S. 4824

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4824 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4824

To amend section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, to provide hazard 
pay for carrying out prescribed burns, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 18, 2026

Mr. Sheehy (for himself, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Hickenlooper, and 
Mr. Curtis) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To amend section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, to provide hazard 
pay for carrying out prescribed burns, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Wildland Firefighter Hazard Pay 
Correction Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

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.

SEC. 3. HAZARD PAY FOR PERFORMING PRESCRIBED BURNS.

(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).
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