H.R. 9444: Support our Firefighters Act

This bill would create a new paid leave benefit for certain federal wildland firefighters working for the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior. After responding to a qualifying wildfire or other emergency incident, these employees could receive paid “rest and recuperation” leave. The leave would be paid like annual leave, must be used right away after the incident, and could not be saved for later or cashed out if unused.

What the leave would cover

The bill would require the Agriculture and Interior Departments to set uniform rules for this leave. Those rules could include:

• A limit on how long a firefighter can be deployed before rest is required.
• A rule that after 14 days of deployment, the employee must take 3 days of rest and recuperation leave, not counting travel time.
• Or a rule that after 21 days of deployment, the employee must take 4 days of rest and recuperation leave, including travel time.

The departments would have discretion to decide the exact policy, but the bill sets these as examples of what the policy may require.

Who would be eligible

The leave would apply to “covered employees,” which generally means federal employees in the Forest Service or Interior Department who qualify as wildland firefighters, or who are certified to perform wildfire incident-related duties while deployed to a qualifying incident.

How the leave would work

The bill says the leave must be used during scheduled work hours, and it would be paid in the same way as annual leave. Employees on intermittent work schedules would be excused from duty for the same period as similarly situated employees, and they would receive pay as though they had been granted this leave.

Funding changes

The bill would allow up to $5 million in unobligated wildfire management funds from the Forest Service side of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to be transferred to Interior’s wildfire management accounts, if needed to help keep the federal wildland firefighter base salary increase and related premium pay in place without interruption.

Overtime cap change

The bill would also change a temporary overtime-pay cap waiver so that it can continue to apply in any future calendar year, rather than only in specific years listed in current law. In practical terms, this would extend the ability to waive certain pay limits for wildland firefighters beyond the years already mentioned in the law.

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