WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Congressman Tom Tiffany’s (WI-07) bill, H.R. 204, the Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions (ACRES) Act, passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote. This legislation would require the Secretaries of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of the Interior (DOI) to carry out a yearly hazardous fuel reduction report based on the actual number of acres that the respective agencies treated over the past year.
Investigating reports found that agencies, like the U.S. Forest Service, have been overstating their fuel reduction work for decades. The ACRES Act holds federal land management agencies accountable by ensuring transparency in the work they are doing to reduce the amount of fuel for wildfires on our public lands.
“For far too long, Americans have suffered the devastating impacts of wildfires, often exacerbated by poor forest management. It's time for a proactive approach to managing our public lands. The ACRES Act accomplishes this by mandating accurate reporting on the acres federal land managers are treating,” said Federal Lands Subcommittee Chairman Tom Tiffany.
As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands, Congressman Tiffany knows a thing or two about federal lands issues and the need for more transparency and accountability from our federal land management agencies. His ACRES Act will help ensure these agencies accurately report the details of the work they are doing to reduce hazardous fuels that are causing catastrophic wildfires on our public lands,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman.
“Due to inadequate forest management, catastrophic wildfires have ravaged the West. In the previous Administration, we saw a severe lack of transparency in the actions our federal land management agencies were or were not taking to reduce hazardous fuels in our forests. Rep. Tiffany’s ACRES Act will provide the accountability Americans deserve from these agencies and ensure more actions are taken to prevent devastating fires. I’m glad to see this important legislation pass the House,” said Western Caucus Chairman Doug LaMalfa (CA-01).
“This bill will give the American people a more accurate accounting of how much progress Federal land managers are making in addressing our wildfire crisis. Congress has given them unprecedented authorities and resources — and the public is entitled to know what these agencies are up to. If federal land managers actively use all of the expedited authorities Congress has given them, the number of treated acres should rise rapidly,” said Bill Imbergamo, Executive Director, Federal Forest Resource Coalition.
The ACRES Act requires the Secretaries of the USDA and DOI to:
- Detail the actual, accurate acreage where hazardous fuel reduction activities took place and the region or system unit in which the acres were located.
- Distinguish between treatments that occurred within the wildland-urban interface, areas accurately reflecting treatments near communities that are most at risk to the threat of wildfires.
- Show the effectiveness of the hazardous fuels reduction work in reducing wildfire risk.
- Convey what methods were used to reduce hazardous fuels and the cost per acre to do so.
- Make the report publicly available on USDA and DOI websites.
The ACRES Act also requires the Secretaries to implement standardized procedures for tracking data for hazardous fuels reduction. This includes:
- Data reviews of the accuracy and timely input of the data used to track hazardous fuels, as well as verification that this data directly correlates to fuel reduction activity.
- Analysis of short and long-term effectiveness of hazardous fuel reduction on reducing the risk of wildfires.
Rep. Tiffany’s ACRES Act now awaits action in the U.S. Senate.
You can watch Rep. Tiffany’s remarks here. The full text H.R. 204 can be found here.
Last Update: Jan 22, 2025 9:41 am CST
