I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 743
To reform and enhance the pay and benefits of Federal wildland firefighters,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. N
EGUSE(for himself, Mr. HARDERof California, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms.
P
ETTERSEN, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. STANSBURY, Ms. HOYLEof Oregon, Ms.
B
ROWNLEY, Mr. BACON, and Mr. LEVIN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Re-
form, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To reform and enhance the pay and benefits of Federal
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; DEFINITIONS; TABLE OF CON-3
TENTS. 4
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 5
‘‘Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay 6
Parity Act’’ or ‘‘Tim’s Act’’. 7
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(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 1
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 2
the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 3
(2) F
EDERAL WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER .—The 4
term ‘‘Federal wildland firefighter’’ means any tem-5
porary, seasonal, or permanent position at the De-6
partment of Agriculture or the Department of the 7
Interior, and Tribal Firefighters, that maintains 8
group, emergency incident management, or fire 9
qualifications, as established annually by the Stand-10
ards for Wildland Fire Position Qualifications pub-11
lished by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, 12
and primarily engages in or supports wildland fire 13
management activities, including forestry and range-14
land technicians and positions concerning aviation, 15
engineering heavy equipment operations, dispatch, or 16
fire and fuels management. 17
(3) S
ECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 18
means the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-19
retary of the Interior. 20
(c) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 21
this Act is as follows: 22
Sec. 1. Short title; definitions; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters.
Sec. 3. Wildland fire incident response premium pay.
Sec. 4. Special limitations on pay for wildland firefighters.
Sec. 5. Rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.
Sec. 6. Health provisions.
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Sec. 7. Retirement for firefighters.
Sec. 8. Pay parity for Federal structural firefighters.
Sec. 9. Pay adjustments and other matters.
Sec. 10. Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program.
Sec. 11. Continuing accrual of service for Firefighters.
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
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subject to chapter 84, but who does not qualify 1
to be considered a firefighter within the mean-2
ing of section 8401(14), would otherwise qualify 3
if the employee had transferred directly to that 4
position after performing duties described in 5
section 8401(14)(A) for at least 3 years; or 6
‘‘(D) in the case of an employee who is not 7
subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chap-8
ter 84, holds a position that the Office of Per-9
sonnel Management determines would satisfy 10
subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) if the employee 11
were subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or 12
chapter 84; 13
‘‘(2) the term ‘General Schedule base rate’ 14
means an annual rate of basic pay established under 15
section 5332 before any additions, such as a locality- 16
based comparability payment under section 5304 or 17
5304a or a special rate supplement under section 18
5305; 19
‘‘(3) the term ‘special base rate’ means an an-20
nual rate of basic pay payable to a wildland fire-21
fighter, before any additions or reductions, that re-22
places the General Schedule base rate otherwise ap-23
plicable to the wildland firefighter and that is ad-24
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ministered in the same manner as a General Sched-1
ule base rate; and 2
‘‘(4) the term ‘wildland firefighter’ means any 3
temporary, seasonal, or permanent position at the 4
Department of Agriculture or the Department of the 5
Interior, or Tribal Firefighters, that maintains 6
group, emergency incident management, or fire 7
qualifications, as established annually by the Stand-8
ards for Wildland Fire Position Qualifications pub-9
lished by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, 10
and primarily engages in or supports wildland fire 11
management activities, including forestry and range-12
land technicians and positions concerning aviation, 13
engineering heavy equipment operations, dispatch, 14
training, development and technology, or fire and 15
fuels management. 16
‘‘(b) S
PECIALBASERATES OFPAY.— 17
‘‘(1) E
NTITLEMENT TO SPECIAL RATE .—Not-18
withstanding section 5332, a wildland firefighter is 19
entitled to a special base rate at grades 1 through 20
15, which shall— 21
‘‘(A) replace the otherwise applicable Gen-22
eral Schedule base rate for the wildland fire-23
fighter; 24
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‘‘(B) be basic pay for all purposes, includ-1
ing the purpose of computing a locality-based 2
comparability payment under section 5304 or 3
5304a; and 4
‘‘(C) be computed as described in para-5
graph (2) and adjusted at the time of adjust-6
ments in the General Schedule. 7
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The special base rate 9
for a wildland firefighter shall be derived by in-10
creasing the otherwise applicable General 11
Schedule base rate for the wildland firefighter 12
by the following applicable percentage for the 13
grade of the wildland firefighter and rounding 14
the result to the nearest whole dollar: 15
‘‘(i) For GS–1, 42 percent. 16
‘‘(ii) For GS–2, 39 percent. 17
‘‘(iii) For GS–3, 36 percent. 18
‘‘(iv) For GS–4, 33 percent. 19
‘‘(v) For GS–5, 30 percent. 20
‘‘(vi) For GS–6, 27 percent. 21
‘‘(vii) For GS–7, 24 percent. 22
‘‘(viii) For GS–8, 21 percent. 23
‘‘(ix) For GS–9, 18 percent. 24
‘‘(x) For GS–10, 15 percent. 25
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‘‘(xi) For GS–11, 12 percent. 1
‘‘(xii) For GS–12, 9 percent. 2
‘‘(xiii) For GS–13, 6 percent. 3
‘‘(xiv) For GS–14, 3 percent. 4
‘‘(xv) For GS–15, 1.5 percent. 5
‘‘(B) H
OURLY, DAILY, WEEKLY, OR BI-6
WEEKLY RATES.—When the special base rate 7
with respect to a wildland firefighter is ex-8
pressed as an hourly, daily, weekly, or biweekly 9
rate, the special base rate shall be computed 10
from the appropriate annual rate of basic pay 11
derived under subparagraph (A) in accordance 12
with the rules under section 5504(b).’’. 13
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 14
for subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States 15
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 16
section 5332 the following: 17
‘‘5332a. Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters.’’.
