II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 279
To reform and enhance the pay and benefits of Federal wildland firefighters,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. B
ENNETintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 8
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 9
the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 10
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(2) FEDERAL WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER .—The 1
term ‘‘Federal wildland firefighter’’ means any tem-2
porary, seasonal, or permanent position at the De-3
partment of Agriculture or the Department of the 4
Interior, or any Tribal Firefighter, that maintains 5
group, emergency incident management, or fire 6
qualifications, as established annually by the Stand-7
ards for Wildland Fire Position Qualifications pub-8
lished by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, 9
and primarily engages in or supports wildland fire 10
management activities, including forestry and range-11
land technicians and positions concerning aviation, 12
engineering heavy equipment operations, dispatch, or 13
fire and fuels management. 14
(3) S
ECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 15
means the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-16
retary of the Interior. 17
(c) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 18
this Act is as follows: 19
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.
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.
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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’ has the 24
meaning given the term ‘Federal wildland fire-25
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fighter’ in section 1(b) of the Tim Hart Wildland 1
Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act. 2
‘‘(b) S
PECIALBASERATES OFPAY.— 3
‘‘(1) E
NTITLEMENT TO SPECIAL RATE .—Not-4
withstanding section 5332, a wildland firefighter is 5
entitled to a special base rate at grades 1 through 6
15, which shall— 7
‘‘(A) replace the otherwise applicable Gen-8
eral Schedule base rate for the wildland fire-9
fighter; 10
‘‘(B) be basic pay for all purposes, includ-11
ing the purpose of computing a locality-based 12
comparability payment under section 5304 or 13
5304a; and 14
‘‘(C) be computed as described in para-15
graph (2) and adjusted at the time of adjust-16
ments in the General Schedule. 17
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The special base rate 19
for a wildland firefighter shall be derived by in-20
creasing the otherwise applicable General 21
Schedule base rate for the wildland firefighter 22
by the following applicable percentage for the 23
grade of the wildland firefighter and rounding 24
the result to the nearest whole dollar: 25
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‘‘(i) For GS–1, 42 percent. 1
‘‘(ii) For GS–2, 39 percent. 2
‘‘(iii) For GS–3, 36 percent. 3
‘‘(iv) For GS–4, 33 percent. 4
‘‘(v) For GS–5, 30 percent. 5
‘‘(vi) For GS–6, 27 percent. 6
‘‘(vii) For GS–7, 24 percent. 7
‘‘(viii) For GS–8, 21 percent. 8
‘‘(ix) For GS–9, 18 percent. 9
‘‘(x) For GS–10, 15 percent. 10
‘‘(xi) For GS–11, 12 percent. 11
‘‘(xii) For GS–12, 9 percent. 12
‘‘(xiii) For GS–13, 6 percent. 13
‘‘(xiv) For GS–14, 3 percent. 14
‘‘(xv) For GS–15, 1.5 percent. 15
‘‘(B) H
OURLY, DAILY, WEEKLY, OR BI-16
WEEKLY RATES.—When the special base rate 17
with respect to a wildland firefighter is ex-18
pressed as an hourly, daily, weekly, or biweekly 19
rate, the special base rate shall be computed 20
from the appropriate annual rate of basic pay 21
derived under subparagraph (A) in accordance 22
with the rules under section 5504(b).’’. 23
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 24
for subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States 25
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Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 1
section 5332 the following: 2
‘‘5332a. Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters.’’.
(c) PREVAILINGRATEEMPLOYEES.—Section 5343 3
of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at 4
the end the following: 5
‘‘(g)(1) For a prevailing rate employee described in 6
section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a wildland firefighter, as de-7
fined in section 5332a(a), the Secretary of Agriculture or 8
the Secretary of the Interior (as applicable) shall increase 9
the wage rates of that employee by an amount (determined 10
at the sole and exclusive discretion of the applicable Sec-11
retary after consultation with the other Secretary) that is 12
generally consistent with the percentage increases given 13
to wildland firefighters in the General Schedule under sec-14
tion 5332a. 15
‘‘(2) An increased wage rate under paragraph (1) 16
shall be basic pay for the same purposes as the wage rate 17
otherwise established under this section. 18
‘‘(3) An increase under this subsection may not cause 19
the wage rate of an employee to increase to a rate that 20
would produce an annualized rate in excess of the annual 21
rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule.’’. 22
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 23
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 24
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 25
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last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-1
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-2
ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 3
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 4
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 5
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 6
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 7
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-8
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 9
SEC. 3. WILDLAND FIRE INCIDENT RESPONSE PREMIUM 10
