S. 306, Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025

S. 306 would authorize the appropriation of specific amounts for each fiscal years from 2026 through 2030 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a fire weather services program to support wildfire forecasting, responsiveness, and local collaborations.

Under the bill, NOAA would be required to:

• Develop modeling and data systems for fire weather predictions,
• Maintain a public website to promote the program’s services and data,
• Award grants to non-federal entities for program development,
• Conduct pilot projects and research on unmanned systems for fire weather observations,
• Establish an Incident Meteorologist Service within the National Weather Service, and
• Report to the Congress on the program’s implementation.

The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 300 (natural resources and environment).

CBO assumes that the bill will be enacted in 2025 and that the authorized amounts will be provided in each year. Based on historical spending patterns, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $95 million over the 2025-2030 period and $51 million after 2030.

The bill also would authorize additional premium pay in calendar year 2025 for Department of Commerce employees involved in emergency wildfire suppression and whose earnings, including premium pay, exceed a specified threshold. Under current law, employees can earn premium pay only to the extent that their combined base and premium pay does not exceed the greater of the GS-15 maximum or Executive Schedule Level V salary level. Because the additional pay would apply to work already completed, that spending is treated as direct spending. Using information from the Forest Service, CBO estimates that enacting S. 306 would increase direct spending by less than $500,000 over the 2025-2030 period.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Kelly Durand. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.