FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

SEC. 102. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. (a) Findings.—Congress finds that— (1) on May 4, 2000, the National Park Service initiated a prescribed burn on Federal land at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico during the peak of the fire season in the Southwest; (2) on May 5, 2000, the prescribed burn, which became known as the “Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire”, exceeded the containment capabilities of the National Park Service, was reclassified as a wildland burn, and spread to other Federal and non-Federal land, quickly becoming characterized as a wildfire; (3) by May 7, 2000, the fire had grown in size and caused evacuations in and around Los Alamos, New Mexico, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the leading national research laboratories in the United States and the birthplace of the atomic bomb; (4) on May 13, 2000, the President issued a major disaster declaration for the counties of Bernalillo, Cibola, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Taos, and Torrance, New Mexico; (5) the fire resulted in the loss of Federal, State, local, tribal, and private property; (6) the Secretary of the Interior and the National Park Service have assumed responsibility for the fire and subsequent losses of property; and (7) the United States should compensate the victims of the Cerro Grande fire. (b) Purposes.—The purposes of this title are— (1) to compensate victims of the fire at Cerro Grande, New Mexico, for injuries resulting from the fire; and (2) to provide for the expeditious consideration and settlement of claims for those injuries.