Improving the Emergency Forest Restoration Program
Section 3 · Sec. 3 ·
What this chapter is about
This part changes a different piece of the same 1978 law. That piece is about small private woodland. It says which fires count. It lets an owner take up to 75 percent of the cost before the work. Money that is not spent in 180 days has to go back.
The document says “is amended”Who acts: CongressHow: statuteSec. 3 in the PDF
What the document says
“Section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2206) is amended”
The operative instruction of the section. Everything that follows it changes section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978, which is codified at 16 U.S.C. 2206. The section does three things: it edits subsection (a)(2), it redesignates subsection (e) as subsection (f), and it inserts a new subsection (e) after subsection (d). The redesignation is what makes room for the new subsection. This site indexes the words this Act enacts and does not record what section 407 said before, because the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 is not indexed here.
What the document actually says
“Section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2206) is amended”
That sentence, in plain words
This law changes an old law. The old law is from 1978. This time it changes part 407 of it.
What this is about
The part before this one changed part 401. This one changes a different part. It also moves a lettered piece down to make room for a new one.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.
The document says “is amended”Who acts: CongressHow: statuteSec. 3 in the PDF
What the document says
“in subsection (a)(2), by striking ``wildfires,'' and inserting ``wildfires (including a wildfire that is not caused naturally, if the damage is caused by the spread of the wildfire due to natural causes, and a wildfire that is caused by the Federal Government),''”
The change to paragraph (2) of subsection (a). The word "wildfires," is struck and the same word is put back carrying a parenthesis after it. The words in that parenthesis reach a wildfire not caused naturally, where the damage is caused by the spread of the fire due to natural causes, and a wildfire caused by the Federal Government. It is the same pair of cases section 2 of this Act writes into section 401. What subsection (a)(2) provides is set by section 407, which is not indexed here.
What the document actually says
“in subsection (a)(2), by striking ``wildfires,'' and inserting ``wildfires (including a wildfire that is not caused naturally, if the damage is caused by the spread of the wildfire due to natural causes, and a wildfire that is caused by the Federal Government),''”
That sentence, in plain words
The word wildfires stays in the old law. New words go in right after it. A fire people started counts, if nature spread it. So does a fire the Federal Government started.
What this is about
Part 2 of this law says the same thing about farms. This says it about woodland.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.
The document says “shall”Who acts: the SecretaryHow: statuteSec. 3 in the PDF
What the document says
“The Secretary shall give an owner of nonindustrial private forest land the option of receiving, before the owner carries out emergency measures under this section, not more than 75 percent of the cost of the emergency measures, as determined by the Secretary.”
Paragraph (1) of the new subsection (e), headed Advance Payments. The Secretary is to give an owner of nonindustrial private forest land the option of receiving money before the owner carries out emergency measures under section 407. The amount is capped at 75 percent of the cost of those measures, and the cost is as the Secretary determines it. The option is the owner's to take. What the emergency measures are is set by section 407, which is not indexed here.
What the document actually says
“The Secretary shall give an owner of nonindustrial private forest land the option of receiving, before the owner carries out emergency measures under this section, not more than 75 percent of the cost of the emergency measures, as determined by the Secretary.”
That sentence, in plain words
Some people own a small patch of woods. The Secretary must offer them a choice. They can take money before they do the work. The most they can take is 75 percent of the cost.
What this is about
The Secretary works out what the job costs. The owner does not have to take the money early. It is a choice, not a rule.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.
The document says “shall”Who acts: owners of nonindustrial private forest land, the SecretaryHow: statuteSec. 3 in the PDF
What the document says
“If the funds provided under paragraph (1) are not expended by the end of the 180-day period beginning on the date on which the owner of nonindustrial private forest land receives those funds, the funds shall be returned within a reasonable timeframe, as determined by the Secretary.”
Paragraph (2) of the new subsection (e), headed Return of Funds. Where money paid in advance under paragraph (1) has not been spent by the end of the 180-day period that starts on the day the owner received it, the money is to be returned. The paragraph sets no fixed deadline for the return, only a reasonable timeframe, and leaves what is reasonable to the Secretary.
What the document actually says
“If the funds provided under paragraph (1) are not expended by the end of the 180-day period beginning on the date on which the owner of nonindustrial private forest land receives those funds, the funds shall be returned within a reasonable timeframe, as determined by the Secretary.”
That sentence, in plain words
The clock starts the day the owner gets the money. It runs for 180 days. Money left over then has to go back. It must go back in a fair amount of time.
What this is about
The law does not give an exact due date for that. The Secretary decides what is fair.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.
Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025, Public Law 119-102, sec. 3, 140 Stat. 986 (2026). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ102/html/PLAW-119publ102.htm
This page
“Improving the Emergency Forest Restoration Program,” Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025, section 3. Read the Mandate, https://readthemandate.org/emergency-conservation-program-improvement-act-2025/section-3/ (retrieved August 26, 2026).
Cite the document when the claim is about what the document says. Cite this page when the indexing, the wording or the record of what has happened is what is being relied on.
What This Page Covers, and What It Leaves Out
The instruction that section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 is amended, and then each change that alters what somebody may receive or must do: the wildfire wording inserted in subsection (a)(2), the option of an advance payment of up to 75 percent under the new subsection (e)(1), and the duty to return funds left unspent under the new subsection (e)(2).
The redesignation of subsection (e) as subsection (f) has no entry of its own. It moves a subsection's letter and changes nothing anyone must do; it is recorded in the summary of the entry for the amendment instruction, because it is what makes room for the new subsection (e).
The section works by amending section 407 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978, codified at 16 U.S.C. 2206, and that Act is not indexed here. So nothing recorded here says what section 407 said before this Act, what subsection (a)(2) provides for the causes it lists, or what the emergency measures under that section are. A reader following the citation into section 407 will find the older wording until this Act is applied. The Act does not say here which Secretary is meant, and it does not define nonindustrial private forest land; both sit in the statute being amended. What counts as a reasonable timeframe for returning funds is left to the Secretary, and no such determination is indexed here.
