H.R. 204: ACRES Act

The ACRES Act is a government-accountability bill aimed at wildfire prevention. It does not create a new fuels reduction program. Instead, it changes how the Forest Service and Interior Department report their hazardous fuels work so Congress and the public can better judge whether agencies are making real progress.

The core change is simple: agencies would have to count acres treated only once, even if multiple treatments happened on the same acre in the same year. That matters because critics have argued that current reporting can make progress look larger than it is. Under this bill, agencies must also say whether treated acres were in the wildland-urban interface, what the fire risk level was before and after treatment, what kind of work was done, and the cost per acre.

The bill also pushes agencies to tighten their data systems quickly. Within 90 days, the Agriculture and Interior Departments would have to adopt standardized tracking procedures, review data regularly, verify that records match actual work on the ground, and better separate acres inside and outside the wildland-urban interface. Soon after that, they would have to report to Congress on how the new system works and what problems still need fixing.

The likely effect is more transparency, but also more pressure on agencies whose headline acreage totals may fall once double-counting is limited. Supporters will see that as a more honest picture of wildfire mitigation. Opponents or skeptical managers may worry the bill adds reporting burdens without new funding, especially because it requires analysis of effectiveness and costs while explicitly authorizing no additional money.