Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act of 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 836) to require the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, and the Secretary of the Interior to conduct an evaluation with respect to the use of the container aerial firefighting system (CAFFS), and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 836

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act of 2025''. SEC. 2. CONTAINER AERIAL FIREFIGHTING SYSTEM (CAFFS).

(a) Evaluation.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the National Interagency Aviation Committee and the Interagency Airtanker Board, shall jointly conduct an evaluation of the container aerial firefighting system to assess the use of such system to mitigate and suppress wildfires.

(b) Report.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the National Interagency Aviation Committee and the Interagency Airtanker Board, shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees a report that includes the results of the evaluation required under subsection (a).

(c) Appropriate Committees Defined.--In this section, the term ``appropriate committees'' means--

(1) the Committees on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; and

(2) the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WESTERMAN. 836, the bill now under consideration.

I rise in strong support of Congressman Valadao's bill, the Emergency Wildfire Fighting Technology Act of 2025. This timely legislation offers us a chance to equip land managers with another tool in their arsenal to combat the catastrophic wildfire crisis by testing a new and innovative method for wildfire suppression.

Last month, wildfires in southern California took the lives of at least 29 people and changed thousands of lives forever. These fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures and racked up untold fire suppression costs and economic damages.

This tragedy is a wake-up call for millions of Americans and demonstrates just how important it is to proactively address the wildfire crisis. Unfortunately, decades of inadequate forest management have created an unprecedented forest health crisis. Across our country, 1 billion acres are now at risk of wildland fire. In the absence of dramatic change, the future outlook remains bleak.

When it comes to fighting these out-of-control infernos, it is critical that we utilize all available technologies that could improve the cost efficiency and effectiveness of fire suppression. Wildland firefighters on the front lines of these disasters must have all the tools and methods available to fight fires and protect lives and property.

Aircraft and helicopters provide lifesaving support to ground crews, often by delivering water or fire retardant. In order to drop water or fire retardant from a plane or helicopter, the aircraft must be designed or retrofitted for such purpose, which limits the number of aircraft available.

Representative Valadao has worked with various stakeholders who have developed and improved container aerial firefighting systems that drop water or fire retardant from aircraft via disposable containers. This technology could decrease the response time to wildfires by increasing the number of aircraft available, which could, in turn, save lives and critical infrastructure.

This technology is not new and is used successfully in other parts of the world. However, U.S. wildland firefighting agencies have not recently studied the system.

H.R. 836 would require the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to evaluate the use of container aerial firefighting systems in response to wildfires. The evaluation will focus on effectiveness, cost, ease of delivery, and safety.

Directing our wildfire firefighting agencies to study new and emerging technologies is a win for the wildland firefighting crews and a win for those who live in vulnerable, fire-prone areas.

I applaud Congressman Valadao for his leadership on this important topic. His legislation passed the House unanimously last year, and it has also passed the House twice with bipartisan support as part of the Fix Our Forests Act.

Mr. Speaker, I support the bill and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friends across the aisle for their overwhelming support of Representative Valadao's bill. We should have that kind of support for a bill that is addressing a huge issue in our country with wildland fire and the dangers that it imposes.

Mr. Speaker, I believe you and Mr. Valadao both serve on the Committee on Appropriations where Republicans brought an Interior appropriations bill to the floor with firefighter pay funding in that bill, and it was voted down by our friends across the aisle.

We do need to take care of our firefighters. When we get bills on the floor that increase pay for firefighters, I would hope we could get more bipartisan support on that.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 836 is a good, commonsense piece of legislation that has passed the House three times on a bipartisan basis.

I commend Representative Valadao for his proven leadership on bipartisan solutions that meaningfully improve forest health and reduce wildfires. If we could get the Senate to act on some of these bills, we wouldn't have to pass them so many times.

I appreciate Representative Valadao being so persistent and continuing to work on his good legislation. I encourage adoption of the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source