Sponsors (2)
The bill improves wildland firefighters' pay, paid recovery time, and administrative clarity—strengthening safety and retention—but increases federal payroll costs, diverts limited IIJA funds, could strain staffing during peak fires, and centralizes policy discretion.
Wildland firefighters (Forest Service and Interior) gain short paid rest/recuperation after long deployments (3 days after 14 days or 4 days after 21 days), improving recovery and on-the-job safety.
Federal wildland firefighters keep the planned base salary increase and related premium pay (funded up to $5 million), preserving higher take-home pay and helping recruitment and retention.
Paid rest is compensated at the same rate as annual leave and applies to intermittent/seasonal employees, protecting deployed workers from income loss during recovery.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face higher personnel and payroll costs from paid rest, permanent overtime waivers, and continued pay increases.
Shifting up to $5 million from unobligated IIJA balances reduces the pool available for other infrastructure projects, potentially delaying or shrinking state and local projects.
Employees who cannot take the mandated rest immediately (e.g., due to reassignment or continued deployment) cannot bank or be paid out for unused rest days, leaving some workers uncompensated for entitled rest.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Provides paid rest-and-recuperation leave for qualified federal wildland firefighters, authorizes up to $5M fund transfer to continue pay increases, and makes overtime-cap waivers permanent.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Alejandro Padilla · Last progress March 26, 2026
Creates paid rest-and-recuperation leave for federal wildland firefighters and makes related pay authority and overtime-waiver changes to keep increased pay and overtime flexibilities in place. It also allows a limited transfer of up to $5 million of unobligated Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds to continue a prior pay increase for federal wildland firefighters.