I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1943
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for special base rates
of pay for wildland firefighters, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. N
EGUSE(for himself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. HARDERof California, Mr.
B
ERGMAN, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. CISCOMANI, Ms. LEEof Nevada, Mr.
B
ACON, Mr. COSTA, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. WHITESIDES, and Mrs. KIM) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Over-
sight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on
Natural Resources, and Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for special
base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wildland Firefighter 4
Paycheck Protection Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SPECIAL BASE RATES OF PAY FOR WILDLAND FIRE-1
FIGHTERS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 53 of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 4
section 5332 the following: 5
‘‘§ 5332a. Special base rates of pay for wildland fire-6
fighters 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
‘‘(1) the term ‘firefighter’ means an employee 9
who— 10
‘‘(A) is a firefighter within the meaning of 11
section 8331(21) or section 8401(14); 12
‘‘(B) in the case of an employee who holds 13
a supervisory or administrative position and is 14
subject to subchapter III of chapter 83, but 15
who does not qualify to be considered a fire-16
fighter within the meaning of section 8331(21), 17
would otherwise qualify if the employee had 18
transferred directly to that position after serv-19
ing as a firefighter within the meaning of that 20
section; 21
‘‘(C) in the case of an employee who holds 22
a supervisory or administrative position and is 23
subject to chapter 84, but who does not qualify 24
to be considered a firefighter within the mean-25
ing of section 8401(14), would otherwise qualify 26
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if the employee had transferred directly to that 1
position after performing duties described in 2
section 8401(14)(A) for at least 3 years; or 3
‘‘(D) in the case of an employee who is not 4
subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chap-5
ter 84, holds a position that the Office of Per-6
sonnel Management determines would satisfy 7
subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) if the employee 8
were subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or 9
chapter 84; 10
‘‘(2) the term ‘General Schedule base rate’ 11
means an annual rate of basic pay established under 12
section 5332 before any additions, such as a locality- 13
based comparability payment under section 5304 or 14
5304a or a special rate supplement under section 15
5305; 16
‘‘(3) the term ‘special base rate’ means an an-17
nual rate of basic pay payable to a wildland fire-18
fighter, before any additions or reductions, that re-19
places the General Schedule base rate otherwise ap-20
plicable to the wildland firefighter and that is ad-21
ministered in the same manner as a General Sched-22
ule base rate; and 23
‘‘(4) the term ‘wildland firefighter’ means a 24
firefighter— 25
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‘‘(A) who is employed by the Forest Serv-1
ice or the Department of the Interior; and 2
‘‘(B) the duties of the position of whom re-3
late primarily to wildland fires, as opposed to 4
structure fires. 5
‘‘(b) S
PECIALBASERATES OFPAY.— 6
‘‘(1) E
NTITLEMENT TO SPECIAL RATE .—Not-7
withstanding section 5332, a wildland firefighter is 8
entitled to a special base rate at grades 1 through 9
15, which shall— 10
‘‘(A) replace the otherwise applicable Gen-11
eral Schedule base rate for the wildland fire-12
fighter; 13
‘‘(B) be basic pay for all purposes, includ-14
ing the purpose of computing a locality-based 15
comparability payment under section 5304 or 16
5304a; and 17
‘‘(C) be computed as described in para-18
graph (2) and adjusted at the time of adjust-19
ments in the General Schedule. 20
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The special base rate 22
for a wildland firefighter shall be derived by in-23
creasing the otherwise applicable General 24
Schedule base rate for the wildland firefighter 25
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by the following applicable percentage for the 1
grade of the wildland firefighter and rounding 2
the result to the nearest whole dollar: 3
‘‘(i) For GS–1, 42 percent. 4
‘‘(ii) For GS–2, 39 percent. 5
‘‘(iii) For GS–3, 36 percent. 6
‘‘(iv) For GS–4, 33 percent. 7
‘‘(v) For GS–5, 30 percent. 8
‘‘(vi) For GS–6, 27 percent. 9
‘‘(vii) For GS–7, 24 percent. 10
‘‘(viii) For GS–8, 21 percent. 11
‘‘(ix) For GS–9, 18 percent. 12
‘‘(x) For GS–10, 15 percent. 13
‘‘(xi) For GS–11, 12 percent. 14
‘‘(xii) For GS–12, 9 percent. 15
‘‘(xiii) For GS–13, 6 percent. 16
‘‘(xiv) For GS–14, 3 percent. 17
‘‘(xv) For GS–15, 1.5 percent. 18
‘‘(B) H
OURLY, DAILY, WEEKLY, OR BI-19
WEEKLY RATES.—When the special base rate 20
with respect to a wildland firefighter is ex-21
pressed as an hourly, daily, weekly, or biweekly 22
rate, the special base rate shall be computed 23
from the appropriate annual rate of basic pay 24
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derived under subparagraph (A) in accordance 1
with the rules under section 5504(b).’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3
for subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States 4
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 5
section 5332 the following: 6
‘‘5332a. Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters.’’.
