H.R. 204, ACRES Act

H.R. 204 would require the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to report on efforts to reduce wildfires and to standardize data collection for those activities. The act would require each department to report the number of acres of federal land that underwent vegetation management to reduce the risk of wildfire in the previous year and to include those reports with the President’s annual budget request. The act also would require each department to standardize procedures for collecting data related to wildfire reduction and to report to the Congress on those efforts.

The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget functions 300 (natural resources and environment) and 800 (general government).

CBO estimates that the total cost to implement H.R. 204 would be $33 million over the 2026-2031 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. The bulk of those costs would stem from the need for additional staff and to upgrade data systems. Using information from the departments, CBO estimates that, in total, they would need 30 additional staff members, at an average annual cost of $140,000, to meet the act’s requirements. After accounting for anticipated inflation, CBO estimates that compensating additional staff and upgrading data systems would cost $33 million over the 2026-2031 period.

The act also would require the Government Accountability Office to report to the Congress on its implementation two years after enactment. Using information about the cost of similar reports, CBO estimates that implementing that provision would cost less than $500,000 over the 2026-2031 period.

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