URGENT NATIONAL MEMORANDUM

Immediate National Wildland Fire Response Surge

August 2, 2026

Memorandum for:

The Vice President; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Transportation; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Energy; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the Chief of the National Guard Bureau; the Commander, United States Northern Command; and the heads of such other executive departments and agencies as the Administrator of FEMA may designate.

Subject: Immediate National Wildland Fire Response Surge

Section 1. Findings

The United States has reached National Wildland Fire Preparedness Level Five. National firefighting personnel, aircraft, engines, incident-management teams, communications systems and logistical resources are heavily committed; low-activity regions are approaching minimum drawdown levels; and additional extreme fire weather may create incidents for which no timely civilian reserve is readily available.

Current wildfires threaten lives, residences, hospitals, electrical transmission, water systems, communications facilities, transportation corridors, tribal lands, federal lands and other critical infrastructure. Smoke exposure presents an additional threat to public health across and beyond the areas directly affected by fire.

I therefore determine that continued and accelerated federal assistance is immediately required; that a continuing and immediate risk exists to lives, property, public health and safety; and that necessary assistance may not otherwise be provided on a timely basis. These findings are intended to satisfy, as applicable, the requirements of sections 502 and 503 of the Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5192–5193.

Sec. 2. National Wildland Fire Response Surge Condition One

There is hereby established a temporary National Wildland Fire Response Surge Condition One, effective immediately.

This designation is an administrative domestic-response condition and shall not alter the military defense readiness condition of the United States, convey a change in nuclear or strategic posture, or authorize martial law.

The purposes of Surge Condition One are to:

1. prevent deaths and human suffering;

2. defend populated areas, evacuation routes and critical infrastructure;

3. attack new ignitions before they become large incidents;

4. expand the national aerial and ground firefighting reserve;

5. sustain state, local, tribal and federal responders;

6. protect the public from smoke and infrastructure failure; and

7. accelerate the production and acquisition of additional firefighting capacity.

Sec. 3. Command, Coordination and Civilian Control

The Administrator of FEMA shall coordinate federal consequence-management assistance under the Stafford Act and the National Response Framework.

The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group and National Interagency Coordination Center shall retain responsibility for national prioritization and allocation of wildland firefighting resources.

Incident commanders operating under the National Incident Management System shall retain tactical control of firefighting operations. Military personnel and aircraft shall support, and shall not displace, the established civilian incident-command structure.

United States Northern Command shall coordinate Title 10 Department of Defense support. National Guard forces operating in state active-duty or Title 32 status shall remain under the command of their respective governors unless separately ordered into Title 10 status pursuant to law.

Sec. 4. Stafford Act Assistance

(a) State requests

Within 15 minutes of this memorandum, FEMA shall contact the governors of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and any other state experiencing or imminently threatened by severe wildfire conditions, and shall provide a single-page procedure for requesting:

1. an emergency declaration under sections 501–503 of the Stafford Act;

2. accelerated federal assistance under section 502(a)(8);

3. Fire Management Assistance under section 420;

4. Department of Defense emergency work under section 403(c); and

5. federally funded National Guard service under 32 U.S.C. § 502(f).

FEMA shall transmit each completed gubernatorial request to the President immediately and in no event later than 30 minutes after receipt.

(b) Emergency declarations

For each state submitting a legally sufficient request, the Secretary of Homeland Security, through the FEMA Administrator, shall recommend an emergency declaration without administrative delay. Declaration packages shall not await final damage assessments when federal action is required to save lives or avert catastrophe.

Following a declaration, FEMA may provide accelerated federal assistance without awaiting a separate request for every individual resource, provided that it promptly notifies and coordinates with the affected state as required by 42 U.S.C. § 5192(a)(8).

(c) Federal cost share

To the maximum extent permitted by law, emergency protective measures and approved National Guard missions undertaken pursuant to this memorandum shall receive a 100 percent federal cost share for an initial period of 30 days. Where a separate presidential determination is required, FEMA shall submit that determination for signature within one hour.

At minimum, no eligible activity shall receive less than the statutory federal share.

(d) Emergency funding limit

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 5193(b)(2), I determine that continued emergency assistance exceeding the otherwise applicable $5 million limit may be immediately required because:

1. continuing and immediate risks exist to lives, property, public health and safety;

2. necessary assistance may not otherwise to be provided on a timely basis; and

3. delay would materially increase the threat of catastrophe.

FEMA and OMB shall prepare the required report to Congress concurrently with the provision of assistance. Preparation of that report shall not delay operations.

