S.Amdt. 2554

SA 2554. Mr. PADILLA submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle F of title III, add the following:

SEC. 358. IMPROVEMENTS TO FIREGUARD PROGRAM OF NATIONAL
GUARD.

(a) Interagency Partnership.--Section 510 of title 32,
United States Code, is amended--
(1) by striking ``The Secretary'' and inserting ``(a) In
General.--The Secretary''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(b) Contracts and Agreements.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense may enter into
a contract or cooperative agreement with a qualified
individual or entity to carry out the duties of the FireGuard
Program under subsection (a).
``(2) Qualified individual or entity defined.--In this
subsection, the term `qualified individual or entity' means--

[[Page S4900]]

``(A) any individual who possesses a requisite security
clearance for handling classified remote sensing data for the
purpose of wildfire detection and monitoring; or
``(B) any corporation, firm, partnership, company,
nonprofit, Federal agency or sub-agency, or State or local
government, with contractors or employees who possess a
requisite security clearance for handling such data.''.
(b) Transition of FireGuard Program to Civilian or
Commercial Capabilities.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in
coordination with other entities pursuant to a memorandum of
understanding under paragraph (3), shall develop a plan to
transition the operation of the FireGuard Program under
section 510 of title 32, United States Code, to a Federal
agency or subagency (other than the Department of Defense or
within the Department of Defense) or a State or local
government with civilian or commercial capabilities.
(2) Operation of civilian or commercial capabilities.--All
civilian or commercial capabilities under the FireGuard
Program pursuant to a transition conducted under paragraph
(1) shall be--
(A) performed by an individual who possesses a requisite
security clearance for handling classified remote sensing
data for the purpose of wildfire detection and monitoring,
including pursuant to a contract with a corporation, firm,
partnership, company, nonprofit, Federal agency or sub-
agency, or State or local government; and
(B) coordinated with the United States Geological Survey.
(3) Memorandum of understanding.--In developing the
transition plan required under paragraph (1), the Secretary
may enter into a memorandum of understanding with one or more
Federal agencies or subagencies or State or local governments
to identify and leverage shared or external civilian
resources from Federal, State, local, and tribal entities.
(c) Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in
consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall submit
to Congress a report that evaluates the effectiveness of the
FireGuard Program under section 510 of title 32, United
States Code, and opportunities to further engage civilian
capacity within the program.
(2) Matters included.--The report under paragraph (1) shall
include the following:
(A) An assessment of the efficacy of the FireGuard Program
in detecting and monitoring wildfires, including the speed of
detection.
(B) A plan to facilitate production and dissemination of
unclassified remote sensing information for use by civilian
organizations, including Federal, State, and local government
organizations, in carrying out wildfire detection activities.
(C) A plan to contract with qualified civilian entities to
facilitate access to remote sensing information for the
purpose of wildfire detection and monitoring beginning
January 1, 2026.
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