The bill would set special base pay rates for qualifying wildland firefighters employed by the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior. The increase would range from 1.5% to 42%, depending on the employee’s General Schedule grade. It would also provide incident-response premium pay for eligible deployments, subject to limits, and allow paid rest and recovery leave under policies set by the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior. The changes would begin after the current temporary salary increases end.
Eligible federal wildland firefighters could receive higher base pay and premium pay for qualifying incident deployments. The premium pay would be limited to $9,000 per calendar year and, for employees above the specified pay threshold, calculated using the GS-10 step 10 rate. Employees could also receive paid recovery leave after an incident, under agency policies. The bill also allows certain other employees certified for wildland fire incident duties to qualify for premium pay or recovery leave.
The bill does not state a total cost. It authorizes transferring up to $5 million in unobligated Forest Service funds to the Department of the Interior to help continue temporary firefighter salary increases.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.