(c) PREVAILINGRATEEMPLOYEES.—Section 5343 18
of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at 19
the end the following: 20
‘‘(g)(1) For a prevailing rate employee described in 21
section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a wildland firefighter, as de-22
fined in section 5332a(a), the Secretary of Agriculture or 23
the Secretary of the Interior (as applicable) shall increase 24
the wage rates of that employee by an amount (determined 25
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at the sole and exclusive discretion of the applicable Sec-1
retary after consultation with the other Secretary) that is 2
generally consistent with the percentage increases given 3
to wildland firefighters in the General Schedule under sec-4
tion 5332a. 5
‘‘(2) An increased wage rate under paragraph (1) 6
shall be basic pay for the same purposes as the wage rate 7
otherwise established under this section. 8
‘‘(3) An increase under this subsection may not cause 9
the wage rate of an employee to increase to a rate that 10
would produce an annualized rate in excess of the annual 11
rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule.’’. 12
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 13
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 14
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 15
last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-16
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-17
ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 18
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 19
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 20
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 21
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 22
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-23
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 24
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SEC. 3. WILDLAND FIRE INCIDENT RESPONSE PREMIUM 1
PAY. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter V of chapter 55 of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 4
section 5545b the following: 5
‘‘§ 5545c. Incident response premium pay for employ-6
ees engaged in wildland firefighting 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
‘‘(1) the term ‘appropriate committees of Con-9
gress’ means— 10
‘‘(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 11
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 12
‘‘(B) the Committee on Energy and Nat-13
ural Resources of the Senate; 14
‘‘(C) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-15
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 16
‘‘(D) the Committee on Appropriations of 17
the Senate; 18
‘‘(E) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-19
ernment Reform; 20
‘‘(F) the Committee on Agriculture of the 21
House of Representatives; 22
‘‘(G) the Committee on Natural Resources 23
of the House of Representatives; and 24
‘‘(H) the Committee on Appropriations of 25
the House of Representatives; 26
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‘‘(2) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-1
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 2
the Interior who is— 3
‘‘(A) a wildland firefighter, as defined in 4
section 5332a(a); or 5
‘‘(B) certified by the applicable agency to 6
perform wildland fire incident-related duties 7
during the period that employee is deployed to 8
respond to a qualifying incident; 9
‘‘(3) the term ‘incident response premium pay’ 10
means pay to which a covered employee is entitled 11
under subsection (c); 12
‘‘(4) the term ‘prescribed fire incident’ means a 13
wildland fire originating from a planned ignition in 14
accordance with applicable laws, policies, and regula-15
tions to meet specific objectives; 16
‘‘(5) the term ‘qualifying incident’— 17
‘‘(A) means— 18
‘‘(i) a wildfire incident, a prescribed 19
fire incident, or a severity incident; or 20
‘‘(ii) an incident that the Secretary of 21
Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior 22
determines is similar in nature to an inci-23
dent described in clause (i); and 24
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‘‘(B) does not include an initial response 1
(including an initial attack fire) in which a 2
wildfire is contained within 36 hours; and 3
‘‘(6) the term ‘severity incident’ means an inci-4
dent in which a covered employee is pre-positioned 5
in an area in which conditions indicate there is a 6
high risk of wildfires. 7
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBILITY.—A covered employee is eligible for 8
incident response premium pay under this section if— 9
‘‘(1) the covered employee is deployed to re-10
spond to a qualifying incident; and 11
‘‘(2) the deployment described in paragraph (1) 12
is— 13
‘‘(A) outside of the official duty station of 14
the covered employee; or 15
‘‘(B) within the official duty station of the 16
covered employee and the covered employee is 17
assigned to an incident-adjacent fire camp or 18
other designated field location. 19
‘‘(c) E
NTITLEMENT TO INCIDENTRESPONSEPRE-20
MIUMPAY.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A covered employee who 22
satisfies the conditions under subsection (b) is enti-23
tled to premium pay for the period in which the cov-24
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ered employee is deployed to respond to the applica-1
ble qualifying incident. 2
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 3
‘‘(A) F
ORMULA.—Subject to subpara-4
graphs (B) and (C), premium pay under para-5
graph (1) shall be paid to a covered employee 6
at a daily rate of 450 percent of the hourly rate 7
of basic pay of the covered employee for each 8