PAY. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter V of chapter 55 of 12
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 13
section 5545b the following: 14
‘‘§ 5545c. Incident response premium pay for employ-15
ees engaged in wildland firefighting 16
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 17
‘‘(1) the term ‘appropriate committees of Con-18
gress’ means— 19
‘‘(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 20
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 21
‘‘(B) the Committee on Energy and Nat-22
ural Resources of the Senate; 23
‘‘(C) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-24
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 25
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‘‘(D) the Committee on Appropriations of 1
the Senate; 2
‘‘(E) the Committee on Oversight and Ac-3
countability of the House of Representatives; 4
‘‘(F) the Committee on Agriculture of the 5
House of Representatives; 6
‘‘(G) the Committee on Natural Resources 7
of the House of Representatives; and 8
‘‘(H) the Committee on Appropriations of 9
the House of Representatives; 10
‘‘(2) the term ‘covered employee’ means an em-11
ployee of the Forest Service or the Department of 12
the Interior who is— 13
‘‘(A) a wildland firefighter, as defined in 14
section 5332a(a); or 15
‘‘(B) certified by the applicable agency to 16
perform wildland fire incident-related duties 17
during the period that employee is deployed to 18
respond to a qualifying incident; 19
‘‘(3) the term ‘incident response premium pay’ 20
means pay to which a covered employee is entitled 21
under subsection (c); 22
‘‘(4) the term ‘prescribed fire incident’ means a 23
wildland fire originating from a planned ignition in 24
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accordance with applicable laws, policies, and regula-1
tions to meet specific objectives; 2
‘‘(5) the term ‘qualifying incident’— 3
‘‘(A) means— 4
‘‘(i) a wildfire incident, a prescribed 5
fire incident, or a severity incident; or 6
‘‘(ii) an incident that the Secretary of 7
Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior 8
determines is similar in nature to an inci-9
dent described in clause (i); and 10
‘‘(B) does not include an initial response 11
(including an initial attack fire) in which a 12
wildfire is contained within 36 hours; and 13
‘‘(6) the term ‘severity incident’ means an inci-14
dent in which a covered employee is pre-positioned 15
in an area in which conditions indicate there is a 16
high risk of wildfires. 17
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBILITY.—A covered employee is eligible for 18
incident response premium pay under this section if— 19
‘‘(1) the covered employee is deployed to re-20
spond to a qualifying incident; and 21
‘‘(2) the deployment described in paragraph (1) 22
is— 23
‘‘(A) outside of the official duty station of 24
the covered employee; or 25
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‘‘(B) within the official duty station of the 1
covered employee and the covered employee is 2
assigned to an incident-adjacent fire camp or 3
other designated field location. 4
‘‘(c) E
NTITLEMENT TO INCIDENTRESPONSEPRE-5
MIUMPAY.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A covered employee who 7
satisfies the conditions under subsection (b) is enti-8
tled to premium pay for the period in which the cov-9
ered employee is deployed to respond to the applica-10
ble qualifying incident. 11
‘‘(2) C
OMPUTATION.— 12
‘‘(A) F
ORMULA.—Subject to subpara-13
graphs (B) and (C), premium pay under para-14
graph (1) shall be paid to a covered employee 15
at a daily rate of 450 percent of the hourly rate 16
of basic pay of the covered employee for each 17
day that the covered employee satisfies the re-18
quirements under subsection (b), rounded to 19
the nearest whole cent. 20
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—Premium pay under 21
this subsection— 22
‘‘(i) with respect to a covered em-23
ployee for whom the annual rate of basic 24
pay is greater than that for step 10 of GS– 25
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10, shall be paid at the daily rate estab-1
lished under subparagraph (A) for the ap-2
plicable rate for step 10 of GS–10 (where 3
the applicable rate is the rate in effect in 4
the same locality that is the basis for a lo-5
cality-based comparability payment payable 6
to the covered employee under section 7
5304); and 8
‘‘(ii) may not be paid to a covered em-9
ployee in a total amount that exceeds 10
$9,000 in any calendar year. 11
‘‘(C) A
DJUSTMENTS.— 12
‘‘(i) A
SSESSMENT.—The Secretary of 13
Agriculture and the Secretary of the Inte-14
rior shall assess the difference between the 15
average total amount of compensation that 16
was paid to covered employees, by grade, 17
in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. 18
‘‘(ii) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 19
days after the date that is 1 year after the 20
effective date of this section, the Secretary 21
of Agriculture and the Secretary of the In-22
terior shall jointly publish a report on the 23
results of the assessment conducted under 24
clause (i). 25
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‘‘(iii) ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS .— 1
After publishing the report required under 2
clause (ii), the Secretary of Agriculture 3
and the Secretary of the Interior, in con-4
sultation with the Director of the Office of 5
Personnel Management, may, in the sole 6
and exclusive discretion of the Secretaries 7
acting jointly, administratively adjust the 8
amount of premium pay paid under this 9
subsection (or take other administrative 10
action) to ensure that the average annual 11
amount of total compensation paid to cov-12
ered employees, by grade, is more con-13
sistent with such amount that was paid to 14
those employees in fiscal year 2023. 15
‘‘(iv) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICA -16
TION.—Not later than 3 days after an ad-17
