H.R. 5652 — Wildfire Recovery Act

This section establishes a minimum federal share of 75% for fire management assistance under Section 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (i.e., grants reimbursing state and local costs to suppress eligible wildfires exceeding state resources). The change applies only to amounts appropriated on or after the date of enactment.

This section directs the President, acting through the FEMA Administrator, to complete a rulemaking not later than three years after enactment to establish criteria for circumstances under which the Administrator may recommend increasing the federal cost share for fire management assistance under section 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187). (As background, section 420 authorizes federal grants, equipment, supplies, and personnel to state and local governments to mitigate, manage, and control fires on public or private forest land or grassland threatening major disaster-level destruction.) Such criteria must include a threshold metric assessing the financial impact to a state or local government from responding to an eligible fire.

This section directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator to update agency policy for Fire Management Assistance Grants under section 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187)—which authorize federal grants to states and locals to mitigate, manage, and control wildfires threatening major disaster-level destruction—to make predeployment of domestic assets by states, locals, and Tribes eligible for reimbursement, consistent with such assistance available under major disaster and emergency declarations.