I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8449 
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration that improves wildfire, fire weather, 
fire risk, and smoke related forecasting, detection, modeling, observations, 
and service delivery, and to address growing needs in the wildland- 
urban interface, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 20, 2022 
Ms. SCHRIER (for herself and Mr. BERA) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and 
in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and 
Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish and maintain a coordinated program within 
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
that improves wildfire, fire weather, fire risk, and smoke 
related forecasting, detection, modeling, observations, 
and service delivery, and to address growing needs in 
the wildland-urban interface, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Fire Ready Nation Act of 2022’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Definitions. 
Sec. 3. Establishment of fire weather services program. 
Sec. 4. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data management. 
Sec. 5. Digital fire weather services and data management. 
Sec. 6. High-performance computing. 
Sec. 7. Government Accountability Office report on fire weather services pro-
gram. 
Sec. 8. Fire weather testbed. 
Sec. 9. Fire weather surveys and assessments. 
Sec. 10. Incident Meteorologist Service. 
Sec. 11. Automated surface observing system. 
Sec. 12. Emergency response activities. 
Sec. 13. Government Accountability Office report on interagency wildfire fore-
casting, prevention, planning, and management bodies. 
Sec. 14. Amendments to Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act relating to 
wildfire mitigation. 
Sec. 15. Wildfire technology modernization amendments. 
Sec. 16. Cooperation; coordination; support to non-Federal entities. 
Sec. 17. International coordination. 
Sec. 18. Submissions to Congress regarding the fire weather services program, 
incident meteorologist workforce needs, and National Weather 
Service workforce support. 
Sec. 19. Authorization of appropriations. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ADMINISTRATION.—The term ‘‘Administra-
tion’’ means the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration. 
(2) 
APPROPRIATE
COMMITTEES
OF
CON-
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-
gress’’ means— 
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(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation of the Senate; and 
(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology of the House of Representatives. 
(3) DECADAL.—The term ‘‘decadal’’ means a 
time range from multiple years to multiple decades. 
(4) EARTH SYSTEM MODEL.—The term ‘‘Earth 
system model’’ means a mathematical model con-
taining all components of the Earth, namely the at-
mosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere, and biosphere. 
The Earth system model represents the critical 
physical, chemical, and biological processes and the 
interactions among those processes in hydrological 
and biogeochemical cycles that affect weather and 
climate. 
(5) FIRE ENVIRONMENT.—The term ‘‘fire envi-
ronment’’ means— 
(A) the environmental conditions, such as 
soil moisture, vegetation, topography, snowpack, 
atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind, 
that influence— 
(i) fuel and fire behavior; and 
(ii) smoke dispersion and transport; 
and 
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(B) the associated environmental impacts 
occurring during and after fire events. 
(6) FIRE WEATHER.—The term ‘‘fire weather’’ 
means any type of weather conditions that influence 
the start, spread, character, or behavior of wildfire 
or fires at the wildland-urban interface and all asso-
ciated meteorological and chemical phenomena, in-
cluding air quality, smoke, and meteorological pa-
rameters such as relative humidity, air temperature, 
wind speed and direction, and atmospheric composi-
tion and chemistry, including emissions and mixing 
heights. 
(7) IMPACT-BASED
DECISION
SUPPORT
SERV-
ICES.—The term ‘‘impact-based decision support 
services’’ means forecast advice and interpretative 
services the Administration provides to help core 
partners, such as emergency personnel and public 
safety officials, make decisions when weather, water, 
and climate impact the lives and livelihoods of the 
people of the United States. 
(8) SEASONAL.—The term ‘‘seasonal’’ means a 
time range between 3 months and 2 years. 
(9) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Commerce. 
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(10) SMOKE.—The term ‘‘smoke’’ means emis-
sions, including the gases and particles released into 
the air as a result of combustion. 
(11) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means a State, 
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of 
Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Common-
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the United 
State Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micro-
nesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the 
Republic of Palau. 
(12) SUBSEASONAL.—The term ‘‘subseasonal’’ 
means a time range between 2 weeks and 3 months. 
(13) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘Tribal 
government’’ means the recognized governing body 
of any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, 
pueblo, village, community, component band, or com-
ponent reservation, individually identified (including 
parenthetically) in the list published most recently as 
of the date of enactment of this Act pursuant to sec-
tion 104 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe 
List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5131). 