justment made, or other administrative ac-18
tion taken, under clause (iii) becomes final, 19
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-20
retary of the Interior shall jointly submit 21
to the appropriate committees of Congress 22
a notification regarding that adjustment or 23
other administrative action, as applicable. 24
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‘‘(d) TREATMENT OFINCIDENTRESPONSEPREMIUM 1
P
AY.—Incident response premium pay under this sec-2
tion— 3
‘‘(1) is not considered part of the basic pay of 4
a covered employee for any purpose; 5
‘‘(2) may not be considered in determining the 6
lump-sum payment of a covered employee for accu-7
mulated and accrued annual leave under section 8
5551 or section 5552; 9
‘‘(3) may not be used in determining pay under 10
section 8114; 11
‘‘(4) may not be considered in determining pay 12
for hours of paid leave or other paid time off during 13
which the premium pay is not payable; and 14
‘‘(5) shall be disregarded in determining the 15
minimum wage and overtime pay to which a covered 16
employee is entitled under the Fair Labor Standards 17
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.).’’. 18
(b) A
DDITIONALPREMIUMPAYAMENDMENTS.— 19
Subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, 20
is amended— 21
(1) in section 5544— 22
(A) by amending the section heading to 23
read as follows: ‘‘
WAGE-BOARD OVERTIME , 24
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SUNDAY RATES , AND OTHER PREMIUM 1
PAY’’; and 2
(B) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(d) A prevailing rate employee described in section 4
5342(a)(2)(A) shall receive incident response premium 5
pay under the same terms and conditions that apply to 6
a covered employee under section 5545c if that em-7
ployee— 8
‘‘(1) is employed by the Forest Service or the 9
Department of the Interior; and 10
‘‘(2)(A) is a wildland firefighter, as defined in 11
section 5332a(a); or 12
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency to 13
perform wildland fire incident-related duties during 14
the period the employee is deployed to respond to a 15
qualifying incident (as defined in section 16
5545c(a)).’’; and 17
(2) in section 5547(a), in the matter preceding 18
paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘5545c,’’ after 19
‘‘5545a,’’. 20
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENTS.—The table of sections 21
for subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States 22
Code, is amended— 23
(1) by amending the item relating to section 24
5544 to read as follows: 25
‘‘5544. Wage-board overtime, Sunday rates, and other premium pay.’’;
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and 1
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-2
tion 5545b the following: 3
‘‘5545c. Incident response premium pay for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 4
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 5
applicable pay period beginning after the last day of the 6
last pay period for which Federal wildland firefighter tem-7
porary salary increases were in effect, as originally author-8
ized under section 40803(d)(4)(B) of the Infrastructure 9
Investment and Jobs Act (16 U.S.C. 6592(d)(4)(B)) and 10
as extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 11
2024 (Public Law 118–42; 138 Stat. 25), the Continuing 12
Appropriations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118– 13
83; 138 Stat. 1524), and the Further Continuing Appro-14
priations Act, 2025 (division A of Public Law 118–158). 15
SEC. 4. SPECIAL LIMITATIONS ON PAY FOR WILDLAND 16
FIREFIGHTERS. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter V of chapter 55 of 18
title 5, United States Code, is amended— 19
(1) by inserting after section 5547 the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘§ 5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for em-22
ployees engaged in wildland firefighting 23
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 24
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‘‘(1) 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); or 6
‘‘(B) is certified by the applicable agency 7
to perform wildland fire incident related duties 8
during the period the employee is assigned to a 9
qualifying incident; 10
‘‘(2) the term ‘covered services’ means services 11
performed by an employee that are determined by 12
the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Ag-13
riculture, as applicable, to primarily involve emer-14
gency wildfire suppression activities, including any 15
period of duty when the employee is sleeping or rest-16
ing during an extended period of deployment to en-17
gage in those activities; 18
‘‘(3) the term ‘emergency wildland fire suppres-19
sion activities’— 20
‘‘(A) means initial-response and extended- 21
response activities that directly relate to sup-22
pression of a wildfire; 23
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‘‘(B) includes activities associated with a 1
severity incident, as defined in section 2
5545c(a); and 3
‘‘(C) does not include activities associated 4
with a prescribed fire incident, as defined in 5
section 5545c(a); and 6
‘‘(4) the term ‘premium pay’ means the pre-7
mium pay paid under the provisions of law cited in 8
section 5547(a), except as otherwise provided in sub-9
section (h). 10
‘‘(b) R
ELATIONSHIP TO LIMITATION ONPREMIUM 11
P
AY.—Any premium pay earned by a covered employee 12
for covered services shall be disregarded in calculating the 13
aggregate of the basic pay and premium pay of that cov-14
ered employee for purposes of applying a limitation under 15
section 5547. 16
‘‘(c) R
ELATIONSHIP TO LIMITATION ONCERTAIN 17
P
AYMENTS.—Any premium pay of a covered employee 18
that is disregarded under subsection (b) shall be dis-19
regarded in calculating the aggregate pay of that covered 20
employee for purposes of applying the limitation under 21
section 5307. 22
‘‘(d) L
IMITATION.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Pay that is disregarded 24
