Janelle Bynum will let the Secretary of Agriculture waive local match requirements for certain wildfire recovery grants.

An amendment to provide authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to waive the local match for the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program for low-capacity rural communities recovering from wildfires;

Bynum proposed giving USDA waiver authority for local matching funds in the Emergency Watershed Protection Program.

Bynum Introduces Amendments to Protect Americans from the Harmful Republican Farm Bill | Representative Janelle Bynum
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Section 3(b): “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary may waive any covered matching requirement for a project in response to a covered wildland fire that is in an area affected by that covered wildland fire.” The bill also defines the Secretary as the Secretary of Agriculture and defines covered matching requirement as a cash matching-funds requirement for wildland fire recovery projects.

This is the clearest official text matching the claim: it would let USDA waive local/state matching requirements for certain wildfire recovery projects.

unresolved same_term A for effort

H.R. 5963 (119th Congress) – Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act (introduced bill text)
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Congress.gov shows the bill status as “Introduced,” with latest action on 2025-11-06: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.” The text repeats the waiver language allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to waive covered matching requirements for projects responding to covered wildland fires.

An identically worded Senate companion was introduced, but no later enactment, passage, or committee disposition is shown in the source.

unresolved same_term A for effort

S. 3149 – Responsible Wildland Fire Recovery Act (Congress.gov text and status)
secondary · model gpt-5.4-mini · confidence 94%