I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2814
To amend chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, to authorize equal
overtime pay provisions for all Federal employees engaged in wildland
fire suppression operations.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 8, 1999
Mr. POMBO (for himself, Mr. CONDIT, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mrs. CHENOWETH,
and Mr. HERGER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Government Reform
A BILL
To amend chapter 55 of title 5, United States Code, to
authorize equal overtime pay provisions for all Federal
employees engaged in wildland fire suppression oper-
ations.
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 ‘‘Wildland Firefighters
Pay Equity Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) developing and maintaining skilled qualified
personnel in the Federal firefighting agencies (the
Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Na-
tional Park Service within the Department of the In-
terior and the Forest Service within the Department
of Agriculture) is an increasing problem that jeop-
ardizes the safety and effectiveness of wildland fire
suppression operations across the Nation;
(2) the main reasons for the problem involve—
(A) a pay equity discrepancy which cat-
egorizes personnel assigned to wildland fire sup-
pression operations in either non-exempt posi-
tions (such as firefighters and truck drivers) or
exempt positions (such as supervisors and man-
agers);
(B) compensation for overtime is cal-
culated differently for these categories;
(C) non-exempt personnel are compensated
for overtime at a rate of one and a one-half of
their normal base pay;
(D) exempt personnel are compensated for
overtime with a restriction at step 1 of GS–10
of the General Schedule, which may be below
their normal base pay;
(E) some personnel with highly responsible
supervisory and management duties in a
wildland fire suppression operation, such as an
Incident Commander, being paid less than a
truck driver working on the same wildland fire;
(F) a disparity in overtime pay compensa-
tion that results in discouraging firefighters
from advancing to supervisory and management
positions;
(G) discouragement to many dual career
family members from becoming qualified as
firefighters since income earned from wildland
fire suppression operations usually does not suf-
ficiently offset additional family care costs, such
as child care, incurred with the disrupted sched-
ules in fighting fires; and
(H) personnel shortages that are increas-
ing in senior fire suppression positions with the
aging and retirement of personnel without a
corresponding replacement by younger qualified
and skilled firefighters.
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—
(1) eliminate the pay equity problem in over-
time pay compensation between non-exempt and ex-
empt positions assigned to wildland fire suppression
operations to provide equal formulas for calculating
overtime pay for both positions;
(2) provide incentives for personnel to become
qualified as firefighters since overtime pay com-
pensation will not be penalized with advancement;
(3) provide some financial relief for dual career
families involved in wildland fire suppression oper-
ations to offset the additional costs of family care
while fighting fires; and
(4) reduce personnel shortages in senior fire
suppression positions by increasing the numbers of
qualified firefighters seeking advancement.
SEC. 3. REVISED LIMITATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5542(a) of title 5, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(5) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2),
for an employee of the United States Forest Service
in the Department of Agriculture or the Department
of the Interior engaged in emergency wildland fire
suppression activities the overtime hourly rate of pay
is an amount equal to one and one-half times the
hourly rate of the basic pay of the employee and all
that amount is premium pay.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall take effect on the first day of the first
applicable pay period beginning on or after the end of the
30-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of
this Act.
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