EMBER Act

The EMBER Act (S 4628), formally the Enhancing Mitigation and Building Effective Resilience Act, provides state, local, and tribal governments with flexibility to access federal funding for wildfire mitigation, management, and recovery by waiving or reducing required cost-sharing for eligible projects. It establishes new programs to support wood processing facilities in wildfire-prone areas, updates renewable fuel standards to include biomass from wildfire risk reduction activities, and improves coordination between federal agencies for post-wildfire recovery. The bill also enhances Tribal participation in wildfire management through new contracts, grants, and a dedicated panel to study Tribal inclusion, while creating new performance metrics to measure wildfire management effectiveness. The legislation aims to enhance community resilience to wildfires through a comprehensive approach that integrates prevention, response, and recovery efforts.