Sponsors (6)
The bill extends and clarifies hazard pay for federal smokejumpers and prescribed-burn duties and speeds implementation, improving pay and certainty for federal wildfire crews, but increases federal payroll costs, creates short-term administrative burdens, and may produce definitional disputes and unmet expectations among non-federal firefighters.
Federal smokejumpers and other federal wildfire firefighters will receive a hazard pay differential for prescribed-burn duties and parachute jumps, raising compensation for high-risk work.
Federal agencies and employees get clearer rules and faster implementation because the bill defines 'prescribed burn' and requires OPM to issue implementing regulations within 90 days, reducing ambiguity and speeding pay changes/back pay.
Congressional recognition that prescribed-burn crews face comparable risks strengthens arguments for hazard pay or better compensation for non-federal firefighters and could influence future state/local policy or collective-bargaining claims.
Taxpayers and federal agencies will face higher federal payroll costs as expanded hazard pay differentials increase compensation and may require reallocation of agency funds or additional appropriations.
Federal payroll, HR, and operational offices will incur short-term administrative burdens to update payroll rules, implement OPM regulations, and process back pay.
A broad statutory definition of 'prescribed burn' could prompt disputes about which activities qualify for the differential, producing appeals or inconsistent agency interpretations until regulations clarify scope.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Adds prescribed‑burn suppression/ignition duties and smokejumper parachute jumps to federal firefighter hazard pay eligibility and requires OPM regulations within 90 days.
Official title: Amend section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, to provide hazard pay for carrying out prescribed burns, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 18, 2026 by Timothy Patrick Sheehy · Last progress June 18, 2026
Extends federal hazard pay to include duties involving ignition, control, or suppression of prescribed burns and parachute jumps by smokejumper firefighters by adding those duties to the list of "unusual physical hardship or hazard" work that qualifies for fire pay differentials under federal law. The Office of Personnel Management must issue implementing regulations within 90 days, and the pay change applies to pay periods beginning after OPM issues those regulations or 90 days after enactment, whichever is earlier. The measure is limited in scope: it adds a specific qualification for hazard pay, defines "prescribed burn," preserves existing pay-differential determinations unless changed to implement this new rule, and includes a non-binding sense of Congress recognizing the risk of prescribed-fire suppression and smokejumper duties.