Fire department repayment

(a) Establishment of standard operating procedures Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall— (1) establish standard operating procedures relating to payment timelines for fire suppression cost-share agreements established under section 2 of the Act of May 27, 1955 (42 U.S.C. 1856a) (commonly known as the Reciprocal Fire Protection Act); and (2) with respect to each fire suppression cost-share agreement in operation on that date— (A) review the agreement; and (B) modify the agreement as necessary to comply with the standard operating procedures established under paragraph (1). (b) Alignment of agreements The standard operating procedures under subsection (a)(1) shall include a requirement that each fire suppression cost-share agreement shall be aligned with each cooperative fire protection agreement applicable to the entity subject to the fire suppression cost-share agreement. (c) Payments With respect to payments made pursuant to a fire suppression cost-share agreement, the standard operating procedures under subsection (a)(1) shall require that the Federal paying entity shall reimburse a local fire department or a State wildland firefighter agency if that entity submits to the Federal paying entity an invoice in accordance with applicable cost settlement procedures. (d) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that the Secretaries should carry out reciprocal fire suppression cost-share agreement repayments to local fire suppression organizations and State wildland firefighting agencies as soon as practicable, but not later than 1 year, after the date on which the applicable fire suppression occurs.