day that the covered employee satisfies the re-9
quirements under subsection (b), rounded to 10
the nearest whole cent. 11
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—Premium pay under 12
this subsection— 13
‘‘(i) with respect to a covered em-14
ployee for whom the annual rate of basic 15
pay is greater than that for step 10 of GS– 16
10, shall be paid at the daily rate estab-17
lished under subparagraph (A) for the ap-18
plicable rate for step 10 of GS–10 (where 19
the applicable rate is the rate in effect in 20
the same locality that is the basis for a lo-21
cality-based comparability payment payable 22
to the covered employee under section 23
5304); and 24
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‘‘(ii) may not be paid to a covered em-1
ployee in a total amount that exceeds 2
$9,000 in any calendar year. 3
‘‘(C) A
DJUSTMENTS.— 4
‘‘(i) A
SSESSMENT.—The Secretary of 5
Agriculture and the Secretary of the Inte-6
rior shall assess the difference between the 7
average total amount of compensation that 8
was paid to covered employees, by grade, 9
in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. 10
‘‘(ii) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 11
days after the date that is 1 year after the 12
effective date of this section, the Secretary 13
of Agriculture and the Secretary of the In-14
terior shall jointly publish a report on the 15
results of the assessment conducted under 16
clause (i). 17
‘‘(iii) A
DMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS .— 18
After publishing the report required under 19
clause (ii), the Secretary of Agriculture 20
and the Secretary of the Interior, in con-21
sultation with the Director of the Office of 22
Personnel Management, may, in the sole 23
and exclusive discretion of the Secretaries 24
acting jointly, administratively adjust the 25
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amount of premium pay paid under this 1
subsection (or take other administrative 2
action) to ensure that the average annual 3
amount of total compensation paid to cov-4
ered employees, by grade, is more con-5
sistent with such amount that was paid to 6
those employees in fiscal year 2023. 7
‘‘(iv) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICA -8
TION.—Not later than 3 days after an ad-9
justment made, or other administrative ac-10
tion taken, under clause (iii) becomes final, 11
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-12
retary of the Interior shall jointly submit 13
to the appropriate committees of Congress 14
a notification regarding that adjustment or 15
other administrative action, as applicable. 16
‘‘(d) T
REATMENT OFINCIDENTRESPONSEPREMIUM 17
P
AY.—Incident response premium pay under this sec-18
tion— 19
‘‘(1) is not considered part of the basic pay of 20
a covered employee for any purpose; 21
‘‘(2) may not be considered in determining the 22
lump-sum payment of a covered employee for accu-23
mulated and accrued annual leave under section 24
5551 or section 5552; 25
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‘‘(3) may not be used in determining pay under 1
section 8114; 2
‘‘(4) may not be considered in determining pay 3
for hours of paid leave or other paid time off during 4
which the premium pay is not payable; and 5
‘‘(5) shall be disregarded in determining the 6
minimum wage and overtime pay to which a covered 7
employee is entitled under the Fair Labor Standards 8
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.).’’. 9
(b) A
DDITIONALPREMIUMPAYAMENDMENTS.— 10
Subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, 11
is amended— 12
(1) in section 5544— 13
(A) by amending the section heading to 14
read as follows: ‘‘
WAGE-BOARD OVERTIME , 15
SUNDAY RATES , AND OTHER PREMIUM 16
PAY’’; and 17
(B) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(d) A prevailing rate employee described in section 19
5342(a)(2)(A) shall receive incident response premium 20
pay under the same terms and conditions that apply to 21
a covered employee under section 5545c if that em-22
ployee— 23
‘‘(1) is employed by the Forest Service or the 24
Department of the Interior; and 25
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‘‘(2)(A) is a wildland firefighter, as defined in 1
section 5332a(a); or 2
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency to 3
perform wildland fire incident-related duties during 4
the period the employee is deployed to respond to a 5
qualifying incident (as defined in section 6
5545c(a)).’’; and 7
(2) in section 5547(a), in the matter preceding 8
paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘5545c,’’ after 9
‘‘5545a,’’. 10
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENTS.—The table of sections 11
for subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States 12
Code, is amended— 13
(1) by amending the item relating to section 14
5544 to read as follows: 15
‘‘5544. Wage-board overtime, Sunday rates, and other premium pay.’’;
and 16
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-17
tion 5545b the following: 18
‘‘5545c. Incident response premium pay for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 19
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 20
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 21
last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-22
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-23
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ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 1
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 2
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 3
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 4
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 5
