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Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act of 2026
To authorize the President to declare a smoke emergency, and for other purposes.
Summary
- Authorizes the President to declare a smoke emergency in any state experiencing or anticipated to experience a significant decrease in air quality due to wildland fire smoke.
- Allows state governors or appropriate agencies to request a smoke emergency declaration from the President.
- Empowers the President through FEMA and other federal agencies to provide smoke emergency assistance to affected states and communities, including grants, equipment, supplies, personnel, smoke shelters, air purifiers, and additional air monitoring sites.
- Permits the Small Business Administration to provide grants to small businesses that lose significant revenue due to wildland fire smoke in areas where a smoke emergency is declared.
- Amends federal budget law to allow budget adjustments for smoke emergency assistance appropriations, exempting such spending from standard spending reduction rules.
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)
- Rep. Harder, Josh [D-CA-9] (D-CA)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Josh Harder’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- GOOGLE $34,620
- BESSEMER VENTURE PARTNERS $28,100
- STANFORD UNIVERSITY $25,550
- BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP $19,800
- COOLEY LLP $16,200
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Josh Harder → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jun 10, 2026 Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committees on Small Business, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. · house
- Jun 10, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 10, 2026
Mr. Harder of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committees on Small Business, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To authorize the President to declare a smoke emergency, 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. ASSISTANCE FOR SMOKE EMERGENCY DECLARATION.
(a) In General.—The President may declare a smoke emergency in any State in which the President determines there is, or anticipates there will be, a significant decrease in air quality due to wildland fire smoke in 1 or more States.
(b) Request From Governor.—The Governor, or other appropriate agency, of a State that is or will be affected by a significant decrease in air quality due to wildland fire smoke may request a declaration under subsection (a).
(c) Assistance.—If the President declares a smoke emergency under subsection (a), the President, acting through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other appropriate Federal agencies, may provide smoke emergency assistance to States and local communities that are or will be affected by the smoke emergency, including grants, equipment, supplies, and personnel and resources for establishing smoke shelters, air purifiers, and additional air monitoring sites.
(d) SBA Grants.—The Administrator of the Small Business Administration may provide grants to any small business concern, as defined in section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632), that loses a significant amount of revenue due to wildland fire smoke in an area in which the President has declared a smoke emergency under subsection (a).
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.—There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
SEC. 3. BUDGET ADJUSTMENT FOR SMOKE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE.
Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(H) Smoke emergency assistance.—
“(i) If, for any fiscal year, appropriations for discretionary accounts are enacted that Congress designates as being for smoke emergency assistance in statute, the adjustment for a fiscal year shall be the total of such appropriations for the fiscal year in discretionary accounts designated as being for smoke emergency assistance.
“(ii) For purposes of this subparagraph, the term ‘smoke emergency assistance’ means assistance provided under a determination under section 2 of the Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act of 2026.
“(iii) Appropriations considered smoke emergency assistance under this subparagraph in a fiscal year shall not be eligible for adjustments under subparagraph (A) for the fiscal year.”. <all>
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