Congress funds wildfire forecasting and gives federal fire workers temporary pay relief.

What it does

The bill sets up a wildfire forecasting program inside NOAA. It pays for better weather predictions and satellite systems. It pays for tools to help fire workers respond faster. The bill lets federal fire workers and weather experts earn extra pay in 2025. It requires federal offices to work together on wildfire response. It asks the GAO to review how well they work together.

Who it affects

People in areas near wildfires get better warnings and faster help. Federal fire workers and weather experts get temporary extra pay in 2025. Remote and rural areas get the same level of forecasting help as other places.

One thing to notice

The extra pay for federal fire workers only lasts through 2025. Congress expects offices to hire and train more staff by 2026.

From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.

Where it stands

8 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans.

• Jan 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Jan 29, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
• Feb 5, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
• Sep 10, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

4 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 9 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.

Those reports show $3,860,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 6 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.

More groups named this bill than 72% of bills with any report.

Maria Cantwell, who sponsored the bill, received $-11,500 from PACs for the 2026 election.

• American Property Casualty Insurance Association — $3,540,000 in 2 reports
• Advanced Environmental Monitoring Holdings (aemh) — $120,000 in 2 reports
• Capitol Counsel, LLC on Behalf of Ororatech Gmbh — $120,000 in 3 reports
• Ororatech Gmbh — $80,000 in 2 reports

Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.

Words to know

• NOAA — The federal office that studies weather and oceans.
• GAO — The Government Accountability Office, which checks how federal offices spend money.
• forecasting — Predicting what the weather will be like in the future.
• federal — Run by the national government, not by a state.
• 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.