Wildland Firefighter Hazard Pay Correction Act

Key Points

• This bill would give wildland firefighters extra money, called hazard pay, when they work on prescribed burns. These are fires set on purpose by experts to clear out brush and help prevent much larger, dangerous wildfires.
• Right now, firefighters get extra pay for fighting unplanned wildfires but not always for these planned fires. The bill says that the risks from heat and smoke are the same in both cases, so the pay should be the same too.
• The plan also covers smokejumpers, who are firefighters that jump out of planes to reach fires in remote areas. They would receive hazard pay for their parachute jumps during training and actual missions.
• A group of senators from both parties introduced this bill because they want to make sure these workers are paid fairly for their dangerous jobs. They believe this will help keep experienced firefighters on the job.
• If the bill passes, the government must create the new pay rules within 90 days. Firefighters would start seeing the extra money in their paychecks shortly after those rules are finished.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.