Air Force buys satellite data to help fight wildfires.
H.R. 9534 — Wildfire Response Modernization Act · Filed by George Whitesides (D-CA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 29, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the Air Force to buy satellite pictures and data. Space companies provide the pictures. The Air Force shares this data with state, local, and tribal governments. States and tribes use the data to fight wildfires and respond to emergencies.
Who it affects
People who live in areas with wildfires benefit from better fire data. State and local fire departments and tribal governments get access to military satellite data. Commercial space companies may get new customers.
One thing to notice
The Air Force will depend on space companies to provide satellite data. If a company fails to deliver, wildfire response could get worse.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jun 29, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 29, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $303,370 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 61 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
George Whitesides, who sponsored the bill, received $647,605 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Society of Civil Engineers — $303,370 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- tribal governments — The governments that run Native American nations and reservations.
- commercial space companies — Private businesses that own and operate satellites and sell data.
- satellite pictures — Images of Earth taken from space by satellites orbiting above.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,081 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 Jun 2026 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 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
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