Requires the EPA to revise its air quality rules so that smoke from prescribed fires can more easily be excluded from air quality violation determinations, and lets the EPA award grants to help communities, including schools, prepare for wildfire smoke.

• Defines prescribed fire to include cultural burning activities determined by an Indian tribe, and makes prescribed fires eligible to be treated as exceptional events under the Clean Air Act.
• Requires the EPA to propose revisions to its exceptional event regulations within 270 days of enactment, then finalize them within 180 days after the proposal, with the goal of reducing the burden on states.
• Deems a state petition approved if the EPA does not act on it within one year, unless the EPA later determines the event is not exceptional.
• Authorizes competitive EPA grants, subject to appropriations, for states, federally recognized tribes, and other eligible entities to address wildfire smoke in community buildings, with a federal cost share of up to 90 percent and no more than 25 percent of grant funds going to any one state.

• Environment and Public Works Committee (Senate)

Environmental Protection