§ 5545c — Incident Response Premium Pay For Employees Engaged In Wildland Firefighting

(a) In this section— (1) the term “appropriate committees of Congress” means— (A) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; (B) the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives; (C) the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives; (D) the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; (E) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; (F) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; (G) the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate; and (H) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate; (2) the term “covered employee” means an employee of the Forest Service or the Department of the Interior who is— (A) a wildland firefighter, as defined in section 5332a(a); or (B) certified by the applicable agency to perform wildland fire incident-related duties during the period that employee is deployed to respond to a qualifying incident; (3) the term “incident response premium pay” means pay to which a covered employee is entitled under subsection (c); (4) 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; (5) the term “qualifying incident”— (A) means— (i) a wildfire incident, a prescribed fire incident, or a severity incident; or (ii) an incident that the Secretary of Agriculture or the Secretary of the Interior determines is similar in nature to an incident described in clause (i); and (B) does not include an initial response incident that is contained within 36 hours; and (6) the term “severity incident” means an incident in which a covered employee is pre-positioned in an area in which conditions indicate there is a high risk of wildfires. (b) A covered employee is eligible for incident response premium pay under this section if— (1) the covered employee is deployed to respond to a qualifying incident; and (2) the deployment described in paragraph (1) is— (A) outside of the official duty station of the covered employee; or (B) within the official duty station of the covered employee and the covered employee is assigned to an incident-adjacent fire camp or other designated field location. (1) A covered employee who satisfies the conditions under subsection (b) is entitled to premium pay for the period in which the covered employee is deployed to respond to the applicable qualifying incident. (A) Subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C), premium pay under paragraph (1) shall be paid to a covered employee at a daily rate of 450 percent of the hourly rate of basic pay of the covered employee for each day that the covered employee satisfies the requirements under subsection (b), rounded to the nearest whole cent. (B) Premium pay under this subsection may not be paid— (i) with respect to a covered employee for whom the annual rate of basic pay is greater than that for step 10 of GS–10, at a daily rate that exceeds the daily rate established under subparagraph (A) for step 10 of GS–10; or (ii) to a covered employee in a total amount that exceeds $9,000 in any calendar year. (i) The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall assess the difference between the average total amount of compensation that was paid to covered employees, by grade, in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. (ii) Not later than 180 days after the date that is 1 year after the effective date of this section, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall jointly publish a report on the results of the assessment conducted under clause (i). (iii) After publishing the report required under clause (ii), the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, may, in the sole and exclusive discretion of the Secretaries acting jointly, administratively adjust the amount of premium pay paid under this subsection (or take other administrative action) to ensure that the average annual amount of total compensation paid to covered employees, by grade, is more consistent with such amount that was paid to those employees in fiscal year 2023. (iv) Not later than 3 days after an adjustment made, or other administrative action taken, under clause (iii) becomes final, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a notification regarding that adjustment or other administrative action, as applicable. (d) Incident response premium pay under this section— (1) is not considered part of the basic pay of a covered employee for any purpose; (2) may not be considered in determining a covered employee’s lump-sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave under section 5551 or section 5552; (3) may not be used in determining pay under section 8114 (relating to compensation for work injuries); (4) may not be considered in determining pay for hours of paid leave or other paid time off during which the premium pay is not payable; and (5) shall be disregarded in determining the minimum wage and overtime pay to which a covered employee is entitled under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.).