United States HR 743: Tim’s Act

Bill Text

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119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 743
To reform and enhance the pay and benefits of Federal wildland firefighters,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 28, 2025
Mr. NEGUSE (for himself, Mr. HARDER of California, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms.
PETTERSEN, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. STANSBURY, Ms. HOYLE of Oregon, Ms.
BROWNLEY, Mr. BACON, and Mr. LEVIN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Re-
form, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Agri-
culture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To reform and enhance the pay and benefits of Federal
wildland firefighters, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; DEFINITIONS; TABLE OF CON-3
TENTS. 4
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 5
‘‘Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay 6
Parity Act’’ or ‘‘Tim’s Act’’. 7
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(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 1
(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 2
the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 3
(2) FEDERAL WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER.—The 4
term ‘‘Federal wildland firefighter’’ means any tem-5
porary, seasonal, or permanent position at the De-6
partment of Agriculture or the Department of the 7
Interior, and Tribal Firefighters, that maintains 8
group, emergency incident management, or fire 9
qualifications, as established annually by the Stand-10
ards for Wildland Fire Position Qualifications pub-11
lished by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, 12
and primarily engages in or supports wildland fire 13
management activities, including forestry and range-14
land technicians and positions concerning aviation, 15
engineering heavy equipment operations, dispatch, or 16
fire and fuels management. 17
(3) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’ 18
means the Secretary of Agriculture and the Sec-19
retary of the Interior. 20
(c) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 21
this Act is as follows: 22
Sec. 1. Short title; definitions; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Special base rates of pay for wildland firefighters.
Sec. 3. Wildland fire incident response premium pay.
Sec. 4. Special limitations on pay for wildland firefighters.
Sec. 5. Rest and recuperation leave for employees engaged in wildland fire-
fighting.
Sec. 6. Health provisions.
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Sec. 7. Retirement for firefighters.
Sec. 8. Pay parity for Federal structural firefighters.
Sec. 9. Pay adjustments and other matters.
Sec. 10. Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program.
Sec. 11. Continuing accrual of service for Firefighters.
SEC. 2. SPECIAL BASE RATES OF PAY FOR WILDLAND FIRE-1
FIGHTERS. 2
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 53 of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 4
section 5332 the following: 5
‘‘§ 5332a. Special base rates of pay for wildland fire-6
fighters 7
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
‘‘(1) the term ‘firefighter’ means an employee 9
who— 10
‘‘(A) is a firefighter within the meaning of 11
section 8331(21) or section 8401(14); 12
‘‘(B) in the case of an employee who holds 13
a supervisory or administrative position and is 14
subject to subchapter III of chapter 83, but 15
who does not qualify to be considered a fire-16
fighter within the meaning of section 8331(21), 17
would otherwise qualify if the employee had 18
transferred directly to that position after serv-19
ing as a firefighter within the meaning of that 20
section; 21
‘‘(C) in the case of an employee who holds 22
a supervisory or administrative position and is 23
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subject to chapter 84, but who does not qualify 1
to be considered a firefighter within the mean-2
ing of section 8401(14), would otherwise qualify 3
if the employee had transferred directly to that 4
position after performing duties described in 5
section 8401(14)(A) for at least 3 years; or 6
‘‘(D) in the case of an employee who is not 7
subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chap-8
ter 84, holds a position that the Office of Per-9
sonnel Management determines would satisfy 10
subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) if the employee 11
were subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or 12
chapter 84; 13
‘‘(2) the term ‘General Schedule base rate’ 14
means an annual rate of basic pay established under 15
section 5332 before any additions, such as a locality- 16
based comparability