under subsection (b) may not be paid to the extent 25
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that the pay would cause the aggregate of the basic 1
pay, premium pay, and hazard pay under section 2
5545(d) payable in the applicable calendar year to 3
the applicable covered employee to exceed the rate of 4
basic pay payable for a position at level II of the Ex-5
ecutive Schedule under section 5313, as in effect at 6
the end of that calendar year. 7
‘‘(2) B
IWEEKLY LIMITATION .—Any premium 8
pay that is subject to a biweekly limitation under 9
section 5547(c) shall be paid first before other pre-10
mium pay in applying the limitation under para-11
graph (1). 12
‘‘(e) W
AIVER.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Application of the limit in 14
subsection (d) or subsection (h) to a covered em-15
ployee may be waived at the sole and exclusive dis-16
cretion of the Secretary of the Interior or the Sec-17
retary of Agriculture, as applicable. 18
‘‘(2) P
RESCRIPTION OF CRITERIA .—Before au-19
thorizing a waiver under paragraph (1) for a covered 20
employee, the Secretary of the Interior or the Sec-21
retary of Agriculture, as applicable, after consulting 22
with the other Secretary, shall prescribe criteria that 23
will be applied in making a determination to grant 24
a waiver. 25
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‘‘(f) LUMP-SUMPAYMENTS.—Any additional pay re-1
sulting from application of this section may not be used 2
in computing a lump-sum payment for accumulated and 3
accrued annual leave under section 5551 or 5552. 4
‘‘(g) M
AINTENANCE OFRECORDS.—The Secretary of 5
the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall main-6
tain records that document uses of the authority provided 7
by this section. 8
‘‘(h) C
ERTAINRATEEMPLOYEES.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For a prevailing rate em-10
ployee described in section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a 11
covered employee, premium pay may not be paid to 12
the extent the premium pay would cause the aggre-13
gate of the basic pay and premium pay of the em-14
ployee in the applicable calendar year to exceed the 15
rate of basic pay payable for a position at level II 16
of the Executive Schedule under section 5313, as in 17
effect at the end of that calendar year. 18
‘‘(2) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this 19
subsection— 20
‘‘(A) the term ‘basic pay’ means wages, en-21
vironmental differential pay, and night shift dif-22
ferential pay; and 23
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‘‘(B) the term ‘premium pay’ means over-1
time pay, Sunday premium pay, and holiday 2
premium pay.’’; and 3
(2) in section 5541(2)(xi), by inserting ‘‘, 4
5547a(h),’’ after ‘‘section 5544’’. 5
(b) C
ALENDARYEAR2025.—For the purpose of ap-6
plying section 5547 of title 5, United States Code, and 7
section 1701 of division B of the Extending Government 8
Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act (5 9
U.S.C. 5547 note) in calendar year 2025, incident standby 10
premium pay shall be included in premium pay that is sub-11
ject to the limits established in those sections. 12
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATES.— 13
(1) A
MENDMENTS.—The amendments made by 14
subsection (a) shall take effect on the first day of 15
the first pay period that has a payment date in Jan-16
uary 2026. 17
(2) C
ALENDAR YEAR 2025 APPLICATION .—Sub-18
section (b) shall take effect on the first day of the 19
first applicable pay period beginning on or after Oc-20
tober 1, 2025. 21
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 22
for subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United States 23
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 24
section 5547 the following: 25
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‘‘5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for employees engaged in wildland
firefighting.’’.
SEC. 5. 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 inserting after 4
section 6329d 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 as-23
signed to a qualifying incident; and 24
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‘‘(3) the term ‘qualifying incident’ has the 1
meaning given the term in section 5545c(a)(5). 2
‘‘(b) R
EST ANDRECUPERATIONLEAVE.—A covered 3
employee may receive paid rest and recuperation leave fol-4
lowing the completion of service under a qualifying inci-5
dent, subject to policies established at the sole and exclu-6
sive discretion of the applicable Secretary, after consulting 7
with the other Secretary. 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 and shall be paid in the same manner as 15
annual leave; 16
‘‘(B) shall be used immediately after a 17
qualifying incident; and 18
‘‘(C) may not be set aside for later use. 19
‘‘(2) N
O PAYMENT FOR UNUSED LEAVE .—A 20
covered employee may not receive any payment for 21
unused rest and recuperation leave granted under 22
this section. 23
‘‘(d) I
NTERMITTENT WORKSCHEDULE.—A covered 24
employee with an intermittent work schedule shall— 25
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‘‘(1) be excused from duty during the same pe-1
riod of time that other covered employees in the 2
same circumstances are entitled to rest and recuper-3
ation leave; and 4
‘‘(2) receive a payment as if the covered em-5
ployee were entitled to rest and recuperation leave 6
under subsections (b) and (c).’’. 7
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 8
subsection (a) shall take effect on the first day of the first 9
applicable pay period beginning on or after October 1, 10
2025. 11
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 12
for subchapter II of chapter 63 of title 5, United States 13
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 14
section 6329d the following: 15
‘‘6329e. Rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.’’.
SEC. 6. HEALTH PROVISIONS.
