Sponsors (16)
The bill provides substantial pay raises, deployment premiums, and safety protections that strengthen recruitment, retention, and firefighter safety for federal wildland responders, but does so at increased federal cost, with benefit caps, exclusions that limit long-term benefits, and discretionary/administrative choices that may produce inequities and oversight challenges.
Federal wildland firefighters (Forest Service and DOI) receive meaningful, permanent base pay increases (grade-specific raises up to ~42%), increasing take-home pay and improving retention and recruitment.
When deployed to qualifying incidents, wildland firefighters (both GS and prevailing-rate wage employees) receive a large daily premium (450% of hourly base pay), substantially boosting pay while on deployments.
Prevailing-rate (wage-grade) wildland firefighting schedules are eligible for similar upward adjustments, narrowing pay gaps between GS and wage-system employees and improving equity within the federal firefighting workforce.
All of these pay increases and new paid-rest requirements raise federal personnel and payroll costs, increasing budgetary pressure on the federal government and ultimately taxpayers.
Key premium payments are explicitly excluded from 'basic pay' (and thus from some leave lump-sum calculations, certain pay computations, and FLSA overtime determinations), reducing their impact on retirement, overtime, and other benefits for employees.
Caps on payable amounts (the $9,000 annual cap, GS-10 step-10 equivalence, and a prevailing-rate cap tied to Executive Schedule IV) limit additional compensation for higher-graded or high-cost-area firefighters, reducing intended pay benefits for some.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates permanent higher base pay for federal wildland firefighters by replacing their GS base rates with grade-specific ‘‘special base rates,’’ establishes a large daily incident-response premium for deployed wildfire personnel (with an annual cap), creates paid rest-and-recuperation leave after deployments, gives agency heads limited authority to adjust prevailing-rate wage schedules to match these increases, and authorizes a one-time transfer of up to $5 million of unobligated IIJA funds to continue temporary pay increases without interruption. The changes take effect on the first pay period after the last pay period covered by prior temporary IIJA firefighter pay increases.
Introduced March 6, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress March 6, 2025