(c) PREVAILINGRATEEMPLOYEES.—Section 5343 7
of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at 8
the end the following: 9
‘‘(g)(1) For a prevailing rate employee described in 10
section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a wildland firefighter, as de-11
fined in section 5332a(a), the Secretary of Agriculture or 12
the Secretary of the Interior (as applicable) shall increase 13
the wage rates of that employee by an amount (determined 14
at the sole and exclusive discretion of the applicable Sec-15
retary after consultation with the other Secretary) that is 16
generally consistent with the percentage increases given 17
to wildland firefighters in the General Schedule under sec-18
tion 5332a. 19
‘‘(2) An increased wage rate under paragraph (1) 20
shall be basic pay for the same purposes as the wage rate 21
otherwise established under this section. 22
‘‘(3) An increase under this subsection may not cause 23
the wage rate of an employee to increase to a rate that 24
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would produce an annualized rate in excess of the annual 1
rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule.’’. 2
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 4
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 5
last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-6
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-7
ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 8
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 9
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 10
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 11
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 12
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-13
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 14
SEC. 3. WILDLAND FIRE INCIDENT RESPONSE PREMIUM 15
PAY. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter V of chapter 55 of 17
title 5, United Sates Code, is amended by inserting after 18
section 5545b the following: 19
‘‘§ 5545c. Incident response premium pay for employ-20
ees engaged in wildland firefighting 21
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 22
‘‘(1) the term ‘appropriate committees of Con-23
gress’ means— 24
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‘‘(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 1
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 2
‘‘(B) the Committee on Energy and Nat-3
ural Resources of the Senate; 4
‘‘(C) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-5
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 6
‘‘(D) the Committee on Appropriations of 7
the Senate; 8
‘‘(E) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-9
countability of the House of Representatives; 10
‘‘(F) the Committee on Agriculture of the 11
House of Representatives; 12
‘‘(G) the Committee on Natural Resources 13
of the House of Representatives; and 14
‘‘(H) the Committee on Appropriations of 15
the House of Representatives; 16
‘‘(2) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-17
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 18
the Interior who is— 19
‘‘(A) a wildland firefighter, as defined in 20
section 5332a(a); or 21
‘‘(B) certified by the applicable agency to 22
perform wildland fire incident-related duties 23
during the period that employee is deployed to 24
respond to a qualifying incident; 25
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‘‘(3) the term ‘incident response premium pay’ 1
means pay to which a covered employee is entitled 2
under subsection (c); 3
‘‘(4) the term ‘prescribed fire incident’ means a 4
wildland fire originating from a planned ignition in 5
accordance with applicable laws, policies, and regula-6
tions to meet specific objectives; 7
‘‘(5) the term ‘qualifying incident’— 8
‘‘(A) means— 9
‘‘(i) a wildfire incident, a prescribed 10
fire incident, or a severity incident; or 11
‘‘(ii) an incident that the Secretary of 12
Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior 13
determines is similar in nature to an inci-14
dent described in clause (i); and 15
‘‘(B) does not include an initial response 16
(including an initial attack fire) in which a 17
wildfire is contained within 36 hours; and 18
‘‘(6) the term ‘severity incident’ means an inci-19
dent in which a covered employee is pre-positioned 20
in an area in which conditions indicate there is a 21
high risk of wildfires. 22
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBILITY.—A covered employee is eligible for 23
incident response premium pay under this section if— 24
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‘‘(1) the covered employee is deployed to re-1
spond to a qualifying incident; and 2
‘‘(2) the deployment described in paragraph (1) 3
is— 4
‘‘(A) outside of the official duty station of 5
the covered employee; or 6
‘‘(B) within the official duty station of the 7
covered employee and the covered employee is 8
assigned to an incident-adjacent fire camp or 9
other designated field location. 10
‘‘(c) E
NTITLEMENT TO INCIDENTRESPONSEPRE-11
MIUMPAY.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A covered employee who 13
satisfies the conditions under subsection (b) is enti-14
tled to premium pay for the period in which the cov-15
ered employee is deployed to respond to the applica-16
ble qualifying incident. 17
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 18
‘‘(A) F
ORMULA.—Subject to subpara-19
graphs (B) and (C), premium pay under para-20
graph (1) shall be paid to a covered employee 21
at a daily rate of 450 percent of the hourly rate 22
of basic pay of the covered employee for each 23