16
(a) D
ATABASE; RECOMMENDATIONS .—Not later than 17
1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secre-18
taries shall— 19
(1) establish and maintain on a website a pub-20
licly accessible, searchable database, to be known as 21
the ‘‘Federal Wildland Firefighter Cancer and Car-22
diovascular Disease Database’’, to track chronic dis-23
ease caused by on-the-job environmental exposure 24
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over the lifetimes of current and former Federal 1
wildland firefighters; 2
(2) update the database under paragraph (1) 3
not less frequently than annually; and 4
(3) develop and adhere to recommendations re-5
garding mitigation strategies to minimize exposure 6
to environmental hazards for Federal wildland fire-7
fighters. 8
(b) M
ENTALHEALTH.— 9
(1) E
STABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM .— 10
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than January 11
1, 2026, the Secretaries shall establish and 12
carry out a mental health awareness and sup-13
port program for Federal wildland firefighters. 14
(B) I
NCLUSIONS.—The program under this 15
paragraph shall include the following: 16
(i) A mental health awareness cam-17
paign. 18
(ii) A mental health education and 19
training program that includes an 20
onboarding curriculum. 21
(iii) An extensive peer-to-peer mental 22
health support network for Federal 23
wildland firefighters and their immediate 24
families. 25
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(iv) Expansion of the Critical Incident 1
Stress Management Program— 2
(I) to develop and retain a larger 3
pool of qualified mental health profes-4
sionals who are familiar with the ex-5
periences of the emergency response 6
workforce; and 7
(II) to monitor and track mental 8
health in the Federal wildland fire-9
fighter profession to better— 10
(aa) understand the scope of 11
the issue of mental health; and 12
(bb) provide ongoing assist-13
ance and professional long-term 14
care to patients. 15
(v) Establish and carry out a new and 16
distinct mental health support service spe-17
cific to Federal wildland firefighters and 18
their immediate families— 19
(I) with culturally relevant and 20
trauma-informed mental health pro-21
fessionals who are readily available; 22
and 23
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(II) not subject to any limit on 1
the number of sessions or services 2
provided. 3
(2) M
ENTAL HEALTH LEAVE .— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-5
graph (B), each Federal wildland firefighter 6
shall be entitled to 7 consecutive days of mental 7
health leave, without loss or reduction in pay, 8
during a calendar year. 9
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—Mental health leave 10
provided under subparagraph (A) shall not— 11
(i) accumulate for use in any suc-12
ceeding calendar year; or 13
(ii) be considered to be annual or va-14
cation leave— 15
(I) for purposes of section 5551 16
or 5552 of title 5, United States 17
Code; or 18
(II) for any other purpose. 19
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out subsections (a) 20
and (b), the Secretaries may enter into partnerships or 21
cooperative agreements with other Federal agencies, insti-22
tutions of higher education, or nonprofit organizations. 23
(d) OWCP.—The Office of Workers’ Compensation 24
Programs within the Department of Labor shall— 25
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(1) recognize post-traumatic stress disorder and 1
psychological stress-related injuries and illnesses cor-2
related to fire protection, suppression, and incident 3
support activities; 4
(2) ensure long-term coverage for the duration 5
of the injuries and illnesses described in paragraph 6
(1); and 7
(3) expand the Special Claims Unit to ensure 8
unit staffing levels are sufficient to expedite the 9
claims process and shorten response times to Fed-10
eral wildland firefighters and incident support per-11
sonnel injured or affected on the job in order to al-12
leviate the psychological and financial burdens 13
placed on patients and their families. 14
SEC. 7. RETIREMENT FOR FIREFIGHTERS. 15
(a) D
EPOSITSERVICE.—Notwithstanding any other 16
provision of law, any service performed by an individual 17
as a Federal wildland firefighter on or after January 1, 18
1989, for which retirement deductions under chapter 84 19
of title 5, United States Code, have not been made shall 20
be creditable under that chapter, if— 21
(1) that firefighter submits a written election to 22
the Director; and 23
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(2) the deposit requirements of section 8411(f) 1
of that title have been met with respect to that serv-2
ice. 3
(b) D
ISABILITYANNUITY.—Beginning on the date of 4
enactment of this Act, any Federal wildland firefighter 5
who suffers from a disease described in section 6
8143b(b)(2) of title 5, United States Code, due to environ-7
mental job-related exposure, including smoke inhalation, 8
silicate inhalation, and firefighting toxic exposure, shall be 9
considered to be disabled for purposes of section 8451 of 10
that title, except that such section 8451 shall be applied 11
to any such firefighter by substituting ‘‘12 months’’ for 12
‘‘18 months’’. 13
(c) I
NCLUDINGOVERTIME ASBASICPAY.—Section 14
8331(3) of title 5, United States Code, is amended— 15
(1) in subparagraph (H), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 16
the end; 17
(2) in subparagraph (I), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 18
after the semicolon; 19
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (I) the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘(J) with respect to a Federal wildland 22
firefighter (as that term is defined in section 23
1(b) of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter 24
Classification and Pay Parity Act), overtime 25
