Congress orders study of wildfire-prevention red tape blocking cross-boundary protection
H.R. 3922 — Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act · Filed by Joe Neguse (D-CO) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 11, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study federal programs, rules, and authorities that help or hinder wildfire mitigation efforts across property boundaries—where federal land meets state, local, tribal, or private land. The GAO will examine whether changes to these rules could improve wildfire prevention and community protection, and will report recommendations within two years.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a directive to the GAO to conduct a study and report findings and recommendations. It creates no new programs, funding, or regulatory changes—only a fact-finding exercise intended to inform future policy.
What the text implies
- Study findings may recommend statutory changes to existing authorities (Healthy Forests Restoration Act, Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, good neighbor authority, etc.), which could later become the basis for legislative action to streamline cross-boundary mitigation.
- The GAO's assessment of whether current authorities 'inhibit' wildfire mitigation may implicitly critique existing environmental review or permitting processes, potentially laying groundwork for future deregulation proposals.
- Inclusion of EPA and FEMA as 'covered agencies' suggests the study may examine whether environmental or emergency-management rules create barriers—a politically sensitive area where future bills might seek to relax standards.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates no new restrictions on citizens or removal of protections; it is purely investigative. A comprehensive study of barriers to cross-boundary wildfire mitigation could identify regulatory or procedural obstacles that, if removed, would improve public safety and reduce property loss from wildfires—a direct benefit to communities in fire-prone regions.
Named in the bill
Government Accountability Office (GAO), Comptroller General of the United States, Federal land management agencies, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, US Fire Administration, Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, Agricultural Act of 2014 (good neighbor authority), Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004, Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 — and 4 more
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Jun 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period…”
- Jan 14, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Feb 11, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Feb 11, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by Unanimous Consent”
- Jun 2, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3767)”
- Jun 2, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,610,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 83 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Joe Neguse, the sponsor, reported $1,076,229 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Property Casualty Insurance Association — $3,540,000 on 2 filings
- International Association of Fire Chiefs — $70,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,783 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress orders study of wildfire-prevention red tape blocking cross-boundary protection” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3922 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.