(14) UNDER
SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 
for Oceans and Atmosphere. 
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(15) 
WEATHER
ENTERPRISE.—The 
term 
‘‘weather enterprise’’ means— 
(A) individuals, organizations, offices, pro-
grams, or any other form of entity from public, 
private, and academic sectors that contribute to 
the research, development, and production of 
weather forecast products; and 
(B) primary consumers of those weather 
forecast products. 
(16) WILDFIRE.—The term ‘‘wildfire’’ means 
any nonstructure fire that occurs in vegetation or 
natural fuels, originating from an unplanned igni-
tion. 
(17) WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE.—The term 
‘‘wildland-urban interface’’ means the area, zone, or 
region of transition between unoccupied or undevel-
oped land and human development where structures 
and other human development meet or intermingle 
with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF FIRE WEATHER SERVICES 
PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall estab-
lish and maintain a coordinated fire weather services pro-
gram within the Administration. 
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(b) PROGRAM FUNCTIONS.—The functions of the 
program established under subsection (a), consistent with 
the priorities described in section 101 of the Weather Re-
search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 
8511), shall be— 
(1) to support readiness, responsiveness, under-
standing, and overall resilience of the United States 
to wildfires, fire weather, smoke, and other associ-
ated conditions, hazards, and impacts in built and 
natural environments and at the wildland-urban 
interface; 
(2) to collaboratively disseminate accurate, pre-
cise, effective, and timely risk communications, fore-
casts, watches, and warnings relating to wildfires, 
fire weather, air quality, smoke, and other associated 
conditions, hazards, and impacts, as applicable, in 
collaboration with Federal land management agen-
cies; 
(3) to partner with and support the public, 
Federal, State, and Tribal governments, and aca-
demic and local partners through the development of 
capabilities, impact-based decision support services, 
and overall service delivery and utility; 
(4) to conduct and support research and devel-
opment of new and innovative models, technologies, 
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techniques, products, systems, processes, and proce-
dures to improve understanding of wildfires, fire 
weather, air quality, the fire environment, including 
impacts of climate variability and changing climate 
conditions, smoke, and associated conditions, haz-
ards, and impacts, and to transition such research 
into effective operations; 
(5) to develop strong research-to-operations and 
operations-to-research transitions, in order to facili-
tate delivery of products, services, and tools to oper-
ational users and platforms; and 
(6) to develop, in coordination with Federal 
land management agencies, impact-based decision 
support services that operationalize and integrate 
the functions described in paragraphs (1) through 
(5) in order to provide comprehensive impact-based 
decision support services that encompass the fire en-
vironment. 
(c) PROGRAM PRIORITIES.—In developing and imple-
menting the program established under subsection (a), the 
Under Secretary shall prioritize— 
(1) development of a fire weather-enabled Earth 
system model and data assimilation systems that— 
(A) are capable of prediction and fore-
casting across all timescales; 
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(B) include variables associated with fire 
weather, air quality from smoke, and the fire 
environment, and other variables, as determined 
by the Under Secretary; 
(C) improve understanding of the connec-
tions between fire weather and modes of climate 
variability; and 
(D) incorporate emerging techniques such 
as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and 
cloud computing; 
(2) advancement of observational capabilities, 
including satellite-, airborne-, air-, and ground-based 
systems and technologies that— 
(A) identify— 
(i) high-risk pre-ignition conditions; 
(ii) conditions that influence fire be-
havior and spread including those condi-
tions that suppress active fire events; and 
(iii) fire risk values; 
(B) support real-time notification of igni-
tions; 
(C) support observations and data collec-
tion of fire weather and fire environment vari-
ables for development of the model and systems 
under paragraph (1); and 
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(D) support forecasts and advancing un-
derstanding and research of the impacts of 
wildfires on human health, ecosystems, climate, 
transportation, and economies; and 
(3) development and implementation of ad-
vanced and user-oriented impact-based decision 
tools, science, and technologies that— 
(A) ensure real-time and retrospective 
data, products, and services are findable, acces-
sible, interoperable, usable, inform further re-
search, and are analysis- and decision-ready; 
(B) provide targeted information through-
out the fire lifecycle including pre-ignition, de-
tection, forecasting, post-fire, and monitoring 
phases; and 
(C) support early assessment of post-fire 
hazards, such as air quality, debris flows, 
mudslides, and flooding. 
