H.R. 956 119th Congress House

Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025

Official title: To amend the Wildfire Suppression Aircraft Transfer Act of 1996 to reauthorize the sale by the Department of Defense of aircraft and parts for wildfire suppression purposes, and for other purposes.

Introduced: February 4, 2025 Introduced by: Dan Newhouse Republican · Washington See on congress.gov

Armed Forces and National Security Aviation and airportsFiresForests, forestry, treesMilitary assistance, sales, and agreements

Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Mar 7, 2025

Referred to the Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture.

Feb 4, 2025

Introduced in House

Feb 4, 2025

Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Armed Services, and Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

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What's happening now March 7, 2025

Referred to the Subcommittee on Forestry and Horticulture.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025

This bill 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 October 1, 2025, and ends October 1, 2035.

The bill 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 bill removes the previous limitation on providing international wildfire suppression assistance with such purchased aircraft.

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 1 version

Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 4

Agriculture Committee
House of Representatives
Armed Services Committee
House of Representatives
Forestry and Horticulture Subcommittee
House of Representatives · subcommittee of Agriculture Committee
Oversight and Government Reform Committee
House of Representatives

Lobbying activity 32

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

COLLECTIVE STRATEGIES & COMMUNICATIONS
for CAPITOL COUNSEL, LLC ON BEHALF OF PRIME MINUTE, INC. · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
COLLECTIVE STRATEGIES & COMMUNICATIONS
for CAPITOL COUNSEL, LLC ON BEHALF OF PERIMETER SOLUTIONS · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
CAPITOL COUNSEL LLC
for PRIME MINUTE, INC. · California · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
CAPITOL COUNSEL LLC
for PERIMETER SOLUTIONS · Missouri · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
COLLECTIVE STRATEGIES & COMMUNICATIONS
for CAPITOL COUNSEL, LLC ON BEHALF OF PRIME MINUTE, INC. · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)
COLLECTIVE STRATEGIES & COMMUNICATIONS
for CAPITOL COUNSEL, LLC ON BEHALF OF PERIMETER SOLUTIONS · District of Columbia · 2nd Quarter 2026 (Apr 1 - June 30)

Bodies those filers lobbied

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
30 filings
SENATE
30 filings
Agriculture, Dept of (USDA)
20 filings
U.S. Forest Service
17 filings
Interior, Dept of (DOI)
12 filings
Defense, Dept of (DOD)
2 filings
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
2 filings
Office of Management & Budget (OMB)
2 filings

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

See all 32 filings →

Cosponsors 17

Whitesides, George

California · Nov 21, 2025

Vindman, Eugene Simon

Virginia · Oct 3, 2025

LaMalfa, Doug

California · Jun 3, 2025

Biggs, Andy

Arizona · May 6, 2025

Valadao, David G.

California · Apr 21, 2025

Downing, Troy

Montana · Apr 1, 2025

Harder, Josh

California · Apr 1, 2025

Cisneros, Gilbert Ray

California · Mar 31, 2025

Simpson, Michael K.

Idaho · Mar 27, 2025

Stansbury, Melanie A.

New Mexico · Mar 10, 2025

Jacobs, Sara

California · Mar 3, 2025

Bentz, Cliff

Oregon · Feb 27, 2025

Fulcher, Russ

Idaho · Feb 12, 2025

Zinke, Ryan K.

Montana · Feb 6, 2025

Carbajal, Salud O.

California · Feb 4, 2025

Ellzey, Jake

Texas · Feb 4, 2025

Vasquez, Gabe

New Mexico · Feb 4, 2025

Cite this page click to expand

APA

U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 956: Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-956/

MLA

"H.R. 956: Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-956/.

Bluebook (legal)

H.R. 956, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-956/.

Markdown link

[H.R. 956: Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-956/)