funded collaborative program for fire projects, and supports cultural burning by Tribes and Indigenous practitioners.
Official title: National Prescribed Fire Act of 2025
Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions
Senate
Introduced
10-JUN-2025
Referred
10-JUN-2025
Approved by committee
17-DEC-2025
Reported
17-SEP-2026
On the calendar
17-SEP-2026
- Requires federal land managers to increase prescribed fire acreage by at least 10 percent each year over the prior year for 10 fiscal years.
- Creates a Collaborative Prescribed Fire Program capped at $20 million in total funding per year and $1 million per project, authorized through fiscal year 2036.
- Allows cooperative agreements of up to 10 years with states, Tribes, counties, nonprofits, and private entities to conduct prescribed fires on federal land, and treats certain non-federal partners as federal employees for Federal Tort Claims Act purposes.
- Directs the EPA to help state and Tribal air agencies handle smoke rules, and directs the Secretaries to create career pathways for veterans and formerly incarcerated people and to support an Indigenous-led cultural burning training center.
Covers an older version. The newest CRS summary describes the bill as of "Introduced in Senate" (10-JUN-2025); the text has changed since (Reported to Senate, 17-SEP-2026).
CRS is the Library of Congress's nonpartisan research office. Read it on congress.govPublic Lands and Natural Resources
■ 3 R■ 2 D
3 Republicans
2 Democrats