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pay received on or after the date of enactment 1
of this subparagraph;’’; and 2
(4) in the undesignated matter following sub-3
paragraph (J) (as added by paragraph (3)), by strik-4
ing ‘‘subparagraphs (B) through (I) of this para-5
graph’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (B) through 6
(J) of this paragraph,’’. 7
(d) S
EPARATENORMAL-COSTPERCENTAGE.—Sec-8
tion 8423(a)(1)(B)(i) of title 5, United States Code, is 9
amended by inserting after ‘‘firefighters,’’ the following: 10
‘‘Federal wildland firefighters (as that term is defined in 11
section 1(b) of the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classi-12
fication and Pay Parity Act),’’. 13
SEC. 8. PAY PARITY FOR FEDERAL STRUCTURAL FIRE-14
FIGHTERS. 15
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘Federal 16
structural firefighter’’— 17
(1) has the meaning given the term ‘‘fire-18
fighter’’ in section 8401 of title 5, United States 19
Code; and 20
(2) does not include a Federal wildland fire-21
fighter. 22
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Beginning on the date that 24
is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, any 25
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pay, benefits, and bonuses provided to any Federal 1
structural firefighter shall be comparable with the 2
pay, benefits, and bonuses provided to Federal 3
wildland firefighters under this Act and the amend-4
ments made by this Act. 5
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 6
date on which special base rates of pay are estab-7
lished under section 5332a of title 5, United States 8
Code, as added by section 2 of this Act, the Director 9
shall submit to Congress a report on whether pay 10
for such Federal structural firefighters is competi-11
tive with that for Federal wildland firefighters. 12
SEC. 9. PAY ADJUSTMENTS AND OTHER MATTERS. 13
(a) A
NNUALADJUSTMENTS.—Notwithstanding any 14
other provision of law, beginning in the first pay period 15
beginning on or after the date on which special base rates 16
of pay are established under section 5332a of title 5, 17
United States Code, as added by section 2 of this Act, 18
and annually thereafter, the basic rate of pay for each 19
Federal wildland firefighter to which those special base 20
rates of pay apply shall be increased by not less than the 21
percentage equal to the percent change in the Consumer 22
Price Index (all items—United States city average), pub-23
lished monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for De-24
cember of the preceding year over such Consumer Price 25
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Index for the December of the year prior to the preceding 1
year, adjusted to the nearest
1
⁄10of 1 percent. 2
(b) C
OMPENSATIONCOMPARABLE TONON-FEDERAL 3
F
IREFIGHTERS.—Not later than 1 year after the date on 4
which special base rates of pay are established under sec-5
tion 5332a of title 5, United States Code, as added by 6
section 2 of this Act, the Secretaries shall submit to Con-7
gress a report on whether pay, benefits, and bonuses pro-8
vided to Federal wildland firefighters are comparable to 9
the pay, benefits, and bonuses provided for non-Federal 10
firefighters in the State or locality where Federal wildland 11
firefighters are based. 12
(c) H
AZARDOUSDUTYPAY.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each Federal wildland fire-14
fighter carrying out work completed during pre-15
scribed fire, parachuting, tree climbing over 20 feet, 16
hazard tree removal, and other hazardous work, as 17
identified by the Secretaries, shall be entitled to be 18
paid the appropriate differential under section 19
5545(d) of title 5, United States Code, as if that 20
Federal wildland firefighter was covered by such sec-21
tion 5545(d). 22
(2) R
EGULATIONS.—The Director may pre-23
scribe regulations to carry out this subsection. 24
(d) O
THERMATTERS.— 25
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(1) RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION BONUS .— 1
(A) I
N GENERAL.—In order to promote the 2
recruitment and retention of Federal wildland 3
firefighters, the Director, in coordination with 4
the Secretaries, shall establish a program under 5
which a recruitment or retention bonus of not 6
less than $1,000 may be paid to a Federal 7
wildland firefighter in an amount determined 8
appropriate by the Director and the Secretaries. 9
(B) M
INIMUM AMOUNT .—The minimum 10
amount of a bonus described in subparagraph 11
(A) shall be increased each year by the Con-12
sumer Price Index in the manner prescribed 13
under subsection (a). 14
(C) T
IMING OF PAYMENTS .—Any bonus 15
under this subsection— 16
(i) shall be paid to any primary or 17
secondary Federal wildland firefighter 18
upon the date that such firefighter success-19
fully completes a work capacity test; and 20
(ii) may not be paid to an individual 21
described in clause (i) more than once per 22
calendar year. 23
(2) H
OUSING ALLOWANCE .— 24
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretaries shall 1
provide a housing allowance to any Federal 2
wildland firefighter deployed to a location more 3
than 50 miles from the primary residence of 4
that Federal wildland firefighter. 5
(B) A
MOUNT.—An allowance paid under 6
subparagraph (A) shall be in an amount deter-7
mined appropriate by the Secretaries and ad-8
justed based on the cost of housing in the area 9
of deployment. 10
(3) C
AREER TRANSITION.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 12
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-13
retaries shall establish, and thereafter shall 14
maintain, coordinate, and operate, a voluntary 15
tuition assistance program for Federal wildland 16
firefighters occupying permanent positions, 17
which shall encompass a broad range of edu-18