day that the covered employee satisfies the re-24
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quirements under subsection (b), rounded to 1
the nearest whole cent. 2
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—Premium pay under 3
this subsection— 4
‘‘(i) with respect to a covered em-5
ployee for whom the annual rate of basic 6
pay is greater than that for step 10 of GS– 7
10, shall be paid at the daily rate estab-8
lished under subparagraph (A) for the ap-9
plicable rate for step 10 of GS–10 (where 10
the applicable rate is the rate in effect in 11
the same locality that is the basis for a lo-12
cality-based comparability payment payable 13
to the covered employee under section 14
5304); and 15
‘‘(ii) may not be paid to a covered em-16
ployee in a total amount that exceeds 17
$9,000 in any calendar year. 18
‘‘(C) A
DJUSTMENTS.— 19
‘‘(i) A
SSESSMENT.—The Secretary of 20
Agriculture and the Secretary of the Inte-21
rior shall assess the difference between the 22
average total amount of compensation that 23
was paid to covered employees, by grade, 24
in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. 25
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‘‘(ii) REPORT.—Not later than 180 1
days after the date that is 1 year after the 2
effective date of this section, the Secretary 3
of Agriculture and the Secretary of the In-4
terior shall jointly publish a report on the 5
results of the assessment conducted under 6
clause (i). 7
‘‘(iii) A
DMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS .— 8
After publishing the report required under 9
clause (ii), the Secretary of Agriculture 10
and the Secretary of the Interior, in con-11
sultation with the Director of the Office of 12
Personnel Management, may, in the sole 13
and exclusive discretion of the Secretaries 14
acting jointly, administratively adjust the 15
amount of premium pay paid under this 16
subsection (or take other administrative 17
action) to ensure that the average annual 18
amount of total compensation paid to cov-19
ered employees, by grade, is more con-20
sistent with such amount that was paid to 21
those employees in fiscal year 2023. 22
‘‘(iv) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICA -23
TION.—Not later than 3 days after an ad-24
justment made, or other administrative ac-25
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tion taken, under clause (iii) becomes final, 1
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-2
retary of the Interior shall jointly submit 3
to the appropriate committees of Congress 4
a notification regarding that adjustment or 5
other administrative action, as applicable. 6
‘‘(d) T
REATMENT OFINCIDENTRESPONSEPREMIUM 7
P
AY.—Incident response premium pay under this sec-8
tion— 9
‘‘(1) is not considered part of the basic pay of 10
a covered employee for any purpose; 11
‘‘(2) may not be considered in determining the 12
lump-sum payment of a covered employee for accu-13
mulated and accrued annual leave under section 14
5551 or section 5552; 15
‘‘(3) may not be used in determining pay under 16
section 8114; 17
‘‘(4) may not be considered in determining pay 18
for hours of paid leave or other paid time off during 19
which the premium pay is not payable; and 20
‘‘(5) shall be disregarded in determining the 21
minimum wage and overtime pay to which a covered 22
employee is entitled under the Fair Labor Standards 23
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.).’’. 24
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(b) ADDITIONALPREMIUMPAYAMENDMENTS.— 1
Subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, 2
is amended— 3
(1) in section 5544— 4
(A) by amending the section heading to 5
read as follows: ‘‘
WAGE-BOARD OVERTIME , 6
SUNDAY RATES , AND OTHER PREMIUM 7
PAY’’; and 8
(B) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(d) A prevailing rate employee described in section 10
5342(a)(2)(A) shall receive incident response premium 11
pay under the same terms and conditions that apply to 12
a covered employee under section 5545c if that em-13
ployee— 14
‘‘(1) is employed by the Forest Service or the 15
Department of the Interior; and 16
‘‘(2)(A) is a wildland firefighter, as defined in 17
section 5332a(a); or 18
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency to 19
perform wildland fire incident-related duties during 20
the period the employee is deployed to respond to a 21
qualifying incident (as defined in section 22
5545c(a)).’’; and 23
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(2) in section 5547(a), in the matter preceding 1
paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘5545c,’’ after 2
‘‘5545a,’’. 3
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENTS.—The table of sections 4
for subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States 5
Code, is amended— 6
(1) by amending the item relating to section 7
5544 to read as follows: 8
‘‘5544. Wage-board overtime, Sunday rates, and other premium pay.’’;
and 9
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-10
tion 5545b the following: 11
‘‘5545c. Incident response premium pay for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 12
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 13
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 14
last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-15
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-16
ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 17
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 18
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 19
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 20
