[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3221 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3221

To amend title 5, United States Code, to establish a special limitation 
      on pay for wildland fire responders, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 2, 2023

Mr. Padilla (for himself, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Daines, Mr. Tester, Ms. Rosen, 
  Ms. Cortez Masto, and Mr. Heinrich) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
                        and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 5, United States Code, to establish a special limitation 
      on pay for wildland fire responders, and for other purposes.

    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 Firefighter Fair Pay Act''.

SEC. 2. SPECIAL LIMITATIONS ON PAY FOR WILDLAND FIRE RESPONDERS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter V of chapter 55 of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended--
            (1) in section 5541(2)(xi), by inserting ``, 5547a(h),'' 
        after ``section 5544''; and
            (2) by inserting after section 5547 the following:
``Sec. 5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for employees engaged 
              in wildland firefighting
    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section--
            ``(1) the term `covered employee' means an employee of the 
        Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, or the National 
        Weather Service who--
                    ``(A) is a wildland firefighter;
                    ``(B) is an incident meteorologist accompanying a 
                crew of wildland firefighters;
                    ``(C) is serving on an incident management team or 
                at a wildland fire operations center; or
                    ``(D) is otherwise certified by the applicable 
                agency to perform wildland fire incident related duties 
                during the period that employee is assigned to a 
                qualifying incident;
            ``(2) the term `covered services' means services performed 
        by an employee that are determined by the Secretary of the 
        Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, or the Secretary of 
        Commerce, as applicable, to primarily involve emergency 
        wildfire suppression activities;
            ``(3) the term `emergency wildland fire suppression 
        activities'--
                    ``(A) means initial-response and extended-response 
                activities that directly relate to suppression of a 
                wildfire;
                    ``(B) includes activities associated with a 
                severity incident; and
                    ``(C) does not include activities associated with a 
                prescribed fire incident;
            ``(4) the term `firefighter' means an employee who--
                    ``(A) is a firefighter within the meaning of 
                section 8331(21) or section 8401(14);
                    ``(B) in the case of an employee who holds a 
                supervisory or administrative position and is subject 
                to subchapter III of chapter 83, but who does not 
                qualify to be considered a firefighter within the 
                meaning of section 8331(21), would otherwise qualify if 
                the employee had transferred directly to that position 
                after serving as a firefighter within the meaning of 
                that section;
                    ``(C) in the case of an employee who holds a 
                supervisory or administrative position and is subject 
                to chapter 84, but who does not qualify to be 
                considered a firefighter within the meaning of section 
                8401(14), would otherwise qualify if the employee had 
                transferred directly to that position after performing 
                duties described in section 8401(14)(A) for at least 3 
                years; or
                    ``(D) in the case of an employee who is not subject 
                to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chapter 84, holds a 
                position that the Office of Personnel Management 
                determines would satisfy subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) 
                if the employee were subject to subchapter III of 
                chapter 83 or chapter 84;
            ``(5) the term `prescribed fire incident' means a wildland 
        fire originating from a planned ignition in accordance with 
        applicable laws, policies, and regulations to meet specific 
        objectives;
            ``(6) the term `premium pay' means the premium pay paid 
        under the provisions of law cited in section 5547(a), except as 
        otherwise provided in subsection (g);
            ``(7) the term `qualifying incident'--
                    ``(A) means a wildfire incident, a prescribed fire 
                incident, or a severity incident; and
                    ``(B) does not include an initial response incident 
                involving a single operational period of less than 36 
                hours (unless a longer period is approved by an 
                authorized agency due to exceptional circumstances) if 
                the applicable employee is in continual work status 
                with no designated sleep and rest period established by 
                the agency;
            ``(8) the term `severity incident' means an incident in 
        which a covered employee is pre-positioned in an area where 
        conditions indicate there is a high risk of wildfires;
            ``(9) the term `wildfire incident'--
                    ``(A) means a wildland fire originating from an 
                unplanned ignition, such as lightning, volcanos, or a 
                human-caused fire; and
                    ``(B) includes a prescribed fire that is declared 
                to be a wildfire; and
            ``(10) the term `wildland firefighter' means a 
        firefighter--
                    ``(A) who is employed by the Forest Service or the 
                Department of the Interior; and
                    ``(B) the duties of the position of whom primarily 
                relate to fires occurring in forest lands, range lands, 
                or other wildlands, as opposed to structural fires.
    ``(b) Treatment of Premium Pay.--Any premium pay earned by a 
covered employee for covered services shall be disregarded in 
calculating the aggregate of the basic pay and premium pay of the 
covered employee for purposes of applying a limitation under section 
5547.
    ``(c) Treatment of Disregarded Premium Pay.--Any premium pay that 
is disregarded under subsection (b) shall be disregarded in calculating 
the aggregate pay of the applicable covered employee for purposes of 
applying the limitation in section 5307.
    ``(d) Limitation.--
            ``(1) In general.--Pay that is disregarded under subsection 
        (b) may not be paid to the extent that such pay would cause the 
        aggregate of the basic pay, premium pay, and hazard pay of the 
        applicable covered employee under section 5545(d) payable in 
        the applicable calendar year to exceed the rate of basic pay 
        payable for a position at level II of the Executive Schedule 
        under section 5313, as in effect at the end of that calendar 
        year.
            ``(2) Biweekly limitation.--For the purposes of paragraph 
        (1), any premium pay that is subject to a biweekly limitation 
        under section 5547(c) shall be paid first before other premium 
        pay in applying the level II limitation.
    ``(e) Relationship to Lump-Sum Payment.--Any additional pay 
resulting from application of this section may not be used in computing 
a lump-sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave under 
section 5551 or 5552.
    ``(f) Records.--The Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of 
Agriculture, and the Secretary of Commerce shall each maintain records 
that document uses of the authority provided under this section.
    ``(g) Limitation for Prevailing Rate Employees.--
            ``(1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `basic pay' means wages, 
                environmental differential pay, and night shift 
                differential pay; and
                    ``(B) the term `premium pay' means overtime pay, 
                Sunday premium pay, and holiday premium pay.
            ``(2) Limitation.--For a prevailing rate employee described 
        in section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a covered employee, premium pay 
        may not be paid to the extent that payment would cause the 
        aggregate of the basic pay and premium pay of the covered 
        employee in the applicable calendar year to exceed the rate of 
        basic pay payable for a position at level II of the Executive 
        Schedule under section 5313, as in effect at the end of that 
        calendar year.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 55 of 
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item for 
section 5547 the following:

