Fire Department Repayment Act of 2025

The bill would direct the Secretaries of Agriculture, Interior, Homeland Security, and Defense to establish standard operating procedures governing payment timelines for fire suppression cost share agreements — contracts under the Reciprocal Fire Protection Act that allocate wildfire-fighting costs across federal, state, and local jurisdictions. The agencies would have one year from enactment to publish those procedures, review every active agreement, and modify any agreement that does not conform. The new procedures would require that each cost share agreement be aligned with any cooperative fire protection agreements covering the same entity, and that the federal paying agency reimburse a local fire department whenever it submits an invoice following the applicable cost-settlement steps.

The bill also expresses a sense of Congress that repayments to local fire suppression organizations should happen as soon as practicable but no later than one year after fire suppression occurs. That one-year benchmark is advisory, not legally binding. The bill does not appropriate new funds and does not change the underlying cost-sharing formula — it standardizes only the procedures and timelines for executing existing agreements.

Local and municipal fire departments that assist in suppressing wildfires on or near federal land and currently submit reimbursement invoices under cost share agreements. The four federal departments required to act — Agriculture (Forest Service), Interior, Homeland Security, and Defense — would bear the administrative burden of revising their standard operating procedures and reviewing all active agreements within one year.

Local fire departments — many of them volunteer or modestly funded — often absorb significant costs fighting wildfires that spread across federal land, then wait years for federal reimbursement under loosely structured agreements. Standardized payment timelines and a clear obligation to pay upon proper invoicing would give local departments more financial predictability and reduce the risk that delayed federal payments disrupt their operations.

The four named Secretaries would jointly establish standard operating procedures within one year of enactment. Those procedures must address payment timelines, agreement alignment with cooperative fire protection agreements, and invoice-based reimbursement. Agencies would simultaneously audit every active fire suppression cost share agreement and modify non-conforming agreements. There is no explicit rulemaking requirement, but the review-and-modify mandate effectively requires each department to survey its portfolio of agreements and bring them into compliance. The sense-of-Congress provision sets a one-year aspirational repayment window but imposes no enforcement mechanism.