cational experiences (either in-person or 19
through distance-learning), including academic 20
skills development, vocational programs, career 21
and technical programs, and programs leading 22
to the award of undergraduate and graduate 23
degrees. 24
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(B) AMOUNT.—The program under sub-1
paragraph (A) shall provide, not more than 2
once during each calendar year, a payment of 3
not less than $4,000 to each Federal wildland 4
firefighter who elects to participate in the pro-5
gram. 6
(C) R
EVIEW.—The Secretaries shall con-7
duct an annual review of whether the amount 8
provided under subparagraph (B) is adequate, 9
in consideration of inflation and other effects. 10
SEC. 10. WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT CASUALTY ASSIST-11
ANCE PROGRAM. 12
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) A
FFECTED FIREFIGHTER .—The term ‘‘af-14
fected firefighter’’ means any Federal wildland fire-15
fighter or Federal wildland fire support personnel 16
who— 17
(A) requires hospitalization or treatment at 18
a medical facility due to a line-of-duty injury or 19
illness; or 20
(B) is killed in the line of duty. 21
(2) A
FFECTED NEXT-OF-KIN.—The term ‘‘af-22
fected next-of-kin’’, with respect to an affected fire-23
fighter, means an individual related to the affected 24
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firefighter, as determined in accordance with the fol-1
lowing descending order of priority: 2
(A) A surviving legal spouse. 3
(B) A child (whether by current or prior 4
relationship) aged 18 years or older, in descend-5
ing precedence by age. 6
(C) A parent, unless custody has been 7
vested in another individual by court order, in 8
which case an adoptive parent shall take prece-9
dence over the natural parent from whom cus-10
tody has been so removed. 11
(D) A sibling (whether whole or half) aged 12
18 years or older, in descending precedence by 13
age. 14
(E) A grandparent. 15
(F) Any other relative, with precedence to 16
be determined in accordance with the applicable 17
civil law of descent of the State of domicile of 18
the affected firefighter at the time of the appli-19
cable illness or injury or death. 20
(3) C
ASUALTY ASSISTANCE OFFICER .—The 21
term ‘‘casualty assistance officer’’ means an indi-22
vidual employed by the Department of the Interior 23
to assist affected firefighters and affected next-of- 24
kin with respect to the injury, illness, or death of an 25
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affected firefighter, including by providing advice re-1
lating to— 2
(A) services and benefits available under 3
the Program to affected firefighters and af-4
fected next-of-kin; and 5
(B) funeral arrangements, if applicable. 6
(4) P
ROGRAM.—The term ‘‘Program’’ means 7
the Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance 8
Program established under subsection (b). 9
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 10
the Secretary of the Interior. 11
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 12
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall es-13
tablish a program, to be known as the ‘‘Wildland Fire 14
Management Casualty Assistance Program’’, under which 15
the Secretary shall provide assistance in accordance with 16
this section to affected firefighters and affected next-of- 17
kin. 18
(c) I
NCLUSIONS.—The Program shall include the fol-19
lowing: 20
(1) The provision to affected next-of-kin of the 21
initial, and any subsequent, notification regarding 22
the injury, illness, or death of an affected firefighter. 23
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(2) The reimbursement of affected next-of-kin 1
for expenses associated with travel to visit an af-2
fected firefighter. 3
(3) The qualifications, assignment, training, du-4
ties, supervision, and accountability for the perform-5
ance of casualty assistance officers. 6
(4) The relief or transfer of casualty assistance 7
officers, including, in any case in which a casualty 8
assistance officer is reassigned to another duty, the 9
provision of notice of that reassignment to the appli-10
cable affected firefighters and affected next-of-kin. 11
(5) Centralized short-term and long-term case 12
management procedures for casualty assistance offi-13
cers, including ensuring rapid access to expert case 14
managers and counselors by— 15
(A) casualty assistance officers; and 16
(B) affected firefighters and affected next- 17
of-kin. 18
(6) The provision, through a computer-acces-19
sible website and other means and at no cost to af-20
fected firefighters and affected next-of-kin, of per-21
sonalized, integrated information relating to the ben-22
efits and financial assistance available from the Fed-23
eral Government to affected firefighters and affected 24
next-of-kin. 25
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(7) The provision to affected firefighters and 1
affected next-of-kin of information relating to mech-2
anisms for registering complaints regarding, or re-3
quests for, additional casualty assistance. 4
(8) Coordination among the Department of the 5
Interior, the Department of Justice, and the Social 6
Security Administration to ensure prompt and accu-7
rate resolution of issues relating to benefits adminis-8
tered by those agencies for affected firefighters and 9
affected next-of-kin. 10
(9) Data collection, in consultation with the 11
United States Fire Administration and the National 12
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, re-13
garding the incidence and quality of casualty assist-14
ance provided to affected firefighters and affected 15
next-of-kin. 16
(d) N
OEFFECT ONCERTAINBENEFITS.—The Pro-17
gram shall not affect any existing authority relating to 18
line-of-duty death benefits for affected firefighters. 19
