I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7878 
To amend section 8143b of title 5, United States Code, to include in the 
time as a firefighter employed by a State when that firefighter is later 
reclassified as a Federal employee, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 5, 2024 
Mr. PAPPAS (for himself, Mrs. KIM of California, and Mr. GALLEGO) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu-
cation and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend section 8143b of title 5, United States Code, 
to include in the time as a firefighter employed by a 
State when that firefighter is later reclassified as a Fed-
eral employee, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring Equity for 
Firefighters Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. CERTAIN STATE SERVICE APPLICABLE FOR FED-
ERAL FIREFIGHTERS WORKER’S COMPENSA-
TION. 
Section 8143b(b) of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(4) RECLASSIFIED FIREFIGHTERS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For the purposes of 
determining the aggregate number of years an 
individual has been employed as an employee in 
fire protection activities under paragraph (1), 
all periods in which such individual is or was 
employed in a reclassified State position are 
deemed to be periods in which such individual 
was employed as an employee in fire protection 
activities if such individual is or was appointed 
to a position as an employee in fire protection 
activities established by the Federal Govern-
ment to perform the duties and responsibilities 
performed for the Federal Government by a re-
classified State position. 
‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 
‘‘(i) COVERED STATE EMPLOYEE PO-
SITION.—The term ‘covered State em-
ployee position’ means a position in which 
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the individual holding such position is em-
ployed as a covered State employee. 
‘‘(ii) 
EMPLOYED
AS
A
COVERED 
STATE
EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘employed 
as a covered State employee’ means an in-
dividual employed by a State or political 
subdivision thereof as a firefighter (includ-
ing a wildland firefighter), paramedic, 
emergency 
medical 
technician, 
rescue 
worker, ambulance personnel, or hazardous 
material worker who— 
‘‘(I) is trained in fire suppres-
sion; 
‘‘(II) has the legal authority and 
responsibility to engage in fire sup-
pression; 
‘‘(III) is engaged in the preven-
tion, control, or extinguishment of 
fires or response to emergency situa-
tions in which life, property, or the 
environment is at risk, including the 
prevention, control, suppression, or 
management of wildland fires; and 
‘‘(IV) performs the activities de-
scribed in subclause (III) as a pri-
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mary responsibility of the job of the 
employee. 
‘‘(iii) RECLASSIFIED
STATE
POSI-
TION.—The term ‘reclassified State posi-
tion’ means a covered State employee posi-
tion for which the Federal Government es-
tablishes or established a position as an 
employee in fire protection activities to 
perform the duties and responsibilities per-
formed for the Federal Government by 
such covered State employee position.’’. 
Æ 
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