Sponsors (5)
The bill improves pay, overtime flexibility, and mandated paid rest for wildland firefighters—helping recovery and workforce retention—while raising recurring payroll costs, shifting IIJA funds, and introducing potential staffing and governance trade-offs.
Federal wildland firefighters (including seasonal/intermittent crews) receive paid post-deployment rest (paid like annual leave), improving recovery and reducing risk of fatigue-related injury or illness.
Maintains recently enacted base pay increases and preserves overtime-pay flexibility (permanent overtime-cap waiver), supporting recruitment and retention of the wildland firefighting workforce.
Funds the pay increases using existing unobligated IIJA balances rather than new appropriations, avoiding an immediate increase in direct taxpayer outlays.
Adds recurring near-term federal payroll costs (paid rest days, continued overtime exceptions, and preserved pay increases) that will increase agency spending and likely raise taxpayer cost or require budget reallocation.
Shifts up to $5 million from unobligated IIJA balances to pay increases, which may reduce funding available for other infrastructure projects and complicate state/local planning tied to those funds.
Mandated rest maximums could reduce available staffing during high-demand wildfire periods if many personnel are simultaneously entitled to leave, potentially degrading response capacity in peak conditions.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates paid post-deployment rest-and-recuperation leave for federal wildland firefighters, allows a limited IIJA fund transfer to sustain pay increases, and makes overtime-cap waiver language permanent.
Official title: Amend title 5, United States Code, to provide rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland firefighting, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Alejandro Padilla · Last progress March 26, 2026
Creates paid "rest and recuperation" leave for qualifying Forest Service and Department of the Interior wildland firefighters after deployments, sets uniform deployment/leave rules, and makes technical updates to overtime-cap waiver language so those waivers continue beyond specific calendar years. It also allows a one-time transfer (up to $5 million) of unobligated IIJA funds to continue a previously authorized federal wildland firefighter base salary increase and related premium pay. The bill standardizes post-deployment leave usage and payment, prevents banking or cashing out that leave, extends overtime-cap waiver language permanently (editorial/codifying changes), and provides a limited funding transfer to keep firefighter pay adjustments uninterrupted while moving funds within existing IIJA accounts.