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 21
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-22
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 23
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SEC. 4. REST AND RECUPERATION LEAVE FOR EMPLOYEES 1
ENGAGED IN WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 63 of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 4
end the following: 5
‘‘§ 6329e. Rest and recuperation leave for employees 6
engaged in wildland firefighting 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
‘‘(1) the term ‘applicable Secretary’ means the 9
Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the In-10
terior, as applicable to a covered employee; 11
‘‘(2) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-12
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 13
the Interior who— 14
‘‘(A) qualifies as a wildland firefighter 15
based on the definitions of the terms ‘fire-16
fighter’ and ‘wildland firefighter’ in section 17
5332a(a) (applying the definition of ‘employee’ 18
in section 6301(2) in lieu of the definition of 19
‘employee’ in section 5331(a)); or 20
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable Sec-21
retary to perform wildland fire incident-related 22
duties during the period the employee is de-23
ployed to respond to a qualifying incident; and 24
‘‘(3) the term ‘qualifying incident’ has the 25
meaning given the term in section 5545c(a). 26
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‘‘(b) REST ANDRECUPERATIONLEAVE.— 1
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A covered employee may 2
receive paid rest and recuperation leave following the 3
completion of service in which the covered employee 4
is deployed to respond to a qualifying incident, sub-5
ject to the policies prescribed under this subsection. 6
‘‘(2) P
RESCRIPTION OF POLICIES .—The Sec-7
retary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Inte-8
rior shall, in the sole and exclusive discretion of the 9
Secretaries acting jointly, prescribe uniform policies 10
described in paragraph (1) after consulting with the 11
other applicable Secretary. 12
‘‘(3) C
ONTENT OF POLICIES.—The policies pre-13
scribed under paragraph (2) may include— 14
‘‘(A) a maximum period of days in which 15
a covered employee is deployed to respond to a 16
qualifying incident, which shall— 17
‘‘(i) begin on the date on which the 18
covered employee departs from the official 19
duty station of the covered employee and 20
end on the date on which the covered em-21
ployee returns to the official duty station 22
of the covered employee; and 23
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‘‘(ii) be followed by a minimum num-1
ber of days of rest and recuperation for the 2
covered employee; or 3
‘‘(B) a requirement that prohibits a cov-4
ered employee from working more than 16 5
hours per day on average over a 14-day period 6
during which the covered employee is deployed 7
to respond to a qualifying incident. 8
‘‘(c) U
SE OFLEAVE.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Rest and recuperation 10
leave granted under this section— 11
‘‘(A) shall be used during scheduled hours 12
within the tour of duty of the applicable covered 13
employee established for leave-charging pur-14
poses; 15
‘‘(B) shall be paid in the same manner as 16
annual leave; 17
‘‘(C) shall be used immediately after a 18
qualifying incident; and 19
‘‘(D) may not be set aside for later use. 20
‘‘(2) N
O PAYMENT.—A covered employee may 21
not receive any payment for unused rest and recu-22
peration leave granted under this section. 23
‘‘(d) I
NTERMITTENT WORKSCHEDULE.—A covered 24
employee with an intermittent work schedule— 25
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‘‘(1) shall be excused from duty during the 1
same period of time that other covered employees in 2
the same circumstances are entitled to rest and re-3
cuperation leave; and 4
‘‘(2) shall receive a payment as if the covered 5
employee were entitled to rest and recuperation leave 6
under subsection (b).’’. 7
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 8
The table of sections for subchapter II of chapter 63 of 9
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 10
the item relating to section 6329d the following: 11
‘‘6329e. Rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
SECTION 5. TRANSFER AUTHORITY.
12
Notwithstanding section 40803(c)(2) of the Infra-13
structure Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 14
6592(c)(2)), not more than $5,000,000 of the unobligated 15
balances of amounts made available under the heading 16
‘‘
WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT ’’ under the heading 17
‘‘F
ORESTSERVICE’’ under the heading ‘‘DEPARTMENT 18
OF AGRICULTURE’’ in title VI of division J of that Act 19
(Public Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 1410) pursuant to section 20
40803(c)(2)(B) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(c)(2)(B)) 21
may, as necessary to continue uninterrupted the Federal 22
wildland firefighter base salary increase described in sec-23
tion 40803(d)(4)(B) of that Act (16 U.S.C. 24
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6592(d)(4)(B)), be transferred to and merged with the 1
amounts made available under the heading ‘‘
WILDLAND 2
FIRE MANAGEMENT ’’ under the heading ‘‘DEPARTMENT- 3
WIDEPROGRAMS’’ under the heading ‘‘DEPARTMENT 4
OF THE INTERIOR’’ in title VI of division J of that 5
Act (Public Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 1393). 6
Æ
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