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-6
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 7
SEC. 4. SPECIAL LIMITATIONS ON PAY FOR WILDLAND 8
FIREFIGHTERS. 9
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title 5, United States Code, is 10
amended— 11
(1) by inserting after section 5547 the fol-12
lowing: 13
‘‘§ 5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for em-14
ployees engaged in wildland firefighting 15
‘‘(a) In this section— 16
‘‘(1) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-17
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 18
the Interior who— 19
‘‘(A) qualifies as a wildland firefighter 20
based on the definitions of ‘firefighter’ and 21
‘wildland firefighter’ in section 5332a(a); or 22
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency 23
to perform wildland fire incident related duties 24
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during the period such employee is assigned to 1
a qualifying incident; 2
‘‘(2) the term ‘covered services’ means services 3
performed by an employee that are determined by 4
the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Ag-5
riculture, as applicable, to primarily involve emer-6
gency wildfire suppression activities, including any 7
periods of duty when the employee is sleeping or 8
resting during an extended period of deployment to 9
engage in those activities; 10
‘‘(3) the term ‘emergency wildland fire suppres-11
sion activities’ means initial-response and extended- 12
response activities that directly relate to suppression 13
of a wildfire, including activities associated with a 14
severity incident but excluding activities associated 15
with a prescribed fire incident (as those terms are 16
defined section 5545c); and 17
‘‘(4) the term ‘premium pay’ means the pre-18
mium pay paid under the provisions of law cited in 19
section 5547(a), except as otherwise provided in sub-20
section (h). 21
‘‘(b) Any premium pay earned by a covered employee 22
for covered services shall be disregarded in calculating the 23
aggregate of such employee’s basic pay and premium pay 24
for purposes of applying a limitation under section 5547. 25
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‘‘(c) Any premium pay that is disregarded under sub-1
section (b) shall be disregarded in calculating such em-2
ployee’s aggregate pay for purposes of applying the limita-3
tion in section 5307. 4
‘‘(d) Pay that is disregarded under subsection (b) 5
may not be paid to the extent it would cause the aggregate 6
of the employee’s basic pay, premium pay, and hazard pay 7
under section 5545(d) payable in the applicable calendar 8
year to exceed the rate of basic pay payable for a position 9
at level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313, 10
as in effect at the end of such calendar year. Any premium 11
pay that is subject to a biweekly limitation under section 12
5547(c) must be paid first before other premium pay in 13
applying the level II limitation. 14
‘‘(e) Application of the limit in subsection (d) or sub-15
section (h) to a covered employee may be waived at the 16
sole and exclusive discretion of the Secretary of the Inte-17
rior or the Secretary of Agriculture, as applicable. Before 18
authorizing such a waiver for employees of their respective 19
agencies, each Secretary, after consulting with the other 20
Secretary, shall prescribe criteria that will be applied in 21
making a determination to grant a waiver. 22
‘‘(f) Any additional pay resulting from application of 23
this section may not be used in computing a lump-sum 24
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payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave under 1
section 5551 or section 5552. 2
‘‘(g) The Departments of the Interior and Agri-3
culture shall maintain records that document uses of the 4
authority provided by this section. 5
‘‘(h)(1) For prevailing rate employees described in 6
section 5342(a)(2)(A) who meet the requirements in sub-7
section (a)(l) to qualify as a covered employee, premium 8
pay may not be paid to the extent it would cause the ag-9
gregate of the employee’s basic pay and premium pay in 10
the applicable calendar year to exceed the rate of basic 11
pay payable for a position at level II of the Executive 12
Schedule under section 5313, as in effect at the end of 13
such calendar year. 14
‘‘(2) For the purposes of this subsection, the term 15
‘basic pay’ means wages, environmental differential pay, 16
and night shift differential pay, and the term ‘premium 17
pay’ means overtime pay, Sunday premium pay, and holi-18
day premium pay.’’; and 19
(2) in section 5541(2)(xi), by inserting ‘‘, sec-20
tion 5547a(h),’’ after ‘‘section 5544’’. 21
(b) C
ALENDARYEAR2025.—For the purpose of ap-22
plying section 5547 and section 1701 of division B of Pub-23
lic Law 117–43 (5 U.S.C. 5547 note) in calendar year 24
2025, incident standby premium pay shall be included in 25
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premium pay that is subject to the limits established in 1
those sections. 2
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
subsection (a) shall take effect on the first day of the first 4
pay period that has a payment date in January 2026. Sub-5
section (b) shall be effective on the first day of the first 6
applicable pay period beginning on or after October 1, 7
2025. 8
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 9
for chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, is further 10
amended by inserting after the item for section 5547 the 11
following new item: 12
‘‘5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for employees engaged in wildland
firefighting.’’.
