HR-1567 : Still Just a Bill

Accurately Counting Risk Elimination Solutions Act or the ACRES Act

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to submit accurate reports regarding hazardous fuels reduction activity.

Hazardous fuels reduction activity means any vegetation management activity to reduce the risk of wildfire but excludes a wildland fire managed for resource benefits and the award of contracts to conduct hazardous fuels reduction activities.

Specifically, USDA and Interior must

• include in the materials submitted in support of the President's budget each fiscal year a report on the number of acres on which such activities were carried out during the preceding year, and
• implement standardized procedures for tracking data related to such activities.

The standardized procedures must include

• regular, standardized data reviews of the accuracy and timely input of data used to track hazardous fuels reduction activities;
• verification methods that validate whether such data accurately correlates to such activities;
• an analysis of the short- and long-term effectiveness of such activities on reducing the risk of wildfire; and
• for hazardous fuels reduction activities that occur partially within the wildland-urban interface, methods to distinguish which acres are located within and which located outside the wildland-urban interface.

The Government Accountability Office shall (1) conduct a study on this bill's implementation, and (2) submit a report to Congress with the results of the study.