Congress expands prescribed fire to fight wildfires—and shields contractors from liability
H.R. 10061 — Wildfire Response and Readiness Act · Filed by Joe Neguse (D-CO) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes the Forest Service and Interior Department to spend up to 15% of their annual hazardous fuels budgets on prescribed fire activities—controlled burns to reduce wildfire risk—on federal and non-federal land. It establishes a $10 million/year Collaborative Prescribed Fire Program (capped at $20M total annually, $1M per project), creates liability protections for non-federal partners conducting prescribed burns, funds workforce development including hiring formerly incarcerated individuals and veterans, and reauthorizes forest restoration programs. It also creates a Post-Disaster Reforestation Program, an Emergency Forest Watershed Program, and a Nursery and Seed Orchard Grant Program to support recovery after wildfires.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is expanding prescribed fire capacity through federal funding, liability protection, and workforce development. While it reauthorizes existing restoration programs, the operative innovation is the Collaborative Prescribed Fire Program and the liability indemnity for non-federal partners, which are the bill's primary civic and operational contributions.
What the text implies
- Liability indemnity for non-federal prescribed fire practitioners (Section 11203) extends federal tort immunity to private contractors and nonprofits, potentially shielding them from state negligence claims if a prescribed fire escapes and causes damage—a significant shift in risk allocation from private actors to federal government.
- The bill's smoke management provisions (Section 11204) coordinate EPA guidance on 'exceptional event demonstrations' to help states and tribes claim prescribed fire smoke as non-attributable to air quality violations. This may reduce regulatory friction for prescribed burns but could weaken Clean Air Act enforcement if demonstrations are approved too permissively.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
State forestry agencies; Indian Tribes and tribal organizations; Nonprofit organizations and prescribed fire councils