SEC. 5. REST AND RECUPERATION LEAVE FOR EMPLOYEES
13
ENGAGED IN WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title 5, United States Code, is 15
amended by inserting after section 6329d the following: 16
‘‘§ 6329e. Rest and recuperation leave for employees 17
engaged in wildland firefighting 18
‘‘(a) In this section— 19
‘‘(1) the term ‘applicable Secretary’ means the 20
Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the In-21
terior; 22
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‘‘(2) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-1
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 2
the Interior who— 3
‘‘(A) qualifies as a ‘wildland firefighter’ 4
based on the definitions of ‘firefighter’ and 5
‘wildland firefighter’ in section 5332a(a) (apply-6
ing the definition of ‘employee’ in section 7
6301(2) in lieu of the definition of ‘employee’ in 8
section 5331(a)); or 9
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency 10
to perform wildland fire incident related duties 11
during the period such employee is assigned to 12
a qualifying incident; and 13
‘‘(3) the term ‘qualifying incident’ has the 14
meaning given that term in section 5545c(a)(5). 15
‘‘(b) A covered employee may receive paid rest and 16
recuperation leave following the completion of service 17
under a qualifying incident, subject to policies established 18
at the sole and exclusive discretion of the Secretary of the 19
Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior, as applicable. 20
Each Secretary shall prescribe such policies after con-21
sulting with the other Secretary. 22
‘‘(c) Rest and recuperation leave granted under this 23
section shall be used during scheduled hours within the 24
covered employee’s tour of duty established for leave- 25
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charging purposes and shall be paid in the same manner 1
as annual leave. Rest and recuperation leave must be used 2
immediately after a qualifying incident and may not be 3
set aside for later use. A covered employee may not receive 4
any payment for unused rest and recuperation leave. 5
‘‘(d) A covered employee with an intermittent work 6
schedule shall be excused from duty during the same pe-7
riod of time that other covered employees in the same cir-8
cumstances are entitled to rest and recuperation leave and 9
shall receive a payment as if the covered employee with 10
an intermittent work schedule were entitled to rest and 11
recuperation leave under subsections (b) and (c).’’. 12
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 13
subsection (a) shall be effective on the first day of the 14
first applicable pay period beginning on or after October 15
1, 2025. 16
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 17
for subchapter II of chapter 63 of title 5, United States 18
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 19
section 6329d the following new item: 20
‘‘6329e. Rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
SEC. 6. HEALTH PROVISIONS.
21
(a) D
ATABASE; RECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later than 22
one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secre-23
taries shall— 24
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(1) establish and maintain a publicly accessible, 1
searchable database on a website, to be called the 2
‘‘Federal Wildland Firefighter Cancer and Cardio-3
vascular Disease Database’’, to track chronic disease 4
caused by on-the-job environmental exposure over 5
the lifetimes of current and former Federal wildland 6
firefighters; 7
(2) update such database not less than on a 8
yearly basis; and 9
(3) develop and adhere to recommendations on 10
mitigation strategies to minimize exposure to envi-11
ronmental hazards for Federal wildland firefighters. 12
(b) M
ENTALHEALTH.— 13
(1) M
ENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM .—Not later 14
than January 1, 2026, the Secretaries shall establish 15
and carry out a program for Federal wildland fire-16
fighters for mental health awareness and support. 17
Such program shall include the following: 18
(A) A mental health awareness campaign. 19
(B) A mental health education and train-20
ing program that includes an on-boarding cur-21
riculum. 22
(C) An extensive peer-to-peer mental 23
health support network for Federal wildland 24
firefighters and their immediate family. 25
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(D) Expansion of the Critical Incident 1
Stress Management Program, to develop and 2
retain a larger pool of qualified mental health 3
professionals who are familiar with the experi-4
ences of the emergency response workforce. The 5
Program shall monitor and track mental health 6
in the profession to better understand the scope 7
of the issue and provide ongoing assistance and 8
professional long-term care to patients. 9
(E) Establish and carry out a new and dis-10
tinct mental health support service specific to 11
Federal wildland firefighters and their imme-12
diate family, with culturally relevant and trau-13
ma informed mental health professionals who 14
are readily available, and not subject to any 15
limit on the number of sessions or service pro-16
vided. 17
(2) M
ENTAL HEALTH LEAVE .—Each Federal 18
wildland firefighter shall be entitled to 7 consecutive 19
days of leave, without loss or reduction in pay, dur-20
ing any calendar year. Leave provided under this 21
paragraph shall not— 22
(A) accumulate for use in succeeding 23
years; and 24
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(B) be considered to be annual or vacation 1
leave for purposes of section 5551 or 5552 of 2
title 5, United States Code, or for any other 3
purpose. 4
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out subsections (a) 5
and (b), the Secretaries may enter into partnerships or 6
cooperative agreements with other Federal agencies, uni-7
versities, or non-profit institutions. 8
(d) OWCP.—The Office of Workers’ Compensation 9
Programs within the Department of Labor shall— 10
(1) recognize post-traumatic stress disorder and 11
psychological stress-related injuries or illnesses cor-12
related to fire protection, suppression, and incident 13
