Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act

“5547a. Special limitations on premium pay for employees engaged in wildland firefighting

“(a) Definitions—In this section—

“(1) the term covered employee means an employee of the Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, or the National Weather Service who—

“(A) is a wildland firefighter;

“(B) is an incident meteorologist accompanying a crew of wildland firefighters;

“(C) is serving on an incident management team or at a wildland fire operations center; or

“(D) is otherwise certified by the applicable agency to perform wildland fire incident related duties during the period that employee is assigned to a qualifying incident;

“(2) the term covered services means services performed by an employee that are determined by the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, or the Secretary of Commerce, as applicable, to primarily involve emergency wildfire suppression activities;

“(3) the term emergency wildland fire suppression activities—

“(A) means initial-response and extended-response activities that directly relate to suppression of a wildfire;

“(B) includes activities associated with a severity incident; and

“(C) does not include activities associated with a prescribed fire incident;

“(4) the term firefighter means an employee who—

“(A) is a firefighter within the meaning of section 8331(21) or section 8401(14);

“(B) in the case of an employee who holds a supervisory or administrative position and is subject to subchapter III of chapter 83, but who does not qualify to be considered a firefighter within the meaning of section 8331(21), would otherwise qualify if the employee had transferred directly to that position after serving as a firefighter within the meaning of that section;

“(C) in the case of an employee who holds a supervisory or administrative position and is subject to chapter 84, but who does not qualify to be considered a firefighter within the meaning of section 8401(14), would otherwise qualify if the employee had transferred directly to that position after performing duties described in section 8401(14)(A) for at least 3 years; or

“(D) in the case of an employee who is not subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chapter 84, holds a position that the Office of Personnel Management determines would satisfy subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) if the employee were subject to subchapter III of chapter 83 or chapter 84;

“(5) the term prescribed fire incident means a wildland fire originating from a planned ignition in accordance with applicable laws, policies, and regulations to meet specific objectives;

“(6) the term premium pay means the premium pay paid under the provisions of law cited in section 5547(a), except as otherwise provided in subsection (g);

“(7) the term qualifying incident—

“(A) means a wildfire incident, a prescribed fire incident, or a severity incident; and

“(B) does not include an initial response incident involving a single operational period of less than 36 hours (unless a longer period is approved by an authorized agency due to exceptional circumstances) if the applicable employee is in continual work status with no designated sleep and rest period established by the agency;

“(8) the term severity incident means an incident in which a covered employee is pre-positioned in an area where conditions indicate there is a high risk of wildfires;

“(9) the term wildfire incident—

“(A) means a wildland fire originating from an unplanned ignition, such as lightning, volcanos, or a human-caused fire; and

“(B) includes a prescribed fire that is declared to be a wildfire; and

“(10) the term wildland firefighter means a firefighter—

“(A) who is employed by the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior; and

“(B) the duties of the position of whom primarily relate to fires occurring in forest lands, range lands, or other wildlands, as opposed to structural fires.

“(b) Treatment of premium pay—Any premium pay earned by a covered employee for covered services shall be disregarded in calculating the aggregate of the basic pay and premium pay of the covered employee for purposes of applying a limitation under section 5547.

“(c) Treatment of disregarded premium pay—Any premium pay that is disregarded under subsection (b) shall be disregarded in calculating the aggregate pay of the applicable covered employee for purposes of applying the limitation in section 5307.

“(d) Limitation

“(1) In general—Pay that is disregarded under subsection (b) may not be paid to the extent that such pay would cause the aggregate of the basic pay, premium pay, and hazard pay of the applicable covered employee under section 5545(d) payable in the applicable calendar year to exceed the rate of basic pay payable for a position at level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313, as in effect at the end of that calendar year.

“(2) Biweekly limitation—For the purposes of paragraph (1), any premium pay that is subject to a biweekly limitation under section 5547(c) shall be paid first before other premium pay in applying the level II limitation.

“(e) Relationship to lump-Sum payment—Any additional pay resulting from application of this section may not be used in computing a lump-sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave under section 5551 or 5552.

“(f) Records—The Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Commerce shall each maintain records that document uses of the authority provided under this section.

“(g) Limitation for prevailing rate employees

“(1) Definitions—In this subsection—

“(A) the term basic pay means wages, environmental differential pay, and night shift differential pay; and

“(B) the term premium pay means overtime pay, Sunday premium pay, and holiday premium pay.

“(2) Limitation—For a prevailing rate employee described in section 5342(a)(2)(A) who is a covered employee, premium pay may not be paid to the extent that payment would cause the aggregate of the basic pay and premium pay of the covered employee in the applicable calendar year to exceed the rate of basic pay payable for a position at level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313, as in effect at the end of that calendar year.”