Bill > HR743

This bill addresses comprehensive reforms for federal wildland firefighters, focusing on pay, benefits, and working conditions. The bill establishes a new special base pay rate for wildland firefighters that increases their base salary by percentages ranging from 1.5% to 42% depending on their General Schedule (GS) grade, providing significant wage improvements. It introduces incident response premium pay, allowing firefighters to earn up to 450% of their hourly rate for deployments to qualifying fire incidents, with an annual cap of $9,000. The legislation also mandates rest and recuperation leave, creates a mental health support program offering seven days of mental health leave annually, and establishes a database to track chronic diseases caused by environmental exposure. Additionally, the bill improves retirement benefits by allowing firefighters to credit previous service, includes overtime in basic pay calculations, and creates a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program to support firefighters and their families in case of injury or death. The bill further requires annual pay adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, provides recruitment and retention bonuses, housing allowances, and a tuition assistance program to support career development for federal wildland firefighters.

Agriculture and Natural Resources, Government Affairs

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/743/all-info