support activities, and ensure long-term coverage for 14
the duration of the illnesses; and 15
(2) expand the Special Claims Unit to ensure 16
adequate unit staffing levels are sufficient to expe-17
dite the claims process and shorten response times 18
to wildland firefighter and incident support per-19
sonnel injured or effected on the job in order to al-20
leviate the psychological and financial burdens 21
placed on the patient and their families. 22
SEC. 7. RETIREMENT FOR FIREFIGHTERS. 23
(a) D
EPOSITSERVICE.—Notwithstanding any other 24
provision of law, any service performed by an individual 25
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as a Federal wildland firefighter on or after January 1, 1
1989, for which retirement deductions under chapter 84 2
of title 5, United States Code, have not been made shall 3
be creditable under such chapter, but only if such fire-4
fighter— 5
(1) submits a written election to the Director; 6
and 7
(2) the deposit requirements of section 8411(f) 8
of such title had been met with respect to such serv-9
ice. 10
(b) D
ISABILITYANNUITY.—Beginning on the date of 11
enactment of this Act, any Federal wildland firefighter 12
who suffers from a disease described in section 13
8143b(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, due to environ-14
mental job-related exposure, including smoke inhalation, 15
silicate inhalation, and firefighting toxic exposure, shall be 16
considered to be disabled for purposes of section 8451 of 17
such title. Such section 8451 shall be applied to any such 18
firefighter by substituting ‘‘12 months’’ for ‘‘18 months’’. 19
(c) I
NCLUDINGOVERTIME ASBASICPAY.—Section 20
8331(3) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 21
(1) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 22
the end; 23
(2) in subparagraph (I), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 24
after the semicolon; 25
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(3) by inserting after subparagraph (I) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(J) with respect to a Federal wildland 3
firefighter (as that term is defined in section 4
1(b) of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter 5
Classification and Pay Parity Act), overtime 6
pay received on or after the date of enactment 7
of this subparagraph;’’; and 8
(4) in the undesignated matter following sub-9
paragraph (J) (as added by paragraph (3)), by strik-10
ing ‘‘subparagraphs (B) through (I) of this para-11
graph’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (B) through 12
(J) of this paragraph,’’. 13
(d) S
EPARATENORMAL-COSTPERCENTAGE.—Sec-14
tion 8423(a)(1)(B)(i) of title 5, United States Code, is 15
amended by inserting after ‘‘firefighters,’’ the following: 16
‘‘Federal wildland firefighter (as that term is defined in 17
section 1 of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classifica-18
tion and Pay Parity Act),’’. 19
SEC. 8. PAY PARITY FOR FEDERAL STRUCTURAL FIRE-20
FIGHTERS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 22
date of enactment of this Act, any pay, benefits, and bo-23
nuses provided to any Federal structural firefighter shall 24
be comparable with the pay, benefits, and bonuses pro-25
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vided for Federal wildland firefighters under this Act and 1
the amendments made by this Act. Not later than 1 year 2
after the date the pay scale is established under section 3
5332a of title 5, United States Code, as added by section 4
2 of this Act, the Director shall submit a report to Con-5
gress on whether pay for such Federal structural fire-6
fighters is competitive with Federal wildland firefighters. 7
(b) F
EDERALSTRUCTURAL FIREFIGHTER DE-8
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘Federal structural fire-9
fighter’’— 10
(1) has the meaning given the term ‘‘fire-11
fighter’’ in section 8401 of chapter 84 of title 5, 12
United States Code; and 13
(2) does not include any Federal wildland fire-14
fighter. 15
SEC. 9. PAY ADJUSTMENTS AND OTHER MATTERS. 16
(a) A
NNUALADJUSTMENTS.—Notwithstanding any 17
other provision of law, beginning in the first pay period 18
beginning on or after the date that the pay scale is estab-19
lished under section 5332a of title 5, United States Code, 20
as added by section 2 of this Act, and annually thereafter, 21
the basic rate of pay for each Federal wildland firefighter 22
occupying a position within such pay scale shall be in-23
creased by not less than the percentage equal to the per-24
cent change in the Consumer Price Index (all items— 25
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United States city average), published monthly by the Bu-1
reau of Labor Statistics, for December of the preceding 2
year over such Consumer Price Index for the December 3
of the year prior to the preceding year, adjusted to the 4
nearest one-tenth of 1 percent. 5
(b) C
OMPENSATIONCOMPARABLE TONON-FEDERAL 6
F
IREFIGHTERS.—Not later than 1 year after the date the 7
pay scale is established under section 5332a of title 5, 8
United States Code, as added by section 2 of this Act, 9
the Secretaries shall submit a report to Congress on 10
whether pay, benefits, and bonuses provided to Federal 11
wildland firefighters are comparable to the pay, benefits, 12
and bonuses provided for non-Federal firefighters in the 13
State or locality where Federal wildland firefighters are 14
based. 15
(c) H
AZARDOUSDUTYPAY.—Each Federal wildland 16
firefighter carrying out work completed during prescribed 17
fire, parachuting, tree climbing over 20 feet, hazard tree 18
removal, and other hazardous work as identified by the 19
Secretaries, shall be entitled to be paid the appropriate 20
differential under section 5545(d) of title 5, United States 21
Code, as if such employee was covered by such section. 22
The Director may prescribe regulations to carry out this 23
subsection. 24
(d) O
THERMATTERS.— 25
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(1) RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION BONUS .— 1
In order to promote the recruitment and retention of 2
Federal wildland firefighters, the Director, in coordi-3
nation with the Secretaries, shall establish a pro-4
