Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act Reintroduced With Bipartisan Support.
The new Congress follows through on their promise just days into their term.
Some big news out of D.C. today with the reintroduction of the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act. The Bill has been read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Senator Alex Padilla introduced the Bill into the new Congress, and it has been co-sponsored by multiple senators, including:
Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana
Senator Steve Daines of Montana
Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming
Senator Adam B. Schiff of California
The text of the Bill mirrors the Bill introduced last year. This includes premium pay for incidents and wage increases as follows:
IN GENERAL.—The special base rate for a wildland firefighter shall be derived by increasing the otherwise applicable General Schedule base rate for the wildland firefighter by the following applicable percentage for the grade of the wildland firefighter and rounding the result to the nearest whole dollar:
“(i) For GS–1, 42 percent.
“(ii) For GS–2, 39 percent.
“(iii) For GS–3, 36 percent.
“(iv) For GS–4, 33 percent.
“(v) For GS–5, 30 percent.
“(vi) For GS–6, 27 percent.
“(vii) For GS–7, 24 percent.
“(viii) For GS–8, 21 percent.
“(ix) For GS–9, 18 percent.
“(x) For GS–10, 15 percent.
“(xi) For GS–11, 12 percent.
“(xii) For GS–12, 9 percent.
“(xiii) For GS–13, 6 percent.
“(xiv) For GS–14, 3 percent.
“(xv) For GS–15, 1.5 percent.
The National Federation of Federal Employees has endorsed this Bill after its reintroduction:
Today, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) endorses the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act (WFPPA), which was reintroduced in the Senate. The bipartisan bill aims to maintain current wages for federal wildland firefighters, who will see their base pay cut by 50 percent, up to $20,000, if a permanent pay solution is not passed by Congress.
Specifically, the legislation is an emergency measure to permanently avoid a pay cliff by establishing a new pay scale for federal wildland firefighters that aligns closely with the current temporary pay boost established by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill also provides supplemental pay for each day a firefighter is deployed to a fire incident and directs agencies to ensure proper rest and recuperation when personnel return from fire deployments.
"No federal wildland firefighter should have to live out of their ear or chase thousands of hours of overtime just to make ends meet," continued Erwin. "Federal wildland firefighters have made it clear that they can no longer endure the uncertainty that comes with not knowing if their pay will fall off a cliff. We are already facing a massive shortage of wildland firefighters nationwide, and the end result is what we have witnessed in Los Angeles, where Americans have died and entire communities have been completely destroyed."
Randy Erwin
President NFFE
Now it’s time for the House and the Senate to vote on this critical wildfire legislation and follow through on their election promises to get this done with the new Admin.
I’m currently holding my breath… but this came swiftly, just days after the new Congress was sworn in—a promising sign.
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Pay raise is just half the problem, the Forest Service needs to be torn down and rebuilt, first responders working for range management specialists, this does not work, things need to change. The Forest Service has been existing on life support on the fire and aviation budget the allocated dollars are being squandered on everything but fire suppression more would come forward but fear of reprisal keeps them from voting their conscience. DOGE this agency is low hanging fruit !!!
I enjoyed Congressionals of all persuasions being behind this.