Fire agencies get permanent ownership of surplus military aircraft after 10 years of use.
S. 4274 — WINGS Act · Filed by Tim Sheehy (R-MT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 26, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill allows the Secretary of Agriculture to permanently transfer ownership of surplus military aircraft and aircraft parts to state and local fire agencies that have borrowed them for at least 5–10 years and used them responsibly for wildfire suppression and emergency response. The agencies gain full ownership but must agree to use the equipment for public safety purposes for up to 5 years after transfer and cannot sell or export it without federal permission.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward transfer of federal surplus property to state/local fire agencies after demonstrated responsible use. It is a property-management and emergency-response measure, not a regulatory or financial carve-out.
What the text implies
- Transfer of title removes federal oversight and reclamation authority after 5 years, creating permanent loss of federal control over military-origin equipment; agencies could theoretically repurpose aircraft for non-emergency uses after the post-transfer use restriction expires.
- The bill grants the Secretary broad discretion to modify or waive post-transfer conditions on a case-by-case basis, potentially allowing commercial use or export of military equipment with minimal transparency or congressional review.
- Serviceable aircraft parts can be transferred independently of the aircraft they support, creating inventory-tracking complexity and potential for parts to be diverted or sold if agencies face budget pressure or leadership changes.
- No explicit requirement for public reporting or audit of transferred assets; agencies are only required to maintain records available 'upon reasonable request,' limiting transparency to federal oversight rather than public accountability.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
State and local fire agencies gain operational certainty and asset stability for wildfire suppression and emergency response, reducing administrative burden and enabling long-term planning. The public benefits from improved emergency response capacity without new federal spending, and restrictions on resale protect against private diversion of public safety assets.
Who stands to gain
- state and local fire agencies
- emergency response organizations
Named in the bill
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Department of Defense, State foresters, Federal Excess Personal Property program, Secretary of Agriculture
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Mar 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 26, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (13,742 characters) on Aug 14, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Fire agencies get permanent ownership of surplus military aircraft after 10 years of use.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4274 Report an error
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