HR 471, explained
Fix Our Forests Act
Active Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry, Natural Resources, and Biotechnology. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 119-27. · Author: Bruce Westerman (R-AR)
In plain English
This bill sets up new rules for managing forests on federal land to reduce wildfire risks. It creates a system to identify high-risk fire areas and speeds up the approval process for forest management projects. It also limits how long people can spend in court challenging these forest projects.
If this passes
What would actually change, according to the official CRS summary. No predictions, no opinions.
- The Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey would jointly create a Fireshed Center to track and predict fire risks in high-risk forest areas
- Forest management projects would go through a faster approval process under federal environmental review laws
- Some forest activities would be exempted from full environmental review requirements
- Consultation time limits would apply when checking for impacts to endangered species during forest projects
- Lawsuits against fireshed management projects would face restrictions on what courts can do to stop or delay them
Who's lobbying this bill
114 organizations reported lobbying activity
mentioning this bill. Federal lobbying reports list the bills an organization worked and its total quarterly lobbying spend, they don't say which side the organization took, and fees aren't itemized per bill.
Chamber Of Commerce Of The U.S.A.total lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 2 filings
$38.7M Google Client Services Llctotal lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 6 filings
$19.2M Pacific Gas And Electric Companytotal lobbying spend, quarters naming this bill · 8 filings
$18.4M Money and the vote
How the chambers voted, from official roll-call records.
House · On Passage2025-01-23
279–141
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Sources
- Bill text and CRS summary: Congress.gov.
- Lobbying activity: quarterly LDA reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House (lda.senate.gov).
- Votes: official House Clerk and Senate roll-call records. PAC contributions: FEC bulk data (committee-to-candidate transactions).
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