The FWFSA is pursuing a number of pay & personnel reforms for our Nation’s federal wildland firefighters through both administrative & legislative means by working with Congress, The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) & other administration agencies of the federal government. These reforms are intended to benefit ALL federal wildland firefighters regardless of what agency they work for and what FIRE position they hold.

Our diverse membership includes those in all FIRE positions in all five land management agencies from entry-level seasonal firefighters to Regional Fire & Aviation Management Directors. This provides us with a wealth of information from the field that we use to educate Congress on the issues.

Reforms include:

• the creation by OPM of a separate & distinct federal wildland firefighter classification series
• Portal to portal compensation
• Hazard Pay earned on prescribed/RX burns
• Hazard Pay included as base pay for retirement purposes like Dept. of Defense federal firefighters
• The recision of Public Law 107-203 which has led to criminal charges against Forest Service fire officers simply for making split-second decisions on the fire line
• The ability to buy back “temp” time performed after  January 1, 1989

Although we had all of these provisions incorporated into one bill in the last Congressional session, circumstances during the current session of Congress has led us to focus for now on the Classification language, currently introduced as H.R. 3363, the Federal Wildland Firefighter Recognition Act introduced by California Congressman Doug LaMalfa. However we are also currently working with both the House & Senate authors of several wildfire funding bills to insert our reform language into those bills which ultimately will likely be funded through the Interior Appropriations bill

For more information, please feel free to contact us by using the website’s contact form or by calling 208-775-4577

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