[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1498 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1498

To amend chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, to authorize equal 
 overtime pay provisions for all Federal employees engaged in wildland 
                      fire suppression operations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 4, 1999

   Mr. Burns introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
           referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, to authorize equal 
 overtime pay provisions for all Federal employees engaged in wildland 
                      fire suppression operations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Wildland Firefighters Pay Equity Act 
of 1999''.

 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) developing and maintaining skilled qualified personnel 
        in the Federal firefighting agencies (the Bureau of Land 
        Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs, and the National Park Service within the Department of 
        the Interior and the Forest Service within the Department of 
        Agriculture) is an increasing problem that jeopardizes the 
        safety and effectiveness of wildland fire suppression 
        operations across the Nation;
            (2) the main reasons for the problem involve--
                    (A) a pay equity discrepancy which categorizes 
                personnel assigned to wildland fire suppression 
                operations in either non-exempt positions (such as 
                firefighters and truck drivers) or exempt positions 
                (such as supervisors and managers);
                    (B) compensation for overtime is calculated 
                differently for these categories;
                    (C) non-exempt personnel are compensated for 
                overtime at a rate of one and a one-half of their 
                normal base pay;
                    (D) exempt personnel are compensated for overtime 
                with a restriction at step 1 of GS-10 of the General 
                Schedule, which may be below their normal base pay;
                    (E) some personnel with highly responsible 
                supervisory and management duties in a wildland fire 
                suppression operation, such as an Incident Commander, 
                being paid less than a truck driver working on the same 
                wildland fire;
                    (F) a disparity in overtime pay compensation that 
                results in discouraging firefighters from advancing to 
                supervisory and management positions;
                    (G) discouragement to many dual career family 
                members from becoming qualified as firefighters since 
                income earned from wildland fire suppression operations 
                usually does not sufficiently offset additional family 
                care costs, such as child care, incurred with the 
                disrupted schedules in fighting fires; and
                    (H) personnel shortages that are increasing in 
                senior fire suppression positions with the aging and 
                retirement of personnel without a corresponding 
                replacement by younger qualified and skilled 
                firefighters.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are to--
            (1) eliminate the pay equity problem in overtime pay 
        compensation between non-exempt and exempt positions assigned 
        to wildland fire suppression operations to provide equal 
        formulas for calculating overtime pay for both positions;
            (2) provide incentives for personnel to become qualified as 
        firefighters since overtime pay compensation will not be 
        penalized with advancement;
            (3) provide some financial relief for dual career families 
        involved in wildland fire suppression operations to offset the 
        additional costs of family care while fighting fires; and
            (4) reduce personnel shortages in senior fire suppression 
        positions by increasing the numbers of qualified firefighters 
        seeking advancement.

SEC. 3. REVISED LIMITATION.

    (a) In General.--Section 5542(a) of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), for an 
        employee of the United States Forest Service in the Department 
        of Agriculture or the Department of the Interior engaged in 
        emergency wildland fire suppression activities the overtime 
        hourly rate of pay is an amount equal to one and one-half times 
        the hourly rate of the basic pay of the employee and all that 
        amount is premium pay.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect on the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on 
or after the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
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