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S. 160 · Senate bill · 119th Congress
This act reauthorizes the Department of Defense to sell its excess aircraft and aircraft parts that are acceptable for commercial sale for wildfire suppression purposes. Such authority begins June 12, 2025, and ends October 1, 2035.
The act also provides that such aircraft may be used to deliver water by air in order to suppress wildfire (the previous authority only provided for the delivery of fire retardant).
The act removes the previous limitation on providing international wildfire suppression assistance with such purchased aircraft.
This Act may be cited as the “Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025”.
Section 2 of the Wildfire Suppression Aircraft Transfer Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–307; 10 U.S.C. 2576 note) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(1)—
(A) by striking “a period” and inserting “the period”; and
(B) by inserting “or water” after “fire retardant”;
(2) in subsection (b), by striking “sold under subsection (a)” and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting “sold under subsection (a) may be used only for the provision of aircraft services for wildfire suppression purposes.”;
(3) in subsection (c), by inserting “or water” after “fire retardant”;
(4) in subsection (d)(1), in the second sentence, by striking “subsection (a)(1)” and inserting “subsection (g)”; and
(5) by striking subsection (g) and inserting the following:
“(g) Period for exercise of authority.— The period specified in this subsection is the period beginning on the date of the enactment of the Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025 and ending on October 1, 2035.”.