I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5091 
To amend section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, to provide hazard 
pay for carrying out prescribed burns, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 2, 2025 
Ms. MALOY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To amend section 5545 of title 5, United States Code, to 
provide hazard pay for carrying out prescribed burns, 
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. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the control and sup-
pression of prescribed fires is an important part of fire 
preparedness and land management. Firefighters who en-
gage in such suppression of prescribed fires take on risks, 
smoke exposure, and arduous tasks comparable to those 
in wildfire suppression. They should receive hazard pay 
to fairly compensate their risk and efforts. Likewise, 
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smokejumpers are aerial delivery firefighters whose role 
in firefighting necessitates jumping from airplanes, which 
is a hazardous duty that should receive hazard pay. 
SEC. 2. HAZARD PAY FOR PERFORMING PRESCRIBED 
BURNS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5545 of title 5, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new subsection: 
‘‘(e)(1) For the purposes of subsection (d), duties in-
volving the ignition, control, or suppression of a prescribed 
burn and duties involving parachute jumps from flying air-
craft by smokejumper firefighters for training, proficiency, 
or operational purposes are duties involving unusual phys-
ical hardship or hazard for which the applicable pay dif-
ferential under such subsection shall be equal to the pay 
differential for fighting forest and range fires on the 
fireline. 
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘prescribed burn’ 
means the intentional application of fire to live or dead 
vegetation or forestry, range, or other landscapes for the 
purposes of land or resource management.’’. 
(b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 90 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Of-
fice of Personnel Management shall issue such regulations 
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as are necessary to implement the amendment made by 
subsection (a). 
(c) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub-
section (a) shall apply with respect to pay periods begin-
ning after the earlier of— 
(1) the date on which the Director of the Office 
of Personnel Management issues the regulations re-
quired by subsection (b); or 
(2) the date that is 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act. 
(d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—This section and the 
amendments made this section may not be construed as 
rescinding, replacing, or otherwise affecting any deter-
mination of the duties for which a pay differential is pro-
vided under subsection (d) of section 5545 of title 5, 
United States Code, as of the date of the enactment of 
this Act, except to the extent necessary for any such pay 
differential for a duty described in subsection (e)(1) of 
such section, as added by subsection (a), to comply with 
such subsection (e)(1). 
Æ 
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