(d) PROGRAM ACTIVITIES.—In developing and imple-
menting the program established under subsection (a), the 
Under Secretary may— 
(1) conduct relevant physical and social science 
research activities in support of the functions de-
scribed in subsection (b) and the priorities described 
in subsection (c); 
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(2) conduct relevant activities, in coordination 
with Federal land management agencies, to assess 
fuel characteristics, including moisture, loading, and 
other parameters used to determine fire risk levels 
and outlooks; 
(3) support and conduct research that assesses 
impacts to marine, riverine, and other relevant eco-
systems, which may include forest and rangeland 
ecosystems, resulting from activities associated with 
mitigation of and response to wildfires; 
(4) support and conduct attribution science re-
search relating to wildfires, fire weather, fire risk, 
smoke, and associated conditions, risks, and im-
pacts; 
(5) develop smoke and air quality forecasts, 
forecast guidance, and prescribed burn weather fore-
casts, and conduct research on the impact of such 
forecasts on response behavior that minimizes 
health-related impacts from smoke exposure; 
(6) use, in coordination with Federal land man-
agement agencies, wildland fire resource intelligence 
to inform fire environment impact-based decision 
support products and services for safety; 
(7) evaluate and provide data, tools, and serv-
ices to support determinations for the implementa-
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tion of mitigation measures such as prescribed burns 
and selective thinning; 
(8) provide comprehensive training to ensure 
staff of the program established under subsection 
(a) is properly equipped to deliver the impact-based 
decision support products and services described in 
paragraphs (1) through (6); and 
(9) acquire through contracted purchase private 
sector-produced observational data to fill identified 
gaps, as needed. 
(e) COLLABORATION; AGREEMENTS.— 
(1) COLLABORATION.—The Under Secretary 
shall, as the Under Secretary considers appropriate, 
collaborate and consult with partners in the weather 
and climate enterprises, academic institutions, 
States, Tribal governments, local partners, and Fed-
eral agencies, including land and fire management 
agencies, in the development and implementation of 
the program established under subsection (a). 
(2) AGREEMENTS.—The Under Secretary may 
enter into agreements in support of the functions de-
scribed in subsection (b), the priorities described in 
subsection (c), the activities described in subsection 
(d), and activities carried out under section 8. 
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SEC. 4. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINIS-
TRATION DATA MANAGEMENT. 
Section 301 of the Weather Research and Fore-
casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8531) is 
amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 
subsections (g) and (h), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(f) DATA AVAILABILITY AND MANAGEMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Under Secretary 
shall— 
‘‘(A) make data and metadata generated 
or collected by the National Oceanic and Ad-
ministration that the Under Secretary has the 
legal right to redistribute fully and openly avail-
able, in accordance with chapter 35 of title 44, 
United States Code and the Foundations for 
Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 
(Public Law 115–435; 132 Stat. 5529) and the 
amendments made by that Act, and preserve 
and curate such data and metadata, in accord-
ance with chapter 31 of title 44, United States 
Code (commonly known as the ‘Federal Records 
Act of 1950’), in order to maximize use of such 
data and metadata; and 
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‘‘(B) manage and steward the access, ar-
chival, and retrieval activities for the data and 
metadata described in subparagraph (A) by— 
‘‘(i) using— 
‘‘(I) enterprise-wide infrastruc-
ture, emerging technologies, commer-
cial partnerships, and the skilled 
workforce needed to provide appro-
priate data management from collec-
tion to broad access; and 
‘‘(II) associated information serv-
ices; and 
‘‘(ii) pursuing the maximum inter-
operability of data and information by— 
‘‘(I) leveraging data, information, 
knowledge, and tools from across the 
Federal Government to support equi-
table access, cross-sectoral collabora-
tion and innovation, and local plan-
ning and decision-making; and 
‘‘(II) developing standards and 
practices for the adoption and citation 
of 
digital 
object 
identifiers 
for 
datasets, models, and analytical tools. 
