H.R. 204: ACRES Act

The ACRES Act doesn't create a new wildfire program or spend a dollar. It changes how the Forest Service and the Interior Department report the prevention work they already do, so Congress and the public can judge whether the numbers mean what they appear to mean.

The core change is one line: agencies must record each treated acre once a year, even if they ran several treatments on it. Critics have argued that counting every treatment separately can make annual progress look bigger than the ground reality. This bill ends that practice.

The reports would also have to carry real detail — whether an acre sits in the wildland-urban interface where homes meet wildland, the fire risk level on the first and last day of the year, what kind of work was done, and the cost per acre. All of it gets posted on the agencies' websites.

Agencies would have 90 days to stand up standardized tracking: regular data-quality reviews, methods to verify the records match work actually done, an analysis of short- and long-term effectiveness, and a way to separate acres inside the interface from acres outside it. Two weeks after that, they report to Congress on how it works and what's still broken. The Government Accountability Office then studies the rollout and reports back within two years.

Supporters say a single-count rule gives a more honest picture of wildfire mitigation. Skeptical land managers may counter that the bill piles on reporting work — effectiveness analysis, cost tracking, verification — while authorizing no new money to do it.