To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide for special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5332a creating special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters at 150% of GS base rates (grades 1-15, with sliding percentages from 42% at GS-1 to 3% at GS-15), administered, defines new section 5332a establishing special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, defining key terms (firefighter, wildland firefighter, special base rate, General Schedule base rate) and creating, and amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5545c creating incident response premium pay for wildland firefighters at 450% of hourly basic pay per deployment day, with caps for higher-paid employees, hazardous duty. It relies on definition changes, appropriations, and exemptions. The main policy areas are Labor and Agriculture.
Who Benefits and How
Federal wildland firefighters and incident responders could gain revenue opportunities, Federal wildland firefighters (Forest Service and DOI) could gain revenue opportunities, and Federal wildland firefighters and certified incident responders could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal budget (personnel costs) could face higher costs, Forest Service and Department of the Interior could face higher costs, and Federal budget (premium pay costs) could face higher costs.
Key Provisions
- Amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5332a creating special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters at 150% of GS base rates (grades 1-15, with sliding percentages from 42% at GS-1 to 3% at GS-15), administered...
- Defines new section 5332a establishing special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, defining key terms (firefighter, wildland firefighter, special base rate, General Schedule base rate) and creating...
- Amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5545c creating incident response premium pay for wildland firefighters at 450% of hourly basic pay per deployment day, with caps for higher-paid employees, hazardous duty...
- Provides new section 5545c establishing definitions and eligibility criteria for incident response premium pay, including qualifying incident types (wildfire, prescribed fire, severity), deployment conditions, daily...
- Amends title 5 USC to add new section 6329e establishing paid rest and recuperation leave for wildland firefighters after qualifying incident deployments, with uniform policies prescribed jointly by Secretary...
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5332a creating special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters at 150% of GS base rates (grades 1-15, with sliding percentages from 42% at GS-1 to 3% at GS-15), administered, defines new section 5332a establishing special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, defining key terms (firefighter, wildland firefighter, special base rate, General Schedule base rate) and creating, and amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5545c creating incident response premium pay for wildland firefighters at 450% of hourly basic pay per deployment day, with caps for higher-paid employees, hazardous duty.
Key Policy Areas
Labor, Agriculture
Primary Purpose
The bill amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5332a creating special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters at 150% of GS base rates (grades 1-15, with sliding percentages from 42% at GS-1 to 3% at GS-15), administered, defines new section 5332a establishing special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters, defining key terms (firefighter, wildland firefighter, special base rate, General Schedule base rate) and creating, and amends title 5 USC to insert new section 5545c creating incident response premium pay for wildland firefighters at 450% of hourly basic pay per deployment day, with caps for higher-paid employees, hazardous duty.
Policy Domains
Section 2 - Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters
Identified Gains
- Federal wildland firefighters and incident responders
- Federal wildland firefighters (Forest Service and DOI)
- Federal wildland firefighters and certified incident responders
Identified Costs
- Federal budget (personnel costs)
- Forest Service and Department of the Interior
- Federal budget (premium pay costs)
- Office of Personnel Management
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Padilla (for himself, Mr. Daines, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Schiff, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Federal wildland firefighters (Forest Service and DOI), Federal wildland firefighters and certified incident responders, Federal wildland firefighters and incident responders
Federal budget (personnel costs), Federal budget (premium pay costs), Forest Service and Department of the Interior
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "OPM"
- → Office of Personnel Management (prescribes special base rates)
- "wildland_firefighter"
- → Forest Service or DOI employee whose duties relate primarily to wildland fires
- "secretaries"
- → Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior
- "covered_employee"
- → Forest Service or DOI wildland firefighter or certified incident responder
- "covered_employee"
- → Forest Service or DOI wildland firefighter or certified incident responder
- "applicable_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture or Secretary of the Interior
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Employee who is a firefighter within meaning of section 8331(21) or 8401(14), including supervisory/administrative firefighters
Annual rate of basic pay replacing GS base rate, set at 150% of GS base, administered same as GS base rate
A firefighter employed by the Forest Service or DOI whose duties relate primarily to wildland fires (not structure fires)
Wildfire, prescribed fire, or severity incident (not initial attack fires contained within 36 hours)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology