Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2025

Increased Base Pay for Wildland Firefighters: Wildland firefighters would receive a special base rate that replaces their current General Schedule base rate. This includes specific percentage increases based on grade, such as a 42 percent increase for GS-1 through 3 percent for GS-14 (Section 2(b)(1) and 2(b)(2)(A)).

Premium Pay for Incident Response: Covered employees deployed to qualifying incidents, such as wildfires or prescribed fires, are entitled to incident response premium pay. This pay is calculated at a daily rate of 450 percent of the employee's hourly basic pay (Section 3(a)(2) and 3(a)(3)(2)(A)).

Wage Increases for Prevailing Rate Employees: The Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior can increase wage rates for prevailing rate employees who are wildland firefighters (Section 2(c)).

Rest and Recuperation Leave: Employees engaged in wildland firefighting may receive paid rest and recuperation leave following a qualifying incident to assist with recovery (Section 4(a)(1)).

Limits on Premium Pay: Incident response premium pay is subject to specific limitations, such as a cap of $9,000 in any calendar year (Section 3(a)(3)(2)(B)(ii)).

Premium Pay Caps for Higher Earners: For employees whose annual basic pay is higher than the rate for step 10 of GS-10, the premium pay is capped at the daily rate established for that specific GS-10 rate (Section 3(a)(3)(2)(B)(i)).

Restrictions on Leave Use: Rest and recuperation leave must be used immediately after a qualifying incident and cannot be set aside for later use (Section 4(a)(3)(1)(C) and 4(a)(3)(1)(D)).

No Payment for Unused Leave: Employees are not entitled to receive any payment for unused rest and recuperation leave (Section 4(a)(3)(2)).