SEC. 11. CONTINUING ACCRUAL OF SERVICE FOR FIRE-20
FIGHTERS. 21
(a) F
EDERALEMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENTSYSTEM.— 22
Section 8401(14) of title 5, United States Code, is amend-23
ed to read as follows: 24
‘‘(14) the term ‘firefighter’ means— 25
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‘‘(A) an employee, the duties of whose po-1
sition— 2
‘‘(i) are primarily to perform work di-3
rectly connected with the control and extin-4
guishment of non-wildland fires; and 5
‘‘(ii) are sufficiently rigorous that em-6
ployment opportunities should be limited to 7
young and physically vigorous individuals, 8
as determined by the Director considering 9
the recommendations of the employing 10
agency; 11
‘‘(B) an employee, the duties of whose po-12
sition— 13
‘‘(i) are primarily to perform work di-14
rectly connected with the control and extin-15
guishment of wildland fires; and 16
‘‘(ii) are sufficiently rigorous that em-17
ployment opportunities should be limited to 18
young and physically vigorous individuals, 19
as determined by the Director considering 20
the recommendations of the employing 21
agency; 22
‘‘(C) an employee who— 23
‘‘(i) is transferred directly to a super-24
visory or administrative position after per-25
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•S 279 IS
forming duties described in subparagraph 1
(A) for at least 3 years; and 2
‘‘(ii) while serving in the supervisory 3
or administrative position described in 4
clause (i), has no break in service; or 5
‘‘(D) an employee who— 6
‘‘(i) occupies a supervisory or admin-7
istrative position after performing duties 8
described in subparagraph (B) for at least 9
3 years; and 10
‘‘(ii) has not more than 24 months in 11
total time of breaks in service;’’. 12
(b) S
ERVICEBEFOREDATE OFENACTMENT.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the requirements 14
under paragraph (2), service performed before the 15
date of enactment of this Act by an individual who, 16
on the date of enactment of this Act, is an employee 17
(as defined in section 8401(11) of title 5, United 18
States Code) shall, for the purposes of chapter 84 of 19
title 5, United States Code, be treated as service 20
performed by a firefighter if— 21
(A) that service was performed during the 22
period beginning on October 1, 2003, and end-23
ing on the day before the date of enactment of 24
this Act; 25
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(B) at the time of performing such serv-1
ice— 2
(i) the individual did not meet the re-3
quirements to be a firefighter under sec-4
tion 8401(14) of title 5, United States 5
Code, because of a break in service; and 6
(ii) would have met the requirements 7
to be a firefighter under section 8
8401(14)(D) of title 5, United States 9
Code, as amended by this Act; and 10
(C) appropriate deductions and 11
withholdings under sections 8422 and 8423 of 12
title 5, United States Code, were made during 13
such service. 14
(2) C
REDIT FOR SERVICE .—To receive credit 15
for eligible service under paragraph (1), the applica-16
ble individual shall— 17
(A) before the date on which the individual 18
separates from service in the agency in which 19
the individual holds a position on the date of 20
enactment of this Act, submit a written election 21
to the agency employing the individual; 22
(B) if the individual is not employed by the 23
agency that employed the individual when the 24
service described in paragraph (1) was per-25
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formed, submit a written election to such agen-1
cy; and 2
(C) remit to the agency that employed the 3
individual when such service was performed the 4
additional amount that would have been de-5
ducted during the period of prior service under 6
section 8422 of title 5, United States Code, 7
from the pay of the individual if the amend-8
ments made by subsection (a) had been in ef-9
fect during the prior service, plus any applicable 10
interest computed under section 8334(e) of title 11
5, United States Code. 12
(3) G
OVERNMENT CONTRIBUTIONS .—If an indi-13
vidual remits payment under paragraph (2)(C) with 14
respect to service described in paragraph (1), the 15
agency that employed the individual when such serv-16
ice was performed shall remit to the Office of Per-17
sonnel Management (for deposit in the Treasury of 18
the United States to the credit of the Civil Service 19
Retirement and Disability Fund) the total additional 20
amount of Federal contributions that would have 21
been paid under section 8423 of title 5, United 22
States Code, if the amendments made by subsection 23
(a) had been in effect during the prior service, plus 24
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any applicable interest computed in accordance with 1
section 8334(e) of title 5, United States Code. 2
(4) N
OTIFICATION AND ASSISTANCE REQUIRE -3
MENTS.—The Director shall— 4
(A) take such action as may be necessary 5
and appropriate to inform individuals entitled 6
to have any service credited under this sub-7
section, or to have any annuity computed under 8
this subsection, of the entitlement to the credit 9
or computation; and 10
(B) upon request, assist any individual de-11
scribed in subparagraph (A) in obtaining such 12
information in the possession of the Secretary 13
of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior, 14
as applicable, as may be necessary to verify the 15
entitlement of the individual to have any service 16
credited, or to have any annuity computed, pur-17
suant to this subsection. 18
(5) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 19
section may be construed to permit or require the 20
making of any contribution to the Thrift Savings 21
Fund that would not otherwise have been permitted 22
or required but for the enactment of this section. 23
Æ
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