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‘‘(2) COLLABORATION.—In carrying out this 
subsection, the Under Secretary shall collaborate 
with such Federal partners and stakeholders as the 
Under Secretary considers relevant— 
‘‘(A) to develop standards to pursue max-
imum interoperability of data, information, 
knowledge, and tools across the Federal Gov-
ernment, convert historical records into com-
mon digital formats, and improve access and 
usability of data by partners and stakeholders; 
‘‘(B) to identify and solicit relevant data 
from Federal and international partners and 
other relevant stakeholders, as the Under Sec-
retary considers appropriate; and 
‘‘(C) to develop standards and practices for 
the adoption and citation of digital object iden-
tifiers for datasets, models, and analytical 
tools.’’. 
SEC. 5. DIGITAL FIRE WEATHER SERVICES AND DATA MAN-
AGEMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) DIGITAL PRESENCE.—The Under Secretary 
shall develop and maintain a comprehensive, central-
ized, and publicly accessible digital presence de-
signed to promote findability, accessibility, interoper-
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ability, usability, and utility of the services, tools, 
data, and information produced by the program es-
tablished under section 3(a). 
(2) DIGITAL PLATFORM AND TOOLS.—In car-
rying out paragraph (1), the Under Secretary 
shall— 
(A) seek to ensure the digital platform and 
tools of the Administration integrate geospatial 
data, decision support tools, training, and best 
practices to provide real-time fire weather fore-
casts and address fire-related issues and needs; 
and 
(B) strive to enhance community resilience, 
ecosystem values, and economic growth and de-
velopment by helping communities and other 
users of the digital platform and tools address 
their issues, needs, and challenges through 
maximum usability and utility. 
(b) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Under Secretary 
shall make all data, research, reports, findings, surveys, 
and assessments relevant to the program established 
under section 3(a), as determined by the Under Secretary, 
available in a publicly accessible digital format. 
(c) INTERNET-BASED TOOLS.—In carrying out sub-
sections (a) and (b), the Under Secretary shall develop 
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and implement internet-based tools, such as webpages and 
smartphone and other mobile applications, to increase util-
ity and access to services and products for the benefit of 
users. 
(d) DATA MANAGEMENT.—The Under Secretary 
shall develop and maintain services that provide public ac-
cess to digital fire weather data and information— 
(1) to improve understanding and historical 
analysis of wildfire and fire weather science, includ-
ing inventories of fire emissions required for multi- 
decadal model runs; 
(2) to support— 
(A) the archiving, stewardship, utility, and 
preservation of wildfire and fire weather data 
including satellite-, ground-, airborne-, and air- 
based observations; and 
(B) real-time and retrospective model fore-
casts; 
(3) to promote findability, interoperability, 
analysis- and decision-readiness, and reusability of 
historical and near real-time data across Federal, 
State, Tribal, and local users, including ensuring 
digital access and machine-readability of historical 
fire weather records; and 
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(4) to support equitable access, cross-sectoral 
collaboration and innovation, and local planning and 
decision making. 
SEC. 6. HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall seek 
to acquire sufficient high-performance computing re-
sources and capacity for research, operations, and data 
storage in support of the program established under sec-
tion 3(a). 
(b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In acquiring high-perform-
ance computing capacity under subsection (a), the Under 
Secretary shall consider requirements needed for— 
(1) the transition of research and testbed devel-
opments into operations; and 
(2) skilled workforce development. 
SEC. 7. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT 
ON FIRE WEATHER SERVICES PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 5 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 
on the program established under section 3(a). 
(b) ELEMENTS.—The report required by subsection 
(a) shall— 
(1) evaluate the performance of the program by 
establishing initial baseline capabilities and tracking 
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progress made toward fully operationalizing the 
functions described in section 3(b); 
(2) assess the efficacy of cross-agency collabora-
tion and stakeholder engagement in carrying out the 
program and provide recommendations to improve 
such activities; 
(3) assess the program for inefficiencies, iden-
tify duplicative efforts across Federal efforts, and 
provide relevant recommendations; and 
(4) include such other recommendations as the 
Comptroller General determines are appropriate to 
improve the program. 
SEC. 8. FIRE WEATHER TESTBED. 
