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HR 3957
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To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to authorize the President to provide certain fire management assistance to Indian Tribal Governments, and for other purposes.

To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to authorize the President to provide certain fire management assistance to Indian Tribal Governments, and for other purposes.

Introduced Jun 12, 2025

Latest action (Jun 13, 2025) Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.

Referred to
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Policy area
Emergency Management
Issues
Civil Rights

Summary
  • Amends the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to authorize the President to provide fire management assistance directly to Indian Tribal Governments.
  • Allows the Chief Executive of an Indian Tribal Government to directly submit a request for fire management assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
  • Ensures that Indian Tribal Governments remain eligible to receive fire management assistance through a State's request even if their own direct request is denied.
  • Requires the President to issue updated regulations within one year to implement fire management assistance procedures for Tribal Governments and authorize FEMA to directly receive requests and provide grants to them.
  • Requires FEMA to consider the unique conditions affecting Indian Tribal Governments' general welfare and conduct government-to-government consultation with Tribal Governments regarding the regulations.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor

Actions (3)
  1. Jun 13, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. · house
  2. Jun 12, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
  3. Jun 12, 2025 Introduced in House

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Jun 12, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 12, 2025

Ms. Davids of Kansas (for herself and Mr. Johnson of South Dakota) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to authorize the President to provide certain fire management assistance to Indian Tribal Governments, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. INDIAN TRIBAL GOVERNMENT ELIGIBILITY.

(a) In General.—Section 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187) is amended—

(1) in subsection (a), by inserting “, Indian Tribal Government,” before “or local government”;

(2) by redesignating subsections (b) through (e) as subsections (c) through (f), respectively;

(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:

“(b) Procedure for Request.—The Governor of a State or the Chief Executive of an Indian Tribal Government affected by a fire described in subsection (a) may directly submit a request to authorize assistance under this section.”; and

(4) by adding at the end the following:

“(g) Savings Provision.—Nothing in this section shall prohibit an Indian Tribal Government from receiving assistance under this section pursuant to an authorization made at the request of a State under subsection (b) if assistance is not authorized under this section for the same incident based on a request by the Indian Tribal Government under subsection (b).”.

(b) Regulations.—

(1) Update.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall issue regulations updating part 204 of title 44, Code of Federal Regulations, to carry out the amendments made by subsection (a).

(2) Contents.—In issuing the regulations required under paragraph (1), the President shall—

(A) authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency to directly receive a request for a fire management assistance declaration from an Indian Tribal Government and directly provide related grants and resources to Indian Tribal Governments;

(B) clarify that Indian Tribal Governments for which the President does not grant a request described in subparagraph (A) remain eligible to receive assistance under section 420 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5187) through assistance granted under a fire management assistance declaration made at the request of a State;

(C) consider the unique conditions that affect the general welfare of Indian Tribal Governments; and

(D) enter into government-to-government consultation with Indian Tribal Governments regarding the regulations.

(3) Fire management assistance declaration defined.—In this subsection, the term “fire management assistance declaration” means a declaration approved under section 204.21(a) of title 44, Code of Federal Regulations. <all>

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