gram under which a recruitment or retention bonus 5
of not less than $1,000 may be paid to a Federal 6
wildland firefighter in an amount as determined ap-7
propriate by the Director and the Secretaries. The 8
minimum amount of such bonus in the previous sen-9
tence shall be increased each year by the Consumer 10
Price Index in the manner prescribed under sub-11
section (a). Any bonus under this subsection— 12
(A) shall be paid to any primary or sec-13
ondary Federal wildland firefighter upon the 14
date that such firefighter successfully completes 15
a work capacity test; and 16
(B) may not be paid to any such fire-17
fighter more than once per calendar year. 18
(2) H
OUSING ALLOWANCE .—The Secretaries 19
shall provide a housing allowance to any Federal 20
wildland firefighter deployed to a location more than 21
50 miles from their primary residence. Such allow-22
ance shall be in an amount determined appropriate 23
by the Secretaries and adjusted based on the cost of 24
housing in the area of deployment. 25
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(3) CAREER TRANSITION.— 1
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 2
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-3
retaries shall establish, maintain, coordinate, 4
and operate a voluntary tuition assistance pro-5
gram for Federal wildland firefighters occu-6
pying a permanent position that encompass a 7
broad range of educational experiences (either 8
in-person or through distance-learning), includ-9
ing academic skills development, vocational pro-10
grams, career and technical programs, and pro-11
grams leading to the award of undergraduate 12
and graduate degrees. 13
(B) A
MOUNT.—The program under sub-14
paragraph (A) shall provide, not more than 15
once during each calendar year, a payment of 16
not less than $4,000 to each Federal wildland 17
firefighter who elects to participate in the pro-18
gram. 19
(C) R
EVIEW.—The Secretaries shall con-20
duct an annual review of whether the amount 21
provided under subparagraph (B) is adequate, 22
in consideration of inflation and other effects. 23
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SEC. 10. WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT CASUALTY ASSIST-1
ANCE PROGRAM. 2
(a) D
EVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM.—Not later than 6 3
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 4
Secretary of the Interior shall develop a Wildland Fire 5
Management Casualty Assistance Program (referred to in 6
this section as the ‘‘Program’’) to provide assistance to 7
the next-of-kin of— 8
(1) firefighters who, while in the line of duty, 9
suffer illness or are critically injured or killed; and 10
(2) wildland fire support personnel critically in-11
jured or killed in the line of duty. 12
(b) A
SPECTS OFPROGRAM.—The Program shall ad-13
dress the following: 14
(1) The initial and any subsequent notifications 15
to the next-of-kin of a firefighter or wildland fire 16
support personnel who— 17
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or 18
(B) requires hospitalization or treatment 19
at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury 20
or illness. 21
(2) The reimbursement of next-of-kin for ex-22
penses associated with travel to visit a firefighter or 23
wildland fire support personnel who— 24
(A) is killed in the line of duty; or 25
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(B) requires hospitalization or treatment 1
at a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury 2
or illness. 3
(3) The qualifications, assignment, training, du-4
ties, supervision, and accountability for the perform-5
ance of casualty assistance responsibilities. 6
(4) The relief or transfer of casualty assistance 7
officers, including notification to survivors of critical 8
injury or illness in the line of duty and next-of-kin 9
of the reassignment of such officers to other duties. 10
(5) Centralized, short-term and long-term case 11
management procedures for casualty assistance, in-12
cluding rapid access by survivors of firefighters or 13
wildland fire support personnel and casualty assist-14
ance officers to expert case managers and coun-15
selors. 16
(6) The provision, through a computer acces-17
sible website and other means and at no cost to sur-18
vivors and next-of-kin of firefighters or wildland fire 19
support personnel, of personalized, integrated infor-20
mation on the benefits and financial assistance avail-21
able to such survivors from the Federal Government. 22
(7) The provision of information to survivors 23
and next-of-kin of firefighters or wildland fire sup-24
port personnel on mechanisms for registering com-25
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plaints about, or requests for, additional assistance 1
related to casualty assistance. 2
(8) Liaison with the Department of the Inte-3
rior, the Department of Justice, and the Social Se-4
curity Administration to ensure prompt and accurate 5
resolution of issues relating to benefits administered 6
by those agencies for survivors of firefighters or 7
wildland fire support personnel. 8
(9) Data collection, in consultation with the 9
United States Fire Administration and the National 10
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, re-11
garding the incidence and quality of casualty assist-12
ance provided to survivors of firefighters or wildland 13
fire support personnel. 14
(c) L
INE OFDUTYDEATHBENEFITS.—The Pro-15
gram shall not affect existing authorities for Line of Duty 16
Death benefits for Federal firefighters and wildland fire 17
support personnel. 18
(d) N
EXT-OF-KINDEFINED.—In this section, the 19
term ‘‘next-of-kin’’ means person or persons in the highest 20
category of priority as determined by the following list 21
(categories appear in descending order of priority): 22
(1) Surviving legal spouse. 23
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(2) Children (whether by current or prior mar-1
riage) age 18 years or older in descending prece-2
dence by age. 3
(3) Father or mother, unless by court order 4
custody has been vested in another (adoptive parent 5
takes precedence over natural parent); 6