(a) 
ESTABLISHMENT
OF
FIRE
WEATHER 
TESTBED.—The Under Secretary shall establish a fire 
weather testbed that enables engagement across the Fed-
eral Government, State and local governments, academia, 
private and federally funded research laboratories, the pri-
vate sector, and end-users in order to evaluate the accu-
racy and usability of technology, models, fire weather 
products and services, and other research to accelerate the 
implementation, transition to operations, and use of new 
capabilities by the Administration, Federal and land man-
agement agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. 
(b) UNCREWED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall— 
(A) research and assess the role and poten-
tial of uncrewed aircraft systems to improve 
data collection in support of modeling, observa-
tions, predictions, forecasts, and impact-based 
decision support services; and 
(B) transition uncrewed aircraft systems 
technologies from research to operations as the 
Under Secretary considers appropriate. 
(2) PILOT REQUIRED.—In carrying out para-
graph (1), not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall 
conduct at least 1 pilot of uncrewed aircraft systems 
for fire weather and fire environment observations. 
(3) SAVINGS CLAUSE.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out activi-
ties under this subsection, the Under Secretary 
shall ensure that any testing or deployment of 
uncrewed aircraft systems follow procedures, re-
strictions, and protocols established by the 
heads of the Federal agencies with statutory or 
regulatory jurisdiction over any airspace in 
which wildfire response activities are conducted 
during an active wildfire event. 
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(B) 
CONSULTATION
AND
COORDINA-
TION.—The Under Secretary shall consult and 
coordinate with relevant Federal land manage-
ment agencies and the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration to develop processes for the appro-
priate deployment of the systems described in 
subparagraph (A). 
SEC. 9. FIRE WEATHER SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENTS. 
(a) ANNUAL POST-FIRE-WEATHER SEASON SURVEY 
AND ASSESSMENT.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—During the second winter 
following the enactment of this Act, and each year 
thereafter, the Under Secretary shall conduct a post- 
fire-weather season survey and assessment. 
(2) ELEMENTS.—After conducting a post-fire- 
weather season survey and assessment under para-
graph (1), the Under Secretary shall— 
(A) investigate any gaps in data collected 
during the assessment; 
(B) identify and implement strategies and 
procedures to improve program services and in-
formation dissemination; 
(C) update systems, processes, strategies, 
and procedures to enhance the efficiency and 
reliability of data obtained from the assessment; 
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half of the Secretary, to be primarily relating to 
emergency response activities. 
(4) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 2105 of title 5, 
United States Code. 
(5) PREMIUM PAY.—The term ‘‘premium pay’’ 
means premium pay for the purposes of section 
5547(a) of title 5, United States Code. 
(6) SECRETARY CONCERNED.—The term ‘‘Sec-
retary concerned’’ means— 
(A) the Secretary of Commerce, with re-
spect to an employee of the Department of 
Commerce; 
(B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-
spect to an employee of the Department of Ag-
riculture; and 
(C) the Secretary of the Interior, with re-
spect to an employee of the Department of the 
Interior. 
(b) WAIVER.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Any premium pay received 
by a covered employee for covered services shall be 
disregarded in calculating the aggregate of the basic 
pay and premium pay for the covered employee for 
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purposes of applying the limitation on premium pay 
under section 5547(a) of title 5, United States Code. 
(2) LIMITATION.—A covered employee may be 
paid premium pay that is disregarded under para-
graph (1) only to the extent that the aggregate of 
the basic pay and premium pay paid to that covered 
employee in the applicable calendar year, including 
premium pay that is disregarded under that para-
graph, does not exceed the rate of basic pay for a 
position at level II of the Executive Schedule under 
section 5313 of title 5, United States Code, as in ef-
fect at the end of that calendar year. 
(c) APPLICATION.—If the application of subsection 
(b) results in the payment of additional pay to a covered 
employee of a type that is normally creditable as basic pay 
for retirement or any other purpose, that additional pay 
shall not— 
(1) be considered to be basic pay of the covered 
employee for any purpose; or 
(2) be used in computing a lump-sum payment 
to the covered employee for accumulated and ac-
crued annual leave under section 5551 or 5552 of 
title 5, United States Code. 
(d) AMENDMENT.—Section 5542(a)(5) of title 5, 
United States Code, is amended— 
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