Wildland Firefighter Hazard Pay Correction Act

This Act may be cited as the “Wildland Firefighter Hazard Pay Correction Act”.

It is the sense of Congress that the control and suppression of prescribed fires is an important part of fire preparedness and land management. Firefighters who engage in such suppression of prescribed fires take on risks, smoke exposure, and arduous tasks comparable to those in wildfire suppression. They should receive hazard pay to fairly compensate their risk and efforts. Likewise, smokejumpers are aerial delivery firefighters whose role in firefighting necessitates jumping from airplanes, which is a hazardous duty that should receive hazard pay.

(a) In general.— Section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

“(e)

(1) For the purposes of subsection (d), duties involving the ignition, control, or suppression of a prescribed burn and duties involving parachute jumps from flying aircraft by smokejumper firefighters for training, proficiency, or operational purposes are duties involving unusual physical hardship or hazard for which the applicable pay differential under that subsection shall be equal to the pay differential for fighting forest and range fires on the fireline.

(2) In this subsection, the term prescribed burn means the intentional application of fire to live or dead vegetation or forestry, range, or other landscapes for the purposes of land or resource management.”.

(b) Regulations.— Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall issue such regulations as are necessary to implement the amendment made by subsection (a).

(c) Applicability.— The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to pay periods beginning after the earlier of—

(1) the date on which the Director of the Office of Personnel Management issues the regulations required under subsection (b); or

(2) the date that is 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(d) Rule of construction.— This section, and the amendments made by this section, may not be construed as rescinding, replacing, or otherwise affecting any determination of the duties for which a pay differential is provided under subsection (d) of section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, as of the date of enactment of this Act, except to the extent necessary for any such pay differential for a duty described in subsection (e)(1) of that section, as added by subsection (a), to comply with such subsection (e)(1).