HR 743119th CongressIn Committee

Tim’s Act

Introduced: Jan 28, 2025

Sponsor: Rep. Neguse, Joe [D-CO-2] (D-Colorado)

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

Tim’s Act (Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act) would overhaul pay and benefits for Federal wildland firefighters by creating a dedicated special pay framework and a new incident-response premium, while adding rest leave, health provisions, retirement improvements, and casualty support. The core changes include: a new special base-rate pay system that replaces the General Schedule base pay for wildland firefighters, an incident-response premium pay that pays substantially higher rates during qualifying incidents, and new limits and potential adjustments to ensure total compensation stays within certain bounds. The bill also expands health initiatives (including a public health database and mental health program), introduces rest and recuperation leave, aligns retirement treatment (including credit for certain pre-enactment service and counting overtime), ensures pay parity with Federal structural firefighters, and establishes a casualty-assistance program for survivors. In short, the act aims to dramatically elevate and standardize pay, benefits, and support services for Federal wildland firefighters and their families, while creating guardrails and oversight mechanisms to manage costs and ensure health, retirement, and casualty protections.

Key Points

1Special base-pay for wildland firefighters (5332a): Establishes a dedicated pay scale that replaces the General Schedule base rate for wildland firefighters. The special base rate is set by grade with specific percentage increases over the General Schedule base rate (e.g., GS-1 +42%, GS-5 +30%, GS-15 +1.5%, etc.). It applies to wildland firefighter positions in the Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of the Interior, and Tribal Firefighters; includes rules for converting to hourly/daily rates.
2Incident response premium pay (5545c): Creates a premium pay for wildland firefighting deployed to qualifying incidents. Premium pay is 450% of the employee’s hourly basic pay for each deployment day, with annual caps ($9,000) and a wage-rate cap tied to GS-10 step 10 for higher earners. There are formulas for calculation, adjustments based on compensation data from FY2023 vs FY2024, and transparency/reporting to Congress.
3Premium-pay limits and waivers (5547a): Establishes special limitations on premium pay to prevent excessive compensation, with caps tied to Executive Schedule level II and discretionary waivers by agency Secretaries (with inter-secretarial consultation and criteria).
4Rest and recuperation leave (6329e): Provides paid rest and recuperation leave after qualifying incidents, to be used during scheduled hours and run as annual leave (not cumulating or counted as annual/vacation leave; not payable if unused).
5Health provisions: New public health database (cancer and cardiovascular disease) tracking exposure-related health outcomes; mandatory mental health program (awareness, training, peer support, expanded incident stress management, and a distinct, unrestricted mental health support service). Adds seven days of annual mental-health-specific paid leave. Also strengthens workers’ compensation recognition for PTSD and related injuries and expands casualty-support-capacity.
6Retirement and benefits: Credits and better treatment for wildland firefighters in retirement (deposit service for pre-1989 work, disability protection for exposure-related conditions, overtime counts toward basic pay, and other retirement-related adjustments). Includes a plan to assess and align overtime and retirement calculations with special-pay provisions.
7Pay parity with Federal structural firefighters: Requires pay/benefits parity between wildland and structural federal firefighters within a year of establishing the new pay scale, plus a mechanism to compare and report on competitiveness.
8Additional benefits and programs (Section 9): CPI-based annual pay adjustments for the new pay scale; hazard-pay treatment for prescribed/hazardous duties; recruitment/retention bonuses (minimum $1,000 annually, adjusted with CPI); a housing allowance for deployment locations distant from home; and a career-transition tuition assistance program (not less than $4,000 per participating firefighter, yearly review for adequacy).
9Casualty management program (Section 10): Develops a Wildland Fire Management Casualty Assistance Program to support next-of-kin of firefighters or support personnel killed or seriously injured in the line of duty, including notifications, travel reimbursements, case management, claims liaison with DoJ/SSA, and information portals.
10Expanded definitions and scope: Broadens who counts as a wildland firefighter and clarifies eligibility and coverage across federal agencies (USDA, DOI) and Tribal Firefighters; includes ongoing eligibility and cross-agency coordination provisions.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected- Federal wildland firefighters at the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, and Tribal Firefighters; including both temporary/seasonal and permanent positions. The bill also impacts prevailing-rate employees engaged in wildland firefighting and, through parity provisions, aims to align structural firefighter pay.Secondary group/area affected- Federal structural firefighters (to be brought to pay parity with wildland firefighters within a year of the pay scale). Also relevant to human resources offices, payroll systems, and budget offices within USDA and DOI due to new pay scales, caps, and reporting requirements.Additional impacts- Health and safety: New health database, expanded mental health program and seven days of mental-health leave per year, PTSD and other exposure-related health coverage enhancements, and a casualty-assistance framework for survivors.- Financial management and budgeting: New pay scales, premium-pay caps, and benefit enhancements imply higher ongoing payroll costs; annual CPI-based pay adjustments; housing allowances; tuition assistance; recruitment/retention bonuses; and potential enforcement mechanisms for caps and waivers.- Employment practices and operations: New definitions of eligibility, new administrative oversight for premium pay, incident-based deployment criteria, rest/recuperation leave administration, and broader pension/retirement calculations.- Oversight and reporting: CPI-based adjustments, annual comparability studies, and required congressional notifications/reporting on pay adjustments and parity.General Schedule (GS) base rate: The standard pay scale used for most federal white-collar employees.Special base rate: The new pay rate specifically for wildland firefighters, replacing the GS base rate for those positions.Incident response premium pay: A high-rate premium paid during deployment to qualifying wildland firefighting incidents.Qualifying/severity incidents: Wildfire, prescribed fire, or severity incidents (and similar ones designated by the agencies) with exclusions (e.g., initial response contained within 36 hours).Federal structural firefighter: A federal firefighter who is not a wildland firefighter.

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