(e) Fire Management Assistance Grants

FEMA shall decide every pending or newly received Fire Management Assistance Grant request within three hours of receiving a complete application.

FEMA shall immediately reconsider any recent denial involving a fire that has subsequently expanded, threatened additional residences or infrastructure, merged with another incident, or required resources unavailable to the state.

The standard under section 420 is whether a fire threatens such destruction as would constitute a major disaster, not whether the applicant has already suffered a major disaster.

Sec. 5. Immediate Department of Defense Support

(a) NMAC request for assistance

Within 15 minutes, NMAC shall transmit to the Secretary of Defense, through the established USDA–Interior–Defense wildfire-support process, a consolidated request for all Department of Defense assistance immediately required.

The request shall include, subject to safety, mission capability and the preservation of essential national-defense readiness:

1. every available MAFFS-equipped C-130 aircraft not already committed;

2. sufficient Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard crews, maintainers and support personnel to sustain continuous operations within safe duty limits;

3. one active-duty ground-support battalion of approximately 550 personnel, with a second battalion placed on prepare-to-deploy status;

4. available heavy-lift and utility helicopters suitable for approved water-bucket, tank, transport, evacuation or logistical missions;

5. strategic and tactical airlift for firefighters, equipment, replacement parts, portable retardant systems, generators and communications equipment;

6. infrared mapping, remote sensing and other appropriate reconnaissance capability;

7. satellite communications, engineering, emergency-power, medical and logistical support; and

8. military installations suitable for staging, loading, maintenance, billeting and command support.

(b) Secretary of Defense action,

Within 30 minutes of receiving the request, the Secretary of Defense shall issue the necessary warning orders and shall decide each requested capability within one hour.

Support may be provided through:

1. the standing interagency wildfire agreement maintained by the Departments of Agriculture, the Interior and Defense;

2. Defense Support of Civil Authorities under DoD Directive 3025.18;

3. Stafford Act mission assignments;

4. section 403(c) of the Stafford Act, following an appropriate gubernatorial request;

5. the Economy Act, where no more specific statutory authority applies; and

6. other authorities available to the Secretary of Defense.

United States Northern Command shall establish an appropriate coordinating element within two hours. Creation of a joint task force shall not be allowed to delay the movement of available assets.

(c) Immediate Response Authority

Where imminently serious conditions require action to save lives, prevent human suffering or mitigate great property damage, military commanders and authorized DoD civilian officials may respond to requests from civil authorities under Immediate Response Authority, consistent with DoD Directive 3025.18.

Use of Immediate Response Authority shall be reported through the chain of command immediately and reassessed within 72 hours. It shall not authorize military law enforcement, searches, seizures, compulsory civilian control or other activity prohibited by law.

(d) Ground personnel

Military personnel shall immediately be available for logistics, evacuation support, traffic management that does not constitute civilian law enforcement, equipment movement, communications, base-camp operations and other missions within their existing qualifications.

No person shall perform direct wildland fireline work without the required equipment, safety instruction and training. NIFC and DoD shall commence an accelerated training program within 12 hours, with the objective of producing deployable military hand crews within five to seven days.

(e) National Guard

Upon request of an affected governor, and with the consent of that governor, the Secretary of Defense shall authorize federally funded National Guard duty under 32 U.S.C. § 502(f) for wildfire response.

Such Guard forces shall remain under gubernatorial command. Federal funding shall support approved aviation, evacuation, engineering, medical, communications, logistical and firefighting missions.

Nothing in this memorandum requires the federalization of National Guard forces into Title 10 status where Title 32 service will accomplish the mission.

Sec. 6. Aviation Surge

Within one hour, NIFC shall produce a classified or controlled operational inventory, with an unclassified public summary, identifying:

1. every federal, state, military and contracted airtanker;

2. every call-when-needed airtanker and helicopter;

3. all MAFFS aircraft and systems, including readiness status;

4. all available water scoopers;

5. heavy helicopters and approved bucket or tank systems;

6. lead planes, Air Attack Group Supervisors and qualified night-aviation crews;

7. retardant-loading bases, portable bases and maintenance facilities; and

8. each resource that is unavailable and the reason for its unavailability.

NIFC and the Forest Service shall immediately activate every safe and operationally useful aircraft available through existing contracts, emergency contracts, military support or international agreement.

Aircraft shall be assigned according to delivered operational effect rather than nominal payload. Priority shall be given to:

1. protection of life and evacuation routes;

2. populated areas and critical infrastructure;

3. rapid initial attack on new ignitions;

4. reinforcement of lines during favorable weather windows; and

5. fires whose growth would create disproportionate national consequences.