(4) Siblings (whole or half) age 18 years or 7
older in descending precedence by age. 8
(5) Grandfather or grandmother. 9
(6) Any other relative (precedence to be deter-10
mined in accordance with the civil law of descent of 11
the deceased former member’s State of domicile at 12
time of death). 13
SEC. 11. CONTINUING ACCRUAL OF SERVICE FOR FIRE-14
FIGHTERS. 15
(a) F
EDERALEMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENTSYSTEM.— 16
Section 8401(14) of title 5, United States Code, is amend-17
ed to read as follows: 18
‘‘(14) the term ‘firefighter’ means— 19
‘‘(A) an employee, the duties of whose po-20
sition— 21
‘‘(i) are primarily to perform work di-22
rectly connected with the control and extin-23
guishment of non-wildland fires; and 24
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‘‘(ii) are sufficiently rigorous that em-1
ployment opportunities should be limited to 2
young and physically vigorous individuals, 3
as determined by the Director considering 4
the recommendations of the employing 5
agency; 6
‘‘(B) an employee, the duties of whose po-7
sition— 8
‘‘(i) are primarily to perform work di-9
rectly connected with the control and extin-10
guishment of wildland fires; and 11
‘‘(ii) are sufficiently rigorous that em-12
ployment opportunities should be limited to 13
young and physically vigorous individuals, 14
as determined by the Director considering 15
the recommendations of the employing 16
agency; 17
‘‘(C) an employee who— 18
‘‘(i) is transferred directly to a super-19
visory or administrative position after per-20
forming duties described in subparagraph 21
(A) for at least 3 years; and 22
‘‘(ii) while serving in such supervisory 23
or administrative position, has no break in 24
service; or 25
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‘‘(D) an employee who— 1
‘‘(i) occupies a supervisory or admin-2
istrative position after performing duties 3
described in subparagraph (B) for not less 4
than 3 years; and 5
‘‘(ii) has not more than 24 months in 6
total time of breaks in service;’’. 7
(b) S
ERVICEBEFOREDATE OFENACTMENT.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the requirements 9
under paragraph (2), service performed before the 10
date of enactment of this Act by an individual who, 11
on the date of enactment of this Act, is an employee 12
(as defined in section 8401(11) of title 5, United 13
States Code) shall, for the purposes of chapter 84 of 14
title 5, United States Code, be treated as service 15
performed by a firefighter if— 16
(A) such service was performed during the 17
period beginning on October 1, 2003, and end-18
ing on the day before the date of enactment of 19
this Act; 20
(B) at the time of performing such serv-21
ice— 22
(i) the individual did not meet the re-23
quirements to be a firefighter under sec-24
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tion 8401(14) of title 5, United States 1
Code, because of a break in service; and 2
(ii) would have met the requirements 3
to be a firefighter under section 4
8401(14)(D) of title 5, United States 5
Code, as amended by this Act; and 6
(C) appropriate deductions and 7
withholdings under sections 8422 and 8423 of 8
title 5, United States Code, were made during 9
such service. 10
(2) C
REDIT FOR SERVICE .—To receive credit 11
for eligible service under paragraph (1), the applica-12
ble individual shall— 13
(A) before the date on which the individual 14
separates from service in the agency in which 15
the individual holds a position on the date of 16
enactment of this Act, submit a written election 17
to the agency employing the individual; 18
(B) if the individual is not employed by the 19
agency that employed the individual when the 20
service described in paragraph (1) was per-21
formed, submit a written election to such agen-22
cy; and 23
(C) remit to the agency that employed the 24
individual when such service was performed the 25
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additional amount that would have been de-1
ducted during the period of prior service under 2
section 8422 of title 5, United States Code, 3
from the pay of the individual if the amend-4
ments made by subsection (a) had been in ef-5
fect during the prior service, plus any applicable 6
interest computed under section 8334(e) of title 7
5, United States Code. 8
(3) G
OVERNMENT CONTRIBUTIONS .—If an indi-9
vidual remits payment under paragraph (2)(C) with 10
respect to service described in paragraph (1), the 11
agency that employed the individual when such serv-12
ice was performed shall remit to the Office of Per-13
sonnel Management (for deposit in the Treasury of 14
the United States to the credit of the Civil Service 15
Retirement and Disability Fund) the total additional 16
amount of Federal contributions that would have 17
been paid under section 8423 of title 5, United 18
States Code, if the amendments made by subsection 19
(a) had been in effect during the prior service, plus 20
any applicable interest computed in accordance with 21
section 8334(e) of title 5, United States Code. 22
(4) N
OTIFICATION AND ASSISTANCE REQUIRE -23
MENTS.—The Director of the Office of Personnel 24
Management shall— 25
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(A) take such action as may be necessary 1
and appropriate to inform individuals entitled 2
to have any service credited under this sub-3
section, or to have any annuity computed under 4
this subsection, of the entitlement to the credit 5
or computation; and 6
(B) upon request, assist any individual de-7
scribed in subparagraph (A) in obtaining such 8
information in the possession of the Secretary 9
of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior, 10
as applicable, as may be necessary to verify the 11
entitlement of the individual to have any service 12
credited, or to have any annuity computed, pur-13
suant to this subsection. 14
(5) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 15
section shall be construed to permit or require the 16
making of any contribution to the Thrift Savings 17
Fund that would not otherwise have been permitted 18
or required but for the enactment of this section. 19
Æ
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