``5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for employees engaged in 
                            wildland firefighting.''.
    (c) Disregarding of Premium Pay for Certain Purposes.--For the 
purpose of applying section 5547 of title 5, United States Code, as 
carried out pursuant to the requirements of section 1701 of division B 
of the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance 
Act (5 U.S.C. 5547 note) (as amended by section 601 of title VI of 
division HH of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 and section 
440 of title IV of division G of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 
2023), in calendar year 2023, incident standby premium pay shall be 
included in premium pay that is subject to the limits established 
pursuant to those requirements, as so amended.
    (d) Effective Dates.--
            (1) In general.--The amendments made by subsections (a) and 
        (b) shall take effect on the first day of the first pay period 
        that has a payment date in January 2024.
            (2) Disregarding of premium pay.--Subsection (c) shall take 
        effect on the first day of the first applicable pay period 
        beginning on or after October 1, 2023.
    (e) Reports on Hiring Wildland Firefighters and Incident 
Meterologists.--
            (1) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    (A) Relevant congressional committees defined.--The 
                term ``relevant congressional committees'' means--
                            (i) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
                        Governmental Affairs of the Senate;
                            (ii) the Committee on Oversight and 
                        Accountability of the House of Representatives;
                            (iii) the Committee on Appropriations of 
                        the Senate; and
                            (iv) the Committee on Appropriations of the 
                        House of Representatives.
                    (B) Secretary concerned.--The term ``Secretary 
                concerned'' means--
                            (i) the Secretary of Agriculture;
                            (ii) the Secretary of the Interior; and
                            (iii) the Secretary of Commerce.
            (2) Reports required.--Not later than March 30, 2024, each 
        Secretary concerned, in consultation with the Director of the 
        Office of Management and Budget and the Director of the Office 
        of Personnel Management, shall submit to the relevant 
        congressional committees a plan that addresses the needs of the 
        Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, or 
        the National Weather Service, as applicable, to hire and train 
        additional wildland firefighters or incident meteorologists (as 
        those terms are defined in section 5447a of title 5, United 
        States Code, as added by subsection (a)) such that sufficient 
        personnel resources are available throughout the year without 
        causing those wildland firefighters or incident meteorologists 
        to receive compensation, in a typical calendar year, in excess 
        of the annual rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule under 
        section 5315 of title 5, United States Code.
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