Qualified night-capable helicopter operations may be expanded, but no aviation qualification, maintenance requirement, crew-rest rule or essential safety standard shall be waived merely to increase the number of aircraft shown as available.

Sec. 7. Emergency Contracting

The Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, the FEMA Administrator and other relevant agency heads shall use all lawful emergency acquisition flexibilities, including FAR Parts 6 and 18 and FAR 6.302-2, when unusual and compelling urgency makes ordinary acquisition timing incompatible with protection of life and property.

Within six hours, the agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable:

1. activate available call-when-needed aircraft;

2. contract for domestic and foreign airtankers, scoopers and helicopters;

3. acquire portable retardant-mixing and loading systems;

4. obtain aviation fuel, maintenance, parts and ground equipment;

5. acquire generators, satellite communications and mobile cellular systems;

6. procure HEPA filtration equipment, MERV-13 filters and respiratory protection; and

7. arrange emergency transportation and temporary shelter services.

Full and open competition shall be maintained wherever practicable, but shall not be allowed to delay an urgently required award when FAR 6.302-2 applies. Required written justifications may be completed after award where the FAR permits and prior completion would unreasonably delay the acquisition.

No emergency contract shall be exempt from audit, conflict-of-interest rules or subsequent public disclosure merely because it was awarded rapidly.

Sec. 8. International Assistance

Within one hour, NICC, in consultation with the Secretaries of Agriculture, the Interior and State, shall submit formal requests to Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand for all immediately available:

1. airtankers and water scoopers;

2. qualified flight and maintenance crews;

3. wildland firefighting crews;

4. incident-management teams;

5. aviation supervisors; and

6. specialized communications and mapping personnel.

These requests shall use existing NICC arrangements and the authority of the Wildfire Suppression Assistance Act, including 42 U.S.C. § 1856n. Customs, immigration, equipment certification, liability and entry processing shall be conducted concurrently rather than sequentially.

Sec. 9. Airspace

The FAA Administrator shall provide continuous liaison personnel to NIFC and the principal regional coordination centers.

Upon request of the responsible incident authority, the FAA shall immediately issue or modify temporary flight restrictions under 14 C.F.R. § 91.137 to protect disaster-relief aircraft and prevent unsafe congestion.

Firefighting aircraft shall receive priority handling consistent with aviation safety. Unauthorized drone activity within restricted fire airspace shall be investigated and enforced against promptly.

The FAA shall expedite legally permissible approvals and waivers necessary for emergency aircraft operations, but shall not waive requirements whose removal would create an unacceptable danger to crews or the public.

Sec. 10. Public Health and Critical Infrastructure

FEMA shall issue immediate mission assignments, as needed, to HHS, EPA, the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Transportation and other agencies for:

1. filtered clean-air centers;

2. portable HEPA equipment and N95 respirators;

3. medical teams and patient evacuation;

4. generators and temporary electrical service;

5. protection and restoration of water systems;

6. emergency telecommunications;

7. evacuation transportation;

8. shelter support; and

9. protection of hospitals, 911 centers, utility facilities and essential transportation corridors.

These actions shall be treated as part of the wildfire emergency rather than deferred until suppression operations conclude.

Sec. 11. Industrial Mobilization

Within 24 hours, the Secretaries of Agriculture, the Interior, Homeland Security and Defense, together with OMB, shall identify immediate industrial requirements for:

1. at least eight additional MAFFS or equivalent modular transport-aircraft firefighting systems;

2. additional portable retardant bases and high-pressure loading equipment;

3. heavy-helicopter tank and bucket systems;

4. firefighting aircraft parts and maintenance capacity;

5. purpose-built water scoopers;

6. infrared mapping and night-aviation equipment; and

7. critical public-health and communications supplies.

Where eligible emergency-preparedness or critical-infrastructure requirements justify priority treatment, agencies shall make the necessary determinations and use applicable priorities authority under the Defense Production Act, Executive Order 13603 and the Defense Priorities and Allocations System.

Agencies shall use rated orders only where legally authorized and necessary. The Defense Production Act shall not be represented as creating completed aircraft or trained crews immediately; its purpose in this order is to prevent production capacity and critical components from being delayed behind less urgent commercial orders.

Within 72 hours, the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Agriculture and FAA Administrator shall establish an engineering and certification group to evaluate additional removable firefighting systems for American military transport aircraft. No untested aircraft shall perform operational retardant drops over populated or mountainous terrain.

Modern strategic bombers shall not be assigned to operational firefighting merely because they possess sufficient nominal payload. Any proposed conversion shall require a separate engineering, readiness, safety and cost determination.

Sec. 12. Congressional Request

Within 24 hours, OMB shall deliver to Congress a request for emergency supplemental appropriations sufficient to:

1. sustain the present response;

2. reimburse state, local and tribal governments;

3. expand federal and contracted aviation capacity;

4. procure additional modular systems and water scoopers;

5. support affected households and communities;

6. restore damaged infrastructure; and

7. replenish exhausted federal and state fire accounts.

Existing lawful resources shall be mobilized immediately and shall not await enactment of the supplemental request.

Sec. 13. Operational Reporting

The FEMA Administrator, NMAC Chair and Commander of United States Northern Command shall provide an initial joint operational report within three hours and every 12 hours thereafter.

Each report shall state:

1. outstanding resource requests;

2. aircraft available, assigned, in maintenance and unable to deploy;

3. unfilled crew, engine, aviation and management-team orders;

4. military resources requested, approved, moving and operational;

5. international resources requested and accepted;

6. threats to communities and critical infrastructure;

7. smoke and public-health conditions; and

8. decisions required from the President or Congress.

An unclassified public summary shall be released daily. No agency may describe an asset as deployed merely because it has been alerted, ordered or placed in transit.

Sec. 14. General Provisions

Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to:

1. impair the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency;

2. alter the functions of OMB relating to budgetary, administrative or legislative proposals;

3. authorize military participation in civilian law enforcement contrary to the Posse Comitatus Act or other applicable law;

4. displace state, local or tribal authority except as authorized by law;

5. waive aviation, firefighter or public-safety requirements that cannot lawfully or prudently be waived; or

6. create any right or benefit enforceable at law or in equity against the United States.

This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

Surge Condition One shall remain in effect for 30 days and may be renewed. It may be terminated earlier when the national preparedness level falls below Level Four for seven consecutive days and NMAC certifies that an adequate national reserve has been restored.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE

August 2, 2026

Annex A — Execution Clock

Time after signatureRequired action0–15 minutesFEMA contacts governors; NMAC transmits consolidated DoD request; national coordination call begins15–30 minutesNORTHCOM warning orders; FAA and agency liaisons activated; international requests transmitted30–60 minutesSecretary of Defense decisions; FEMA declaration packages move to President; aviation inventory completed1–2 hoursStafford declarations signed as requests qualify; MAFFS and helicopter units alerted; emergency contracts initiated2–6 hoursAircraft and crews reposition; portable bases and military logistics begin moving; TFRs adjusted6–12 hoursAdditional certified aircraft available for the next safe operational period12–24 hoursGuard aviation and military logistical forces operating; domestic emergency contracts producing capacity24–72 hoursNorth American and some international resources arrive; clean-air and infrastructure missions expand3–7 daysFirst trained active-duty military hand crews become available for fireline assignment5–14 daysLarger international contingents and the second military echelon become operational6–12 monthsAdditional modular firefighting systems can begin entering service if ordered immediatelySeveral yearsNew purpose-built scoopers and newly converted aircraft enter the permanent fleet

Annex B — Principal Authorities

ActionAuthorityRequired triggerFire Management AssistanceStafford Act §420, 42 U.S.C. §5187Fire threatens destruction constituting a major disasterPresidential emergency declarationStafford Act §§501–503, 42 U.S.C. §§5191–5193Normally a gubernatorial request; federal-responsibility exception is narrowerAccelerated federal assistance42 U.S.C. §5192(a)(8)Declared emergency and urgent life-safety need; coordination with stateDoD emergency work42 U.S.C. §5170b(c)Governor requests presidential direction; generally limited to ten daysBroader military assistanceStanding USDA–Interior–DoD agreement; DSCA; Economy Act where applicableNMAC or lead-agency request approved by DoDImmediate local military responseDoD Directive 3025.18Civil-authority request and imminently serious conditions; 72-hour reassessmentFederally funded Guard service32 U.S.C. §502(f)Governor request/consent and federal approvalInternational wildfire resources42 U.S.C. §§1856m–1856o and standing NICC agreementsAgency request and partner-country availabilityEmergency contractsFAR 6.302-2 and FAR Part 18Unusual and compelling urgency; subsequent justification and oversightInteragency reimbursable supportEconomy Act, 31 U.S.C. §1535Agency agreement when no more specific authority controlsProduction prioritiesDefense Production Act; E.O. 13603; applicable allocation regulationsApproved emergency-preparedness or critical-infrastructure program and agency determinationFire-area flight restrictions14 C.F